GLOBE Scientists' Blog

by Dr. Donna Charlevoix, GPO Climate Research Campaign Coordinator

The conference here is very large and as such there are many meetings and informational sessions that occur at the same time. It is difficult to select which talks to attend. I made an excellent choice, I think, yesterday in attending an update of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports. The IPCC was formed in 1988 and is comprised of hundreds of scientists who are experts in climate. They have issued four assessment reports, most recently in 2007.  There are four working groups within the IPCC and each working group issues a report. They also provide summaries for policy makers and other technical papers.

Yesterday I attended a session where the lead authors of the IPCC provided insight into how the results of the fourth report will be informing negotiations here at COP-15. They also provided a preview of the fifth report they have started work on. The session has been highlighted by news sources around the world (COP-15, BBC, Alijazeera).

The session began with the Chairman of the IPCC, Dr. Pachauri, addressing the breach of security at the University of East Anglia where emails of climate scientists (who are members of the IPCC) were stolen and distributed to the public. He reiterated his confidence in the science of the IPCC reports and process by which the results were derived. The fourth report of the IPCC included over 250 lead authors (can you imagine trying to complete a group project with that size team?!) and over 2,500 reviewers of the results.

The various working group reports of the fifth assessment are expected to be released in 2013 and 2014. New elements that will be included in the fifth assessment are an assessment of geoengineering. (Briefly in this context, geoengineering is a way to deal with through man-made design.) The next assessment will have a stronger focus on impacts of climate change. The report will focus on how to address the real threat of climate change. Some of the new areas that they will focus on include:
•    how impacts of climate change can be avoided, reduced or developed by mitigation
•    how increased adaptation to climate change can help reduce future vulnerability of people
•    an improved examination of regional impacts of climate change

The fifth assessment report is also expected to look at a broader range of ocean impacts as well as looking closely at weather extremes and disaster and the treatment of costs associated with those events. In the words of Dr. Field, the fifth report moves from making the point that climate change is real to “here is information you need to make good decisions” to adapt to the upcoming changes in climate.

The information the scientists provided was very interesting and the room had standing room only with people sitting on the floor in the aisles and standing outside the doors. Clearly, the attendees at the conference found this session important – I hope the brief insight I’ve shared helps you see the next steps a little more clearly as well.

by Dr. Donna Charlevoix, GPO Climate Research Campaign Coordinator

The official capacity of the Bella Center is 15,000. I have heard estimates of up to 34,000 requests for accreditation to attend the conference. In fact they’ve stopped (possibly temporarily) issuing press passes because of the large number of attendees. There are also thousands of others who have decended upon the city of Copenhagen to be a part of history in the making. It is not surprising then that millions of people around the world are keeping track of the conference through virtual means like this blog.

Thanks to everyone for  reading my daily posts, including the folks at  the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) who are spreading the word on the CIRES Climate Literacy page.

A couple of other information sources you might want to check out include the official US web page that provides information on activities within the U.S. Center (some of which are simulcast virtually), and the soon to be up and running UCAR blog (GLOBE’s home institution) Currents.

by Dr. Donna Charlevoix, GPO Climate Research Campaign Coordinator

Today is the second day of COP-15 and everyone seems to be hitting their stride. While new people are arriving each day, more of us know where we are going within this large conference center. I arrived early this morning in the morning twilight (sun rises around 08:25) when the city was bursting with energy. The energy level in the Bella Center is just as high. A group of young adults were working to raise awareness about CO2 and the rainforests by arranging themselves as trees and calling out to those of us headed to talks. (Of note there is not much in the way of protests near the Bella Center due, I suspect, to the high security and the pre-emptive law to discourage protesters.)

This morning I had the honor of representing GLOBE with a presentation in the U.S. Center space (shown here on left). I will post the presentation slides to the GLOBE web site. As I mentioned in an earlier post, most countries have space allocated for country-specific presentations and reception areas. I was fortunate to be scheduled to present in the reception area (below right)  which afforded more exposure because people were stopping by to see the U.S. Center. I distributed newly developed literature on the SCRC as well as our new GLOBE postcards.

I concluded the presentation by showing data from our new Earth System Science Poster on the NOAA Science on a Sphere. If you have never seen it, Science on a Sphere is amazing. It is a large sphere suspended from the ceiling. Four projectors display animated data onto the sphere. For my presentation, we displayed NEO data (NASA Earth Observations) of insolation, surface temperature, cloud fraction, precipitation, aerosols, and bioshpere. I was able to control the animations and the turning of the sphere with a Wii controller (yes, like the video game!).

This afternoon I attended a talk that focused on the IPCC fourth report and provided some insight in the upcoming fifth report that is currently underway. The fifth report is expected to be released in 2013. The energy here is amazing – thousands of people engaged in discussion around a central topic. The IPCC session was standing room only! Regardless of the topic, such synergy with so many people is an amazing thing to experience!

Tomorrow I will depart for home. Before I do I will make one more closing post from here in Copenhagen and then we’ll provide updates on the conference remotely. Until then, be strong and think science!

by Dr. Donna Charlevoix, GPO Climate Research Campaign Coordinator

Today is the official opening of the conference.

There are a lot of meetings and presentations going on concurrently and so it is difficult to get a full sense of everything that is happening. This photo taken from one of the many halls within the Bella Center gives you a feel for the magnitude of this event.

The formal aspects of the meeting including things like adoption of the conference agenda, election of officers, and reports of various committees associated with the Conference of Parties. There are actually four formal meetings taking place here: Conference of Parties (COP), Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP), Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA), and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP). As you can see there is a lot to keep track of. It’s not surprising that the meeting is usually just referred to as COP-15 rather than all of the above!

Today started with a Welcoming Ceremony after which the meetings of the four groups listed above began. At the same time these formal meetings occurred, many smaller presentations were given in many locations. Most countries in attendance have a designated space for which they can provide information and presentations. The photo here is a large space highlighting work of Denmark (the host of the conference).

Other countries have meeting space that is within different halls of the conference center. The United States has a presence for the first time ever! Tomorrow I will be presenting an overview of GLOBE and highlighting student research. I will also conduct a short overview of some of the NASA Earth Observatory data on Science On a Sphere. The imagery I will show is the same as on the soon-to-be-released Earth System Science Poster.

I spent much of today exploring the conference center and talking with many of the groups who are here to share their work on climate and climate change.

My discussions with many of them focused on how we can connect their work with that of the upcoming Student Climate Research Campaign (SCRC). The SCRC will not only provide new learning activities around climate, but help you make connections with local groups and organizations who are working on climate issues of local relevance to you.

Tomorrow is my presentation of all the great work GLOBE has been doing over the past 14+ years. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s report on the presentation and more updates on the conference.

by Dr. Donna Charlevoix, GPO Climate Research Campaign Coordinator

Greetings from Denmark! I am here in Copenhagen for the Conference of Parties-15, more commonly known as COP-15. We wrote about this conference in an earlier blog. The two-week conference starts Monday 7 December. I am here representing GLOBE at the U.S. Center in the Bella Conference Center where the meetings will be held. I will try to update you on what is occurring at the conference during the short time that I am here.

My travel from Colorado in the United States to Copenhagen took just over 12 hours so I am rather tired. I met someone from New Zealand and she said that it took her 38 hours of travel to arrive here! Clearly people from all over the world see this meeting as a very important place to be and to contribute to.

Copenhagen, Denmark Airport

This photo I took from my airplane as we were waiting to deplane into the Copenhagen airport. While the official language of Denmark is Danish, most everyone speaks English. Official meetings at the conference will be available in other languages and everything will be available in English as well; sometimes English is considered the “language of science.”

From the airport they provided a free shuttle bus directly to the Bella Center where the conference is held. I got on the bus – with all my luggage – and

Waiting in line to get through security so we can get our badges

arrived at the Bella Center to find a very long line! We waited to go through security. Here you can see the photo taken from just inside the door. The line was equally long outside the door.

After we were cleared through the security, we had to stand in line to get our official badges. The badge allows us access into the conference. Eight weeks ago I had to submit my name to the U.S. State Department to get clearance to attend the conference. Everyone else had to do the same thing from their home country. The badge has our photo on it, our name and a bar code.

Waiting to get paperwork that allows us to get photos taken for the entry badges.

When we want to enter the conference area they just scan the bar code on the badge. It took 1.5 hours to get all registered for the conference. The numbers I heard today were that they were expecting 20,000 people from around the world to attend over the 2-week period.
After I got my badge, I then set out to find my hotel where I am writing to you now. Tomorrow the conference begins. I’m headed off to get some sleep so I can fill you in on tomorrow’s events! “Godnat!”