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Education and Outreach Activities
| Forums | Classroom Teaching | Affiliates | Reports & Reprints | MIT DSpace | The Wheel | News Briefs |
An important function of the Program is to improve education about climate issues and contribute to informed public debate about the problem, its uncertainties, and the implications of various policy measures. The establishment of the semi-annual MIT Global Change Forum has been an important step toward attaining this goal. Other activities include the production and free distribution of a Report Series as well as a Reprints Series, interactions with the media and government organizations, and the provision of public information via the Internet. Such efforts, in addition to the normal academic activities of course development, classroom teaching, and participation in professional meetings, are intended to help inform the broader community interested in climate issues.
| No. |
Focus of Forum | Date | Location |
| XXVIII |
Reconciling Short-Term Policy with Long-Term Goals | 2008: October 29-31 | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| XXVII |
Challenges to Low-CO2 Energy Supply at Proposed Scale and Pace | 2008: March 26-28 | Arlington, Virginia |
| XXVI |
Coping with Climate Change | 2007: June 20-22 | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| XXV |
Opening up Climate Policy: Perspectives Beyond the Kyoto Protocol [9] | 2006: Oct. 10-12 | Vienna, Austria |
| XXIV |
Long-Term Goals for Climate Policy: Stabilization and Alternatives | 2006: Jan. 25-27 | Coral Gables, Florida |
| XXIII |
Research to Inform Climate Policy: Identifying the Critical Gaps | 2005: March 22-24 | Arlington, Virginia |
| XXII |
Broadening Climate Discussions: The Linkage of Climate Change to Other Policy Areas [8] | 2004: June 9-11 | Venice, Italy |
| XXI |
Climate Uncertainty, Long-Term Goals, and Current Mitigation Effort | 2003: Oct. 8-10 | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| XX |
Instabilities in the Human-Climate System [7] | 2003: Jan. 29-31 | La Jolla, California |
| XIX |
Managing Fragmented Climate Regimes [6] | 2002: June 12-14 | Paris, France |
| XVIII |
Paths to a Workable Climate Regime | 2001: Oct. 17-19 | Cambridge, MA |
| XVII |
Designing Post-Kyoto Mechanisms [5] | 2001: Jan. 10-12 | New Delhi, India |
| XVI |
Key Non-Linearities and Uncertainties in Climate Science and Policy [4] | 2000: June 21-23 | Berlin, Germany |
| XV |
Definitions, Measurement, and Monitoring in Climate Policy | 1999: Nov. 17-19 | Boston, Massachusetts |
| XIV |
Easing the Burdens of Emission Control | 1999: Jan. 27-29 | Boston, MA |
| XIII |
Climate Assessment and Policy Development After Kyoto [3] | 1998: June 14-16 | London, England |
| XII |
Effects of Global Change on Natural and Human Systems | 1997: Sep. 29-Oct. 1 | Boston, MA |
| XI |
The Berlin Mandate: Progress, Prospects, and Aftermath | 1997: Jan. 29-31 | Cambridge, MA |
| X |
Burden Sharing Under the Climate Convention [2] | 1996: June 12-14 | Oslo, Norway |
| IX |
Handling Uncertainty in Assessment of Climate Change Policy | 1995: Nov. 1-3 | Cambridge, MA |
| VIII |
The Role of Science in the Climate Convention | 1995: May 17-19 | Cambridge, MA |
| VII |
Economic Components of Climate Policy Analysis | 1994: Oct. 17-19 | Cambridge, MA |
| VI |
Climate Change: Potential Impacts and Policies [1] | 1994: June 19-21 | Venice, IT |
| V |
Integrated Assessment of Climate Change | 1993: Oct. 20-22 | Cambridge, MA |
| IV |
Capture and Utilization Options for Greenhouse Gases | 1993: April 12-14 | Dedham, Massachusetts |
| III |
The Role of Developing Countries in the Climate Change Issue | 1992: Oct. 13-15 | Cambridge, MA |
| II |
The Agenda for Action after the Rio de Janeiro UNCED Conference | 1992: Mar. 30-Apr. 1 | Dedham, MA |
| I |
Key Issues in the Framework for an Integrated Study of Climate Change | 1991: Sep. 4-6 | Dedham, MA |
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FORUMS HELD IN COLLABORATION WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS 
[1] VI: Italian Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti
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The Forum includes participation by faculty and staff from MIT, and selected experts from other universities and government research laboratories. The Forums routinely involve high-level representatives from the ongoing IPCC efforts. It also involves input from a range of industries and industrial organizations that have an interest in the effects of climate and related issues on industrial economics and energy technology. Crucial to the discussions is the inclusion of "professional" participants in the policy-making process: people who are directly involved and qualified, and possess a broad perspective, but who are not in such a sensitive position that they cannot speak freely on the critical issues. This professional group includes staff of congressional or parliamentary committees, government officials at the level of assistant secretary or deputy assistant secretary, officials from the relevant U.N. organizations and associated non-governmental organizations, officials of regional governmental organizations like the European Union, and country negotiators in the FCCC process.
MIT Independent Activities Period (IAP)
To facilitate increased outside cooperation, the MIT Joint Program has formalized Affiliate relationships. This mutual designation of a substantive relationship expands the networks for dissemination of research results and policy studies, and enhances the work of each institution by gaining access to the views of a wider audience. The relation involves a free exchange of publications and other research materials, opportunities for research visits and participation in meetings organized by the other program, joint meeting sponsorship, and other modes of collaboration. Current Affiliates include the following three organizations:
Ultimately, the direction of climate policy will be determined by the levels of concern and understanding of the public, and in this stage of the process the media are key. For many years, MIT has run the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship Program, in which a group of leading science writers spend a year on campus discussing with faculty, taking courses, and otherwise participating in the life of the Institute. In addition to the normal flow of calls at times of newsworthy climate events, the Knight Fellows have provided a rare opportunity to discuss climate issues with journalists. Building on this interaction through the Knight Fellows, and other contacts in the media, efforts are under way to more effectively serve the needs of this community, including the organization of workshops designed for environmental reporters.
Through the CGCS and the Alliance for Global Sustainability, the Program is involved in formal cooperation with the climate modeling efforts at the Max Planck Institute (for Meteorology) in Hamburg, the University of Tokyo, the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH) and in Switzerland, and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. The Program also maintains significant ties with climate researchers at both national and international research organizations. Work on detection and attribution of climate change is carried out in cooperation with the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Oxford University, and colleagues at the U.K. Hadley Center for Climate Prediction and Research. We also continue to work closely with colleagues at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in the development of the climate model, which is based on earlier collaborative MIT and GISS efforts.
These documents are available to the public in standard paper format, as well as being accessible on-line in PDF format. Paper copies may be obtained (in limited quantities) by request to the Program Office, and can be snail-mailed to any domestic or international postal address (without charge).
The Wheel
(aka "The Greenhouse Gamble")
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The first scenario is the reference case, in which it is assumed "no policy" action is taken to try to curb the global emissions of greenhouse gases. |  |
In contrast, a "policy" case considers a scenario in which a suite of actions are undertaken to achieve stabilization of the atmospheric CO2 concentration at about 550 ppm by the year 2100. |
| The Wheel premiered with an auspicous whirl by (then) President of MIT, Charles M. Vest, at the 25th Anniversary Symposium of the Office of Science and Technology Policy on May 1, 2001. President Vest's sure-handed tug launched a twirl spanning several seconds, while the auditorium filled with former Presidential Science Advisors anxiously awaited a result. When the revolutions finally slowed, the pointer came to rest on an optimistically cool slice: an increase of only 2 to 3 °F. With a facetious grin and a triumphant thrust of both fists upward, Chuck exclaimed: "I saved the world!" The crowd cheered. | 
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A Sampling of News Briefs, Interviews, and Comments
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Comments and questions to
globalchange@mit.edu
7/2008 Copyright © 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology | |