Thursday, November 15, 4:30-6 p.m., Philosophy 301

In the past few weeks we have experienced the impact of extreme climate on our cities, lives and livelihoods as hurricane Sandy swept through the Caribbean and Northeastern United States. This has once again left us with a number of questions on how to deal with extreme events such as hurricanes, floods and fires. Should we focus our efforts and resources on mitigation, adaptation, or both? At what level should these efforts occur? Should future post disaster planning be concerned with rebuilding or rezoning? How can scientific research best be applied to mitigation/adaptation planning?

Join the Scientists for National and International Peace and Security (SNIPS*) on Thursday, November 15, as we discuss the role of science and engineering in the response to and planning for extreme climate and climate change. The discussion based event we will aim to explore the relationship between technical information and expertise, and multi-scale emergency response and long term planning in some of the countries that are most vulnerable to climate-related disasters, while building connections between the natural/physical sciences and other fields concerned with the impacts of climate change, such as economics, planning, conservation and philosophy.

*SNIPS is a graduate student organization dedicated to sharing research in the sciences and engineering with an interdisciplinary audience. We aim to foster cross-disciplinary research and collaboration on issues related to global peace and security.