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GSA 2019 ANNUAL MEETING & EXPOSITION

Lunchtime Enlightenment

Grab your lunch at a nearby convention center vender and enjoy a little lunchtime enlightenment.
Each presentation will take place in the North Ballroom 120D, North Building, Phoenix Convention Center.

Sunday, noon–1:30 p.m. That is the vision of the Switch Energy Alliance (SEA), a
GSA Presidential Address: The Future non-profit whose mission is to inspire an energy-educated
of Geoscience in the Context of Climate future. Building on the global energy film Switch—viewed in
Disruption over 50 countries by 15 million people and on thousands of
Donald I. Siegel campuses—SEA develops world-class film and serves it via
I speak to climate disruption, a sweeping state-of-the-art web delivery. SEA has programs that reach
self-inflicted tragedy of the commons for K–12, higher education, professionals, and the public.
humanity. It is improbable, if not impos- Join this Feed Your Brain session to see a clip from the
sible, that sufficient numbers of developed new feature-length film, Switch On, which travels the globe
and undeveloped nations in the future will globally make the immersing in energy poverty and examining workable solutions.
necessary economic and political decisions to avoid the worst Hear Dr. Scott Tinker give a short talk on energy, carbon, and
of predicted climate disruption in the next 20 years. The ability poverty. And then engage in a meaningful conversation about
to rapidly adapt to environmental disruptions as they evolve how to frame the energy challenges and work together to move
remains our best hope, coupled with successful transition to the dialog forward in a positive, outcome-based way.
solar, wind, and modern nuclear energy as best we can. Junior
and mid-career earth scientists in multiple GSA Divisions Tuesday, 12:15–1:15 p.m.
should have unprecedented opportunities in the future to partici- 2019 Michel T. Halbouty Distinguished
pate in well-funded large-scale adaptation ventures that neces- Lecture: Climate Change: The Threat
sarily will include multidisciplinary intellectual challenges. You Multiplier
and I, as individuals—indeed ALL geoscientists—have a role to Katharine Hayhoe
play in these efforts to ensure the future of humanity and what For generations, human civilization has
environments we choose to protect. been building a climate debt, borrowing
from the stability of the future to power the
Monday, 12:15–1:15 p.m. economic growth of the present. Through
Switch is Back! Energy Poverty, the fossil fuel combustion and land-use change we have disrupted
Energy Transition, and Modern Energy the carbon cycle, overwhelming the influence of natural forcing
Education on Earth’s climate. As heat accumulates in the climate system,
Scott W. Tinker it drives long-term increases in temperature and sea level, and
Energy underpins all aspects of modern super-charges hurricanes, heat waves, and heavy precipitation
life, and the lack of energy inhibits over events. These changes in turn exacerbate poverty, hunger, dis-
2.5 billion people from entering into mod- ease, refugee crises, and more. Today, the choice is stark: Can
ern life. Although many of us have strong we do what it takes to avoid widespread dangerous change?
opinions and beliefs, we really don’t understand energy. Are Or will we remain mired in inaction until the full cost of this
there actually clean and dirty options? Are some forms good unprecedented experiment we’re conducting with our planet
and others bad? What kinds of energy will actually address falls due?
climate change globally and at scale? What are the options to
lift one-third of the world from energy poverty and the impacts
of doing so? What is the “energy transition,” and can it happen
quickly? What are the unintended consequences of well-
intended energy policies? How do we become educated enough
to participate in meaningful, non-partisan, fact-based, and
civil dialogs about energy?

20 GSA Today | August 2019