SNRE Seminar: Climate Adaptation Planning in the Southwest

Title: Climate Adaptation Planning in the Southwest

Date: 3/11/2011
Time: 12:00-1:00
Place: BSE 225
Speaker: Gregg Garfin, SNRE

Abstract: In around 2007, the discourse on climate change in the U.S. Southwest shifted from “What’s going to happen?” to “How can we best deal with change?” To address the latter question, there has been a trend toward framing the issue in terms of adaptation to inevitable climate changes. To fill a void in national climate change policy, water and ecosystem managers, and city conservation and planning departments have been in the forefront of vocal concern and action. Whereas water issues are fittingly at the center of concern for the Southwest, ecosystem adaptation issues are notably complex ─ involving multiple moving targets. Moreover, they are pre-conditioned by an array of societal attitudes with regard to the Endangered Species Act and priorities for ecosystem services and wildlife, for example. This presentation surveys a sample of adaptation efforts from Arizona and the greater Southwest region.

Bio: Gregg Garfin is Assistant Specialist and Assistant Professor in Climate, Natural Resources and Policy, School of Natural Resources and the Environment. He works to bridge the science-society interface in order to accelerate the transfer of  University of Arizona environmental and climate science findings and techniques to resource managers, planners, policy makers, and other decision-makers in the region. This involves fostering dialogues between scientists and stakeholders, garnering stakeholder input to research agendas and activities, developing sustained interactions between University of Arizona environmental scientists, environmental professionals, decision-makers and the public, disseminating research results and products, and conducting workshops on topics of interest to Southwest decision-makers.

http://snre.arizona.edu/people/garfin