Coal, climate, corn, coral and consequence: connecting the dots

As the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere continues to rise, the consequences are becoming increasingly evident: increasing temperatures, changes in precipitation regimes, and increasingly extreme weather events threaten the capacity of global agriculture to keep up with population growth; associated rising food prices threaten regional political stabilities; water supply issues threaten regional economies; and the increasing acidity of the upper ocean threatens the very survival of entire marine ecosystems. While these phenomena are global in scale and happening quickly, appropriate policy responses remain sluggish, fragmented, and regional. Canada is no exception but she does have choices, all of which present major challenges that we should take on, now.

Tom Pedersen, Executive Director, Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) earned a B.Sc. degree at UBC in Geology, and a Ph.D. in Marine Geochemistry from the University of Edinburgh. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the American Geophysical Union. He is an internationally recognized authority on ocean chemistry, has published extensively in the field of paleoceanography, and has longstanding interests in climate change issues and the application of government policy to climate-change mitigation and adaptation