Instructor: Susan Conard
- Zoom Class
- 6 Sessions, Mondays 9:30 – 11:00 am, for 6 weeks beginning Jan 11, 18, 25, Feb 1, 8, 15 – $20 (free for HS)
- $20
This course is presented in collaboration with the Camden Conference. This year the topic of the Camden Conference is the Arctic and its focus will be on the geopolitical implications for a changing Arctic region. The Senior College course will highlight the science forcing those changes and projections for the future. The Camden Conference will take place February 20-21, 2021. The College course will run for 6 one hour online sessions, beginning January 11th and ending February 15th, 2021. The course will be an excellent tutorial about how and why our climate is changing. As such, it will be a very strong preparatory experience for those planning to attend the February Camden Conference on “The Geopolitics of the Arctic: A Region in Peril.
The course will start with a brief history of climate change research and understanding of how climate has changed in the past. It will then cover evidence for causes of past and current climate change, how atmospheric and ocean circulation patterns play a role in climate and regional weather, and what models project for potential future changes. We will discuss effects of climate change on sea level and on disturbance patterns and ecosystems (with a focus on northern regions), feedbacks between these changes and climate, and societal impacts. The last part of the course will focus on mitigation and adaptation measures, including changes in energy and transportation systems, and effects of land management.
6 Sessions, Mondays 9:30 – 11:00 am, for 6 weeks beginning Jan 11, 18, 25, Feb 1, 8, 15 – $20 (free for HS)
Susan Conard has a PhD in Ecology from University of California, Davis. After 25 years in the western US, Dr. Conard returned to her eastern roots in a transfer to the US Forest Service Washington, D.C. Office. There she was a research National Program Leader from 1996 until her retirement in 2008. While her main research area has been wildland fire, she also has worked extensively on natural disturbance and climate change issues. From 2000-2001 she was assigned to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she took part in government review of climate change reports. She also participated in a USFS team looking at implications of changing climate for forest management. Since 1996 her research has focused on fire patterns and fire effects in Siberia, a region of rapidly-changing climate. She continued these research collaborations after retirement, has been Co Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Wildland Fire since 2009, and served as president of the International Boreal Forest Research Association from 2009-2013. She has lived in Northport since 2009.