Four perspectives on climate change

Former Counsellor at the Swedish Embassy in Moscow, PhD Bo Libert, is invited to reflect over climate change and agricultural production in Russia.

The speakers have been given free hands to talk about climate change from their own perspectives, and we are looking forward to four exciting and enlightening presentations.

Welcome to this world wide digital excursion on climate change!

More information on the speakers

Bo Libert, Ph D in Plant Breeding at SLU. After the dissertation he and worked 1988–1990 as an Agricultural Counsellor at the Swedish Embassy in Moscow. He published the book The Environmental Heritage of Soviet Agriculture in 1995 and was engaged in analysing the development of agriculture and environment in the Baltic States. Since then, he has been engaged in the environmental sector and has a long experience from working in Central Asia and Eastern Europe on a broad range of environmental issues in OECD, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the UN. He has been involved in the develop-ment of water cooperation in several transboundary river basins. Mr Libert has written a number of scientific articles and is now based in his home country Sweden.

Kim Holmén. Ph D in Meteorology at Stockholm University, 1987. International director of Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), Tromsø, Norway 2011–present. He is also a professor in Environment and Climate at UiT, The Arctic University of Norway. Research interests are within the fields of human induced climate change and biogeochemical cycles. Elucidating climatic interactions with the biogeochemical cycle of carbon on different temporal and spatial scales through process studies and modelling remains a key activity. Field-work experience includes over 30 years of climate monitoring activities in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, as well as expeditions to Antarctica and Siberia. Recent work also addresses the role of science in policy and ethics including two books exploring ethics and human responsibility for climate change. Research management and facilitation efforts include leading several research projects, 15+ years in Ny-Ålesund Science Managers Committee (chairman 1997–2000), 15+ years in Svalbard Science Forum (SSF), and 12+ years developing Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS), presently chairman of the board of directors. Research Director at NPI 2005–2011.

Anna Guðrún Þórhallsdóttir is a natural resource ecologist and a professor at Holar University in Iceland. She has a Cand. agric. degree in Nature Management from the Agricultural University of Norway and a MSc and PhD in Range Science from Utah State University in USA. She has worked with teaching and research in the UK and Norway as well as Iceland, specializing in plant-animal interactions and grazing ecology. Lately she has been focusing on the role of grasslands and grazing for carbon sequestration.

Marianne E Krasny is a professor at the Department of Natural Resources and Director of the Civic Ecology Lab at Cornell University. Her books include Civic Ecology: Adaptation and Transformation from the Ground Up (with K Tidball), Urban Environmental Education Review (with A Russ), Communicating Climate Change: A Guide for Educators (with A Armstrong and J Schuldt), Grassroots to Global: Broader Impacts of Civic Ecology and Advancing Environmental Education Practice. She leads efforts to teach environmental and climate education Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for international audiences, and to facilitate online learning and resource sharing communities for over 10,000 environmental activists and educators globally. Dr Krasny was director of EPA’s National Environmental Education Training Program, and of the Garden Mosaics community gardening education program, and is a Public Voices Fellow.