Author Archives: climatechangefork

About climatechangefork

Micha Tomkiewicz, Ph.D., is a professor of physics in the Department of Physics, Brooklyn College, the City University of New York. He is also a professor of physics and chemistry in the School for Graduate Studies of the City University of New York. In addition, he is the founding-director of the Environmental Studies Program at Brooklyn College as well as director of the Electrochemistry Institute at that same institution.

July in Southern Africa – Mauritius

Posted on July 2, 2013 by climatechangefork

In July, I am going to attend the Fifth International Conference on Climate: Impacts and Responses, to be held in the island of Mauritius. This is the same meeting that was held last year in Seattle Washington, which I described … Continue reading →

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The Terrain Part 4: Spending – on Adaptation or Mitigation?

Posted on June 25, 2013 by climatechangefork

If we agree that we have to start spending money now, in order to minimize future damage from climate change, where should we start: on adaptation or mitigation – or is it a false choice? Global mitigation seems to be … Continue reading →

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The Terrain Part 3: Mayor Bloomberg’s Maginot.

Posted on June 18, 2013 by climatechangefork

My two previous blogs in this series (June 4 and June 11) focused on where and when to spend money so as to best combat climate change. Part 1 (June 4) delved into ExxonMobil CEO, Rex Tillerson’s widely publicized quote, … Continue reading →

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The Terrain Part 2: Spending Now or Spending Later.

Posted on June 11, 2013 by climatechangefork

Throughout this blog, my emphasis has been on possible responses to the impacts of climate change. I divided the responses into three categories: mitigation, adaptation and doing nothing. ExxonMobil CEO, Rex Tillerson, recommends doing nothing, reasoning that if something bad … Continue reading →

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The Terrain Part 1: Doing Nothing and Fixing Whatever Happens.

Posted on June 4, 2013 by climatechangefork

Some of the recent headlines illustrate the broad terrain of tradeoffs and consequences we must navigate in deciding the policies for Earth’s future, in which our children and grandchildren will have to live. This quote from ExxonMobil CEO, Rex Tillerson, … Continue reading →

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Warning Signs and Tipping Points

Posted on May 28, 2013 by climatechangefork

Erica Goode’s recent article in the New York Times (NYT – March 15, 2013), “Focusing on Violence Before It Happens,” describes a growing effort to identify and prevent major catastrophic events such as school violence. Two paragraphs from the article … Continue reading →

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Adaptive Rebuilding

Posted on May 21, 2013 by climatechangefork

Hurricane Sandy, which struck the East Coast of the United States more than six months ago (October 2012), was the second-costliest hurricane in the recorded history of the United States . While climate scientists said that the storm was not … Continue reading →

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Bilingualism

Posted on May 14, 2013 by climatechangefork

The semester is almost over, so I needed some sort of challenging take-home message for my Climate Change course. The course is part of an upper-tier general education program, open to students of all disciplines.  One aspect that I have … Continue reading →

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Lessons from Pompeii

Posted on May 7, 2013 by climatechangefork

A recent article in the New York Times by Rachel Donaldo and  Elisabetta Povoledo (NYT, April 21 2013) titled  “The Latest Threat to Pompeii’s Treasures: Italy’s Red Tape,” starts with the following: POMPEII, Italy — Destroyed by the eruption of … Continue reading →

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Scaling up from the Hamptons to the World

Posted on April 30, 2013 by climatechangefork

Michael Schwartz’s New York Times article entitled “Dispute in the Hamptons Set Off by Effort to Hold Back Ocean” (NYT, April 18, 2013) starts with the following: Soon after Hurricane Sandy hit last fall, Joshua Harris, a billionaire hedge fund … Continue reading →

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