Human caused climate change in US national parks
with Prof. Patrick Gonzalez
Saturday May 18, 2019 at 11:00 AM
100 Genetics and Plant Biology, UC Berkeley
From wildfires burning in Yosemite National Park, California, to glaciers melting in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska, published scientific research has detected changes in United States national parks and attributed them to human-caused climate change. Since 1895, climate change has exposed the national parks to twice the heating of the country as a whole and to more severe aridity. Without cuts to pollution from cars, power plants, deforestation, and other human sources, continued climate change threatens the unique ecosystems, plants, and animals in parks. Meeting the Paris Agreement goal could lower projected heating by two-thirds, reducing risks of severe wildfire, disappearances of plants and animals, and other threats to our national parks.
Patrick Gonzalez is a forest ecologist and climate change scientist. He is an Associate Adjunct Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Principal Climate Change Scientist of the U.S. National Park Service, speaking for Science@Cal under his Berkeley affiliation. Dr. Gonzalez conducts research on human-caused climate change and works with local people, natural resource managers, and policymakers to apply climate change science to conservation. He has conducted field research in Africa, Latin America, and the United States and is a lead author on four reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the organization awarded a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
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