Featured speakers: Kathryn Sullivan, Andrew Revkin
While the basics of greenhouse-driven global warming are clear, translating these into specific local and regional impacts remains challenging — including how warm it will get and what will happen to regional weather patterns, particularly precipitation.
NOAA administrator Kathryn Sullivan, who blends a global view gained through three missions as a Space Shuttle astronaut with expertise in oceanography and geology, explains how investments in computer models and Earth-observing systems, from satellites to ocean probes, can provide vital foresight in a turbulent age. Sullivan will describe the agency’s Environmental Intelligence initiative, aimed at boosting communities’ resilience to extreme weather and related hazards in a time of accelerating climate and coastal change.