Hill Heat

• Sigourney Weaver, Actress
• Dr. James Barry, Senior Scientist, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)
• Donny Waters, Commercial Fisherman, Past President of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders Alliance
• Tom Ingram, Executive Director, Diving Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA)
• Dr. John Everett, President, Ocean Associates, Inc.

Be at GW’s School of Media and Public Affairs for an insider’s guide to America’s next great legislative challenge. We’ll have a one-on-one discussion with top Obama official, Lisa Jackson, and a panel discussion with representatives from media, business and policy to get a picture of what the next stages of the climate debate will be. Will the upcoming Kerry-Lieberman-Graham bill get us on the right path? Or will it happen in the scientific or business sectors? Find out. And find out who really wins and loses when the stakes are this high?

Joining SMPA Director and Planet Forward Host Frank Sesno will be Lisa Jackson (US EPA), Ana Unruh-Cohen (House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming), Andrew Revkin (New York Times), Jim Connaughton (Constellation Energy Group), Dr. Dan Lashof (Natural Resources Defense Council) and Kate Sheppard (Mother Jones). We’ll also feature some of the best videos recently submitted to PlanetForward.org…including films from GW’s very own Planet Forward class!

A Co-presentation of GW’s School of Media and Public Affairs, The George Washington University School of Business and GW’s Environmental Studies program.

RSVP

Jack Morton Auditorium
School of Media and Public Affairs
805 21st Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

With Congressman Ed Markey.

Advanced Electron Beams | Alcatel-Lucent | AT&T | BetterWorld Telcom | CEA – Consumer Electronics Association | Clean Economy Network | Control4 | CTIA – The Wireless Association | DAK Renewable Energy | Ericsson | General Compression | Motorola | OPOWER | Panasonic | Solazyme | Southwest Wind Power | Sprint | Standard Solar, Inc. | T-Mobile

RSVP Lexie Briggs | [email protected] | (202) 380-1941

Witnesses

• Jim Markowsky, Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy, U.S. Department of Energy
• Anne Castle, Assistant Secretary for Water & Science, U.S. Department of the Interior

• Joan MacNaughton, CB, Senior Vice President, Power and Environmental Policies, Alstom Power
• Ben Yamagata, Executive Director, Coal Utilization Research Council
• Mark Brownstein, Deputy Director, Energy Program, Environmental Defense Fund
• Kurt House, Chief Executive Office, C12 Energy
• Adam Vann, Legislative Attorney, American Law Division, Congressional Research Service

Climate scientists have long projected that human-induced global warming would make spring arrive earlier than normal, and it is – about 10 days earlier so far. On Tuesday, April 20, a group of scientists will discuss the ramifications for plants and animals across the country.

• Melanie Fitzpatrick, a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, will moderate.

• Jake Weltzin, the executive director of the U.S. National Phenology Network and an ecologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, has found that an earlier spring creates “mismatches” for animals and plants that depend on each other. For example, it’s critical for butterflies to lay their eggs on the new leaves of certain plants. But many of these plants are emerging from dormancy earlier than normal, and butterflies’ reproductive cycles have not adjusted.

• Charles Davis, an assistant professor of evolutionary biology at Harvard University, recently discovered that invasive, nonnative plants in Concord, Massachusetts, that flower earlier are the “winners” in climate change. Using data taken by Henry David Thoreau, he found that native plants, such as lilacs, orchids and dogwoods, have maintained their historic flowering schedule and are disappearing from the woods around Walden Pond. His findings likely extend to all of New England.

• Anthony Westerling, an assistant professor of environmental engineering and geography at the University of California-Merced, has discovered that rising temperatures combined with early snowmelt are contributing to large forest fires in Western states.

• Erik Beever, a wildlife biologist, has been studying the pika, a rabbit-like mammal that lives in 10 Western states. He recently published a paper that found that the pikas’ mountain habitat is shrinking. He says the species may be an early-warming indicator of how alpine species will respond to global warming.

Call 866-282-2803 and provide the operator with the password: “spring climate change.”

Please join USCAN for a telephone briefing on Monday, April 19, from 2-3pm Eastern to hear about what the climate community to doing to defend against the attacks on climate science and how you can get involved. We will be briefed by:

Leslie Aun, World Wildlife Fund. Leslie will highlight the work of the Project on Climate Science, a non-partisan public-education initiative on climate science, committed to collecting and disseminating high-quality scientific research and information so that individuals, the media, and lawmakers can make well-informed and responsible decisions about how to address climate change.

Kert Davies, Greenpeace. Kert will discuss two recent Greenpeace reports, Dealing in Doubt a chronology of the 20 year campaign targeting climate science and Koch Industries: Secretly funding the denial machine.

Union of Concerned Scientists. A representative from UCS will discuss their “Weight of the Evidence Campaign” an effort to mobilize climate scientists across the country to reclaim the debate on global warming.

Briefing will be followed by Q and A.

To join the tele-briefing call: (605) 475-4825, Participant Access Code: 866886#

Featured Author: Joseph Romm, author, Straight Up; Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress Action Fund

Moderated by: John Podesta, President and Chief Executive Officer, Center for American Progress Action Fund

There could not be a better time for Joseph Romm, acclaimed climate blogger and former acting assistant secretary of energy during the Clinton administration, to release his new book, Straight Up: America’s Fiercest Climate Blogger Takes on the Status Quo Media, Politicians, and Clean Energy Solutions.

As we approach the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the scientific realities about the warming of our world are becoming increasingly dire, an epic legislative battle looms in the Senate over whether the United States will be part of the solution or perpetuate the problem, and the mainstream media—hemorrhaging qualified science and environmental reporters—is paralyzed and unable to effectively inform a public that increasing seeks out information from online sources and the ever-expanding blogosphere.

Amid this backdrop, please join Dr. Joseph Romm in conversation with Center for American Progress Action Fund President and CEO John Podesta as they take on the science, the politics, the solutions, and the media. Copies of Straight Up will be available for purchase at the event.

Admission is free.

However, space is extremely limited. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis and not guaranteed.

RSVP required. RSVP to attend this event: 202-682-1611

Center for American Progress Action Fund
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005

The hearing will examine the effectiveness of current energy tax policy and identify additional steps that the Committee can take to ensure continued job growth in this area while at the same time advancing national energy policy focus on a discussion of current and proposed energy tax incentives.

As Congress continues to push for a comprehensive clean energy and climate bill, questions remain regarding the coal industry’s position on the essential science of climate change and their potential to provide cleaner, lower-carbon fuel in the decades to come. The House-passed Waxman-Markey bill offered a pathway for coal to transition to carbon capture and sequestration technologies.

The coal mining industry has seen significant developments over the last two weeks. A mining accident in West Virginia has renewed questions about the safety of coal extraction, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has offered new rules on the environmental and health impacts of mountaintop mining.

• Gregory Boyce, President and Chief Executive Officer, Peabody Energy Corporation
• Steven F. Leer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Arch Coal, Inc.
• Preston Chiaro, Chief Executive for Energy and Minerals, Rio Tinto
• Michael Carey, President, Ohio Coal Association