A conference featuring presentations by some UNM professors and focusing on local climate change and public perception of it will make its way to campus and the surrounding community this weekend, starting tonight.
The second annual conference on global warming, "Heating Up: Coming to Terms with Climate Change in New Mexico," will run through Sunday and attempt to translate the scientific topic into public terms with a diversity of experts and activities.
"Scientists sometimes have a hard time communicating this information," said Virginia Scharff, director of the Center for the Southwest. "But with help from a diversity of experts, the public can participate in an ongoing conversation."
Scharff said the conference will feature a wide range of presenters including scientists, journalists, lawyers, community activists and anthropologists.
The conference begins today with Honors Professor V.B. Price's presentation, "Don't Call it a Drought." The talk begins at 7 p.m. and will be at the National Atomic Museum, 1905 Mountain Road NW.
Price said his discussion will focus on the language and politics of local climate changes.
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"My main concern is that uncertainty about global warming will be used to distract us from intense local climate changes," Price said. "Namely intensification of a 1,000 year pattern of drought in an already arid landscape and one which now contains almost 2 million people."
Scharff said Price's talk is a good way to get the conference started.
"If people come Friday, they'll get hooked," she said.
At 8:30 a.m. on Saturday at Dane Smith Hall, Room 125, Jonathan Overpeck, director of the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth at the University of Arizona, will present his lecture "Global Climate Change: Science vs. Perception." Following Overpeck's talk will be a panel discussion on communicating the science of climate change, from 9:45-11:15 a.m.
At 1 p.m. on Saturday in Dane Smith Hall, Room 125, Timothy Moy, UNM associate professor of history, will present "Trading Ideas without Trading Places: The Humanities, the Sciences, and the Publics."
A roundtable discussion exploring ethical, political and social implications of environmental choices will take place from 2:15-3:30 p.m. Saturday, also in Room 125 of Dane Smith Hall.
Scharff said that experts are focusing on global warming in New Mexico.
"It's a local focus in the control of global terms," Scharff said.
The last day of the conference will feature a field trip to the Sevilleta Long-Term Ecological Research Field Station about 60 miles south of Albuquerque.
The station is a collaboration between UNM, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Conference attendees must call 277-7688 or e-mail ctyson@unm.edu and make reservations prior to the field trip.
"We want people to realize that they have the power to understand what seems almost too big to get your head around," Scharff said.
All presentations and discussions are free and open to the public.
"I encourage students to come," Scharff said. "It's their world and they'll probably inherit these problems."
