A proponent of “history from below”, Dr. Thomas Rogers spoke to a room full of Emory students and faculty about most people’s experience not just that of the “great men.” Brazil produced sugarcane based ethanol to export. In 1975 the Brazilian government established the National Alcohol Program (ProAlcool) to increase dependency on ethanol rather than … Continue reading Lecture Event: Dr. Thomas Rogers

As anyone with an interest in environmental policy can tell you, economics has an important role. Dr. Robert Stavins, a self-professed “living breathing oxymoron!” tells the room full of eager listeners to the Harvard Director of Environmental Economics that economists do have a place with the environment. At one point maybe this was new information, … Continue reading Lecture Event: Dr. Robert N. Stavins

The local weatherman has issued a tornado watch. What do you do? Should you be more or less alert if they have issued an advisory? A warning? Communication of weather- and climate-related events has left many dumbfounded.   Dr. Marshall Shepherd, a meteorologist from the University of Georgia gave a wise and humor-filled lecture on … Continue reading Lecture Event: Dr. Marshall Shepherd

This post is a continuation of Planetary Health I. A lighthouse activity is an initiative that the Momentum for Change group has chosen specifically to prompt future, continued action and give awareness of positive change. Here are the other three lighthouse activities MfC has chosen to inspire others to do similar work:   Cleaning our … Continue reading COP23: Planetary Health II, Lighthouse Activities

The World Health Organization plays an important role at the COP meetings. They provide the research for the decision-makers at COP. Much of the work that WHO does contributes to conversations at COP23, so it is important to go over what these are.   The idea of climate change affecting human health is not new. … Continue reading COP23: The World Health Organization and Health Adaptation

An emerging term for the co-benefits of human health and climate change is planetary health. It encourages taking on a holistic view of humans and the Earth’s intertwined health. UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa, shared at the COP23 High-Level Planetary Health Event on November 13 that there have been health achievements in increase … Continue reading COP23: Planetary Health I

    On the schedule for Human Health at Bonn was a COP 23 Presidency Event. At the COP there were only five of these presidency events. On November 12th, The selected target of this talk was developing countries and small island nations. For an hour and half, the high level government officials and health … Continue reading COP23: Health, Presidency Event

The topic of Health entered the COP discussions along with The Paris Agreement in December 2015. In 2014, the IPCC AR5 Report section on “Human Health, Well-Being, and Security” states with “very high confidence,” they explain, “Changes in temperature and precipitation and occurrence of heat waves, floods, droughts, and fires” are all direct impacts from … Continue reading COP23 Series: “The Right to Health”

Last week I participated in a Model United Nations Conference of the Parties as part of the developing countries delegation. I represented the Philippines as part of this delegation. As part of this delegation, I figured we were looking for two things primarily– money and technology. We chose to only request money and not donate … Continue reading Model UN Reflections

The Philippines will never forget super typhoon Haiyan, the deadliest typhoon the world has seen this century. She will not forget the terror that she has experienced from the five out of ten of her most deadly climate related natural disasters in history since 2006. With over 6,000 fatalities, super typhoon Haiyan was the deadliest … Continue reading The Philippines: UN Climate Negotiations