Published by Communications and Public Affairs (519) 824-4120, Ext. 56982 or 53338
News Release
March 16, 2004
Adapting to changing climate topic of Guelph conference
A conference on climate risk management and adaptation is being held in Guelph March 24 and 25, sponsored by the University of Guelph’s School of Environmental Design and Rural Development and the Ontario region’s Canadian Climate Impacts and Adaptation Research Network (C-CIARN).
The event will be held at the Cutten Club and is expected to attract more than 150 experts and scholars. Conference participants will discuss Ontario’s changing climate and the effect on the province’s rural and urban communities. Widely accepted predictions foresee warming at an unprecedented rate, accompanied by more extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, floods and ice storms. Attendees will also learn about the issues and challenges of climate risk management and adaptation.
U of G geography professor Barry Smit, a global authority on adaptation to climate change and holder of a Canada Research Chair in Global Environmental Change, will give the keynote address. He will speak at 9 a.m. March 24 on “Managing Climate-Related Risk: Community Based-Approaches and Solutions.”
The conference will also feature talks by James Bruce, an international expert in water resources management; Rob de Loë, a U of G geography professor and Canada’s Research Chair in Water Management; and John Gunn, a C-CIARN-Ontario scientific advisor and Canada Research Chair in Stressed Aquatic Ecosystems.
Participants will also work in small teams to develop risk management strategies for Ontario communities. A complete schedule is available online.
Cost of the conference is $100 per day or $140 for both days. A limited number of subsidies are available. For more information, contact David Noble at (519) 835-9368/ noble@uoguelph.ca or Liz Bamberger of C-CIARN Ontario at (705) 675-1151, Ext. 5054/ ebamberger@laurentian.ca.
For media questions, contact Communications and Public Affairs: Lori Bona Hunt (519) 824-4120, Ext. 53338, or Rachelle Cooper, (519) 824-4120, Ext. 56982.
