I’ve just learned that the event that I’ve been planning for March 30th, on air quality and climate change in India, is going to be webcast (!) thanks to the our wonderful co-sponsor, the School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. We’re also going to be audio- and videotaped for posterity. (Yes, “we” – I’m speaking as well).
http://www.sais-jhu.edu/pressroom/live.html
Wednesday March 30, 10:30am – noon
1717 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
Room 500
Black carbon and dust cover Himalayan snow, causing faster melting.
Indian cities have some of the most polluted air in the world, and highest rates of air pollution disease and death. Mounting evidence suggests that black carbon from these same pollution sources are altering the monsoon and melting glaciers. But there is good news: reductions in “black carbon” emissions from the region’s diesel engines, factories, and cookstoves could limit near-term damage while protecting human health and promoting development.
Please join us to hear three leading science and policy experts discuss these breakthroughs in our understanding of air quality and climate change and efforts to address them.
DR. SARATH GUTTIKUNDA is a TED fellow and an affiliate assistant professor at Desert Research Institute, Reno, USA, and the founder of UrbanEmissions.Info in New Delhi, India. He developed the SIM-air (Simple Interactive Models for Better Air Quality) family of tools for sharing information on air pollution and climate change among cities in the developing world. Previously, he worked for 5 years with the World Bank on air quality and climate change issues. Dr. Guttikunda will describe what we know about pollutant emissions, what more needs to be done to better understand their impacts, and the stakes for Indian air quality and climate policy.
DR. WILLIAM K. M. LAU is the Chief of the Laboratory for Atmospheres at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA), Goddard Space Flight Center. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Maryland, Adjunct Professor of Mathematics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and a senior science advisor of the Hong Kong Observatory. His research interests include the impacts of aerosols on the Indian monsoon and accelerated melting of Himalayan cryosphere, and he is currently the lead scientist for the Joint Aerosol-Monsoon Experiment (JAMEX).
MS. DANIELLE MEITIV is a Climate Specialist with the Clean Air Task Force. Ms. Meitiv works with scientists to promote research on the connections between air quality and climate in South Asia. She and her partners in the region are working to bring this science to the attention of policymakers in the U.S. and India.
