Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Ralph J. Cicerone, President of the National Academy of Sciences, for a discussion of the challenges facing the scientific community. Cicerone describes his research interests and explains the qualities of a scientist and what makes science a unique enterprise. He also focuses on leadership in science discussing his work at UC Irvine to establish a department of geosciences and his goals as President of the National Academy of Science and Chair of the National Research Council. He reflects on his work on, “Climate Change Science: An Analysis on Some Key Questions,” which he chaired-and delivered in one month-in 2001. Cicerone also considers the problem of the politicization of the climate change debate and concludes with positive signs that over time the international community will confront the challenges posed by climate change. Series: "Conversations with History" [Public Affairs] [Science] [Show ID: 30561]

Helena Molin Valdés, a long-time proponent of sustainable development, climate change mitigation and adaption, and disaster reduction, is the Head of the Secretariat, Climate and Clean Air Coalition at the United Nations Environment Programme. Series: "UC Carbon and Climate Neutrality Summit: UC Climate Solutions" [Public Affairs] [Science] [Show ID: 30282]

The Montreal Protocol has limited global uses of chemicals that deplete stratospheric ozone. Ralph Cicerone, President of the National Academy of Sciences, compares its features and success with unsuccessful (to date) efforts to stabilize global climate by limiting greenhouse gas concentrations such as carbon dioxide. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Science] [Show ID: 30557]

Ralph Cicerone, President of the National Academy of Sciences,reviews up-to-date data on temperatures of air and water, rates of ice losses and of sea-level rise and illustrate the driving forces of greenhouse gases in an energy-balance model of Earth. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Science] [Show ID: 30556]

Climate change policy expert David Victor, a professor of International Relations at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy & Strategy and two of his graduate students provide insights into the process and the outcome of the 2015 COP 21 climate talks in Paris. Victor has been a participant in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) proceedings since the IPCC’s inception Victor is presented here by the UC San Diego Library Channel. Series: "Library Channel" [Public Affairs] [Science] [Show ID: 30487]

The world food system comprises hundreds of millions of farmers making decisions in response to economic signals and environmental expectations. However, many of these farmers are food insecure by any number of metrics, and their production is threatened by anthropogenic climate change. Against this backdrop, what are the prospects for a world free from hunger? Using global data as well as smaller-scale studies of innovative technologies and strategies, Jennifer Burney of UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy explores the potential for a resilient food system at the heart of a new sustainable development agenda. Series: "UC San Diego Founders’ Symposium" [Public Affairs] [Science] [Agriculture] [Show ID: 30323]

Scientists describe the climate-havoc wrought on our natural world as the end of ‘stationarity’—a shift of the ecosystem so profound that it is no longer possible to extrapolate into the future from past patterns. Award-winning environmental journalist, Mark Schapiro, takes us on a journey to the tension points where these shifts are vividly underway. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Science] [Show ID: 30274]

Rinaldo S. Brutoco is a successful entrepreneur, executive, author and futurist and the Founding President of the World Business Academy. He looks at the role and responsibility of business in relation to the critical moral, environmental and social concerns of the day especially moving away from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Science] [Show ID: 30475]

Daniel Kammen of UC Berkeley and Doug Rotman of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory explore how actions to reduce carbon can be scaled to national and global levels. Series: "UC Carbon and Climate Neutrality Summit: UC Climate Solutions" [Public Affairs] [Science] [Show ID: 30290]

Max Auffhammer of UC Berkeley looks at the economics of climate change, listing the economic considerations that are important to take into account when designing and evaluating climate policy, including cost effectiveness and efficiency. Then he discusses specific policies at the state, national and international level in light of these economic considerations. Series: "UC Carbon and Climate Neutrality Summit: UC Climate Solutions" [Public Affairs] [Science] [Show ID: 30287]