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NCAR Scientists Available to Discuss New IPCC Report on
Climate Change Impacts

March 23, 2007

BOULDER—The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is producing three major assessments this year, will release a summary of the second assessment on April 6 in Brussels. This latest report will focus on the potential impacts of climate change and how society can try to adapt. Several scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) served as authors of the assessment.

The NCAR authors are experts on the regional impacts of climate change, including how global warming may affect agriculture, coastal areas, human health, water supplies, human settlements, and various industries. They will be available to discuss the report after its release, and contact information for each of them is provided below. In addition, background information and graphics illustrating climate change can be found here.

The IPCC conducts periodic assessments of climate change science, involving hundreds to thousands of experts, under the auspices of the U.N. Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization. The April 6 report from the second IPCC working group will focus on climate change impacts, both globally and by continent, and discuss societal vulnerabilities and options for adapting to climate change.

The first IPCC working group, which focused on the physical science of climate change, released its summary on February 2. The third working group, which is investigating options for mitigating climate change, will release its summary on May 4 in Bangkok. Complete reports will follow the respective summaries by several months.

The following NCAR scientists served as authors of the Working Group 2 assessment
	Linda Mearns - 303-497-8124 Lead Author, Chapter 2 (New Assessment Methodologies and the Characterization of Future Conditions) Mearns is a senior scientist and director of NCAR's Institute for the Study of Society and Environment. An expert on climate analysis and future climate scenarios, she specializes in regional climate change, the potential effects of global warming on agriculture, and variability and uncertainty in climate change studies.
	Kathleen Miller - 303-497-8115 Lead Author, Chapter 3 (Fresh Water Resources and Their Management) Miller is an economist who studies the policy implications of climate change regarding water supplies, aquatic ecosystems, marine fisheries, marine fishery resources, and wildfire hazards. She is working with water utilities across the United States to help them plan for a changing climate.
	Susanne Moser - 303-497-8132 Contributing Author, Chapter 6 (Coastal Systems and Low-Lying Areas) A research scientist with training in physical and human geography, Moser is an expert in the human dimensions of climate change, including vulnerability, adaptation, and societal attitudes toward climate change. She is the co-editor of a new book about climate change, Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change, published by Cambridge University Press.
	Patricia Romero Lankao - 303-497-8104 Coordinating Lead Author, Chapter 7 (Industry, Settlement, and Society), as well as lead author of both the Summary for Policy Makers and the Technical Summary Romero Lankao is a sociologist who studies the causes and societal impacts of climate change, especially as applied to cities. Her specialties include land and energy use in large cities, the effects of agriculture and industry on the environment, and adaptation strategies for human settlements and for water users in drought-stressed regions.

Related sites on the World Wide Web 

NCAR scientists who helped write the first report, released in February
Climate change background and multimedia/visuals

*News media reproduction to illustrate this story and nonprofit use permitted with proper attribution as provided above and acceptance of UCAR's terms of use. Find more images in the UCAR Digital Image Library.

The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research under sponsorship by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.