Climate Expert to Discuss Global Warming Solutions

“Hell and High Water: Global Warming — The Science, the Solution and the Politics” is the topic of climate expert Joseph Romm, who is speaking September 27, at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Romm, who has authored a forthcoming book with the same title, will speak at 4 p.m. in Sage Hall student lounge on 205 Prospect Street.

Romm, who holds a Ph.D. in physics from M.I.T., is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he oversees the blog, ClimateProgress.org. He is executive director of the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, which helps businesses and states adopt strategies for saving energy and cutting pollution.

As acting assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in 1997 and principal deputy assistant secretary for that agency from 1995 through 1998, he helped manage the largest program in the world for helping businesses develop and use advanced energy technologies.

Last April, he co-authored the article, “Hybrid Vehicles Gain Traction,” published in Scientific American, in which he argues that hybrid cars that can be plugged into the electric grid will soon become standard in the automobile industry. He is also author of the first book to benchmark corporate best practices for using advanced energy technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: Cool Companies: How the Best Businesses Boost Profits and Productivity by Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

In a recent interview with the Earth & Sky radio series, Romm said, “Global warming is going to transform this country, our transportation and the way we live our lives. If we don’t act pretty soon, in an intelligent fashion, then change will be forced upon us by the radically changed climate. And, whether it’s the car we choose, the price we pay for energy or just the climate that we live in, global warming is the issue of the century, and that’s what should be driving U.S. transportation policy and decisions about which cars we drive.”

Romm’s talk is sponsored by the Yale F&ES Project on Climate Change. For more information about the project, visit http://environment.yale.edu/climate.