Abstracts: CMOS
Ottawa, 2015-2016
(in
language
given)
Bouchet: New
technologies for observations, telecommunication advances, continued
increases in the performance of supercomputers have allowed the
capacity for weather and environmental prediction to explode over the
past 15 years. It is quietly revolutionizing the approach to
weather forecasting, blurring the decades-old lines between weather
forecasting and climate and bringing predictive capacity into
scientific and decision-making arenas that seemed out of reach not so
long ago. The presentation will concentrate on the Canadian advances
and how we are exploiting this new capacity.
Sandford:
Because of growing populations, an expanding resource-based economy,
the intensification of agricultural practices across the country, and
changes in the manner and rate in which water moves through the global
hydrological cycle, Canada now faces the same kinds of problems that
are creating a global water crisis elsewhere. In order to keep up with
the direction the rest of the world is going, the next generation of
federal and provincial water policy must serve to understand and
restore the essential link between water security, climate stability
and human and planetary health. The UN's recently endorsed 2030
Transforming Our World global sustainable development agenda provides a
framework and a context for advancing water and water-related climate
policy in ways that will allow us to protect our health, assure our
prosperity and adapt to new planetary conditions in the face of rapid
hydrometeorological change.
Harley:
Environmental change is accelerating, and ecological responses to this
change are beginning to outpace our ability to understand and predict
them. There are four major hurdles to surmount as we grapple with
ongoing ecological change: 1) multiple stressor effects, 2) cumulative
effects across ontogeny, 3) inter-individual variation and capacity for
adaptation, and 4) "ecological surprises" mediated by species
interactions. All four of these phenomena as they apply to benthic
marine ecosystem responses to changing salinity, warming, and ocean
acidification will be discussed. Overall, results Dr. Harley's
research group suggest that biological systems are already changing,
that shifting interactions among species are critical, and that a new
generation of experiments will be required to gain a better
understanding of ecological change.
Zwiers: Today's
electronic and print media are replete with stories about extreme
weather and climate events from all over the world. These stories draw
our attention because of their immediacy and the devastating impacts of
these events, which often result in deaths and hundreds or even
billions of dollars in damage.
Pappin:
Ground-level air pollution is among the leading risk factors for
premature death worldwide. Managing this public health burden is
a pressing scientific challenge and a multidisciplinary undertaking.
The presentation will provide an overview of recent efforts to
streamline air quality and public health management in the context of
long-term air pollution and climate change mitigation policies. It will
discuss the interplay between atmospheric science and modelling,
epidemiology, and economics for evidence-based decision- making.
Perkins:
Ms. Perkins will talk about her experiences this past October, aboard
the CCGS Amundsen (icebreaker turned research vessel) from Iqaluit,
east across Lancaster Sound and north up Baffin Bay between Ellesmere
Island & Greenland, finishing in Pond Inlet, one of Canada's
northernmost communities. This
opportunity was made possible through Schools on Board, an ArcticNet
outreach program dedicated to teaching high school students about
current Arctic research, as well as environmental, social, &
economic problems caused by climate change. It was offered to
nine students and two teachers. Now, Ms. Perkins states, "It's
our turn to share these incredible experiences with our home
communities!" As
part of our objective to support education, your CMOS Ottawa Centre
provided a $1,000 grant to assist Ms. Perkins with her costs.
Stone: The 21st
Conference of the Parties under the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change will be held from November 30th to December 11th in Paris,
France. The goal of the meeting is to complete the negotiations of an
international, legally binding regime to follow on from the Kyoto
Protocol. The stakes as well as the expectations are high; we are
running out of time to address the threat of climate change. This will
be one of the new Prime Minister's first international meetings. The
talk will sketch out some of the background to the process and what we
might expect to be achieved at the Paris meeting.
Chadwick: The
future of science could well be through the arts... which
leads us to the education system of the future. The content of this
presentation will be a bit about Tom Thomson... a bit about my art and
how it has influenced my science, a bit about green energy ... and
finally a bit about climate change.
Richardson:
Mark Richardson is the
lead cartographer for the Headquarters of the Canadian Wildlife
Service. In the last 8 years Mark has coordinated and led a variety of
conservation mapping projects to provide a better understanding of the
issues that face Canada's Species at Risk and Protected Areas in
Canada's North. This presentation will discuss the last decade of
Northern Cartography efforts by the Canadian Wildlife Service,
discussing topics such as: Economic Impact Assessments, Key Migratory
Bird Habitat and the Nunavut Land Use Plan, New Protected Area
establishment and outreach and Species At Risk (Boreal Caribou and
Polar Bear).
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