While continuing to disseminate information on “stabilization wedges,” CMI’s outreach activities have been expanded through an improved website and new initiatives.
New CMI website
The most visible outreach effort made by CMI this year was an overhaul of the Initiative’s website (http://cmi.princeton.edu). Led by Pascale Maloof Poussart and Amy Hepler, the effort has made CMI materials much more accessible to the public. Visitors to the website can now access a complete bibliography of all CMI publications, presentations dating back to the initiation of the project, and educational resources on CMI’s popular “stabilization wedges” and “one billion high emitters” research.
Stabilization wedges
Five years after its publication, the stabilization wedges concept continues to be very popular, particularly for college and high school courses. Roberta Hotinski continues to facilitate seminars for teachers, and receives monthly requests for permission to reprint wedges graphics in textbooks and other publications. In addition, she is adding wedges content to ClimateLab, a new climate science oriented wiki, and continues to work with the Franklin Institute to incorporate stabilization wedges into their upcoming “Changing Earth” exhibit.
One billion high emitters
The individual emissions cap concept is a new focus for CMI outreach. The authors of the paper gave numerous high profile presentations of this work in 2009, including at the United Nations, the World Bank, and meetings of the Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali and Bonn, and explanatory materials are now available on the CMI website (http://cmi.princeton.edu/co2emissions). In addition, a website with interactive data visualization tools is being developed to provide a visual explanation of the basic ideas of the paper and allow the visitor to play with various scenarios. All data, graphs and programs will be available for download.
Climate Central
CMI has continued its involvement with Climate Central, a non-profit organization headquartered in Princeton that synthesizes climate change-related information to produce stories primarily for broadcast and the web that are relevant to policy makers and the general public. In 2009 Climate Central produced its first hardcopy publication (also available electronically), “What You Need to Know: 20 Questions and Answers about Climate Change,” in partnership with Sally Ride Science. Its web activities included launching of a new website (www.climatecentral.org) as well as distribution of content via other web outlets, including www.time.com, where 8 articles and 9 short videos appeared. Television broadcast activities included airing of 5 Climate Central video segments on the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, including stories on ice cores and climate, wildfires, biofuels, and carbon capture and storage. Also, 3 Climate Central videos aired on The Weather Channel.
bp student expedition to Antarctica
In March 2009, bp sponsored a student expedition to Antarctica led by the polar explorer Robert Swan, founder of the organization 2041. CMI’s Tom Kreutz and Pascale Maloof Poussart joined the expedition as part of a team of experts and facilitators to lead discussions on the challenges posed by climate change. The expedition aimed to inspire a young generation of talented students on issues related to climate and energy. A total of 60 students from 20 countries and 30 universities took part.
