CFE agenda 050916 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Quantifying and communicating the benefits of this integrated approach to climate change and air pollution has become a core focus of Shindell's scholarly output. In addition to his ongoing research, he chairs the scientific advisory panel to the international Climate and Clean Air Coalition, chaired the 2011 Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Meteorological Organization, and was a coordinating lead author of the key chapter on anthropogenic and natural radiative forcing in the 2013 Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He's also testified on climate change and air quality before both houses of Congress, the World Bank and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. "The point I'm trying to drive home is that by working smarter we have a real opportunity to make progress on three critical issues: global warming, air pollution and food security," he says. "The science is there. The numbers add up. This is doable." I P II°° -III Y S III (10"11 S " "'1 "'" III IIN S III;;; A III III° °III 0 II°° :' I P Ll IIR I P 0 S III;;; Although it's too early to gauge its full impact in science and policy circles, Shindell's call to action appears to have struck a chord. As a result of his leadership, the 2013 IPCC report shifted focus from measuring the causes of climate change in terms of concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to including emissions of all climate pollutants. Membership in the Climate and Clean Air Coalition —which was founded in 2012 in direct response to the UNEP report Shindell chaired and a related paper he published in Science — has grown from its initial roster of six nations to a current roster of 44 nations and 54 nongovernmental organizations, including big guns like the World Bank and World Health Organization. "This has been the most direct link from science project to policy initiative that I've ever been part of," he says. "I'm honestly floored." He shouldn't be. With more than 170 peer- reviewed papers and dozens of high - profile assessment reports, invited testimonies, book chapters and keynote presentations to his credit over the last two decades, Shindell is arguably one of the most influential voices in climate science and atmospheric chemistry today. His discipline - blending work has reshaped scientists' understanding of the natural and human drivers of climate change and air quality and how they interact. NASA, the National Science Foundation, the American Geophysical Union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and other leading agencies and organizations have all bestowed high honors on him for his contributions to climate research and outreach. All things considered, it's not a halfbad list of honors and accomplishments for someone who once looked down his nose at environmental science, and applied science in general. "I only got into environmental research by coincidence," Shindell admits with a laugh.