[PAOCQ] Justin Mankin (Dartmouth)

“Documenting and projecting the human costs of climate change”

How does climate change affect people and the things they value? Drawing on examples from violent conflict, economic growth, and water resources, I highlight my group’s research to inform society’s management of climate risks, with implications for everything from drought monitoring to climate liability. Our work looks retrospectively, documenting and attributing the impacts that have already unfolded, and prospectively, helping to anticipate the ones to come. Across all of this work, I discuss our efforts to (1) meaningfully connect geophysical changes with human consequences, (2) quantify, attribute, and constrain uncertainty, especially given structural data inequities, and (3) inform model design and analysis choices to ensure that scientific answers about our present and future are sound, transparent, reproducible, useful, and just. Collectively, my research and that of my group demonstrates the importance of science that spans both fundamental and applied questions of climate impacts to inform adaptations and prepare society for a warmer world.

PAOC Colloquium —

Interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC (Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate) community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, as well as talks about societal impacts of climatic processes.

Contact: paoc-colloquium-comm@mit.edu