You wouldn’t know it to look out the window or, egads, step outside, but the world is getting warmer by the minute and we need to do something about it today.
That was the message conveyed yesterday by Mohammad Reza Salamat, United Nations Senior Program Officer on Sustainable Development, who spoke on global climate change at several locations throughout Buffalo over the last few days. He capped off his visit here with a press conference at The Buffalo Museum of Science.
Salamat’s visit, sponsored by the International Institute and the Western New York Sustainable Energy Association, coincided with some of the harshest winter weather to date in what has been already one the coldest Februarys here in quite some time.
Asked how climate change might affect Buffalo, Salamat said global warming is altering weather patterns of different areas of the world in different ways.
“This is an extremely important topic,” he said. “In your region there is a need for specific studies to be done.”
Global warming, the scientific theory that man-made greenhouse gasses, particularly carbon dioxide, are causing world-wide temperatures to rise, has been gaining an increased foothold in both the academic and scientific worlds and in the public consciousness. Many scientists predict catastrophic consequences for the planet and humanity if immediate steps are not taken to reduce pollution.
An Inconvenient Truth, a movie documenting former Vice President Al Gore’s traveling slideshow presentation on global warming, thrust the topic to a new level of public awareness last year. Through his efforts and those of people like Salamat, the idea that global warming exists is gaining credibility here and throughout the rest of the world.
“I’m encouraged by the discussions that I’ve had,” he said. “It really demonstrates how awareness is high here.”
Paul Reitan, an America’s Professor of geology at the University of Buffalo, also spoke at the press conference. Responding to a lighthearted question about whether, in light of the current wintry weather, Buffalonians need concern themselves with the prospect of warmer global temperatures, he said that weather patterns here are consistent with predictive scientific models.
“Local change is always much more difficult to connect to a global phenomenon,” he said. “But (conditions here) are consistent with what we can expect. I am personally so concerned with the impact of global warming that I cannot say there is anything good about global warming for Buffalo.”
Reitan and Solomon both acknowledged that climate change is likely to have vastly different effects on different parts of the world and that some areas might even benefit to some extent (more rain in drought-prone areas, for example), but that the global cumulative effect of warming will be dire if not abated – despite how much we may wish it were a bit warmer around here right now.
Science Museum officials took the opportunity of Salamat’s visit to preview the upcoming global-warming-themed exhibit. GLOBEO: Nature’s Story of Climate Change. The exhibit will be on view at the Museum March 10 – June 22.
“We hope to inspire people to make sense of climate change,” Carroll Ann Simon, acting president and CEO of the museum, said of the upcoming exhibit. “We want to motivate thought and action on a personal scale.”
Mr. Salamat’s presentation was co-sponsored by the International Institute’s “2007 Great Decisions” series, and the Western New York Sustainable Energy Association series on “Global Climate Change: The Case for Sustainable Energy Alternatives.”
An expert on climate change issues, Salamat joined the United Nations in 2002. A sustainable development diplomat by training, his vast experience in international negotiations on multilateral environmental conventions and sustainable development issues has led him into key positions in numerous global environmental debates.
Acting as a chief Iranian negotiator, and sometimes as a spokesperson for Group of 77 (group of developing countries) during 1993-2001, he played a key role in international negotiations on a number of environmental conventions and in shaping these legal instruments, including UN Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, Convention on Biological diversity and its Biosafety Protocol, UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). He chaired or co-chaired many working groups under these conventions’ bodies. He was also a key negotiator for G-77 in the annual sessions of the Commission on Sustainable Development.
Salamat also co-chaired the Ad-Hoc Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Energy and Sustainable Development during 2000-2001 in preparation for the Ninth Session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in New York and, as spokesperson for the Group of 77 during 2001 (when Iran was the Chairman of G-77), he was instrumental in the achievement of consensus and political agreement during Kyoto Protocol negotiations.
Top photo: Mohammad Reza Salamat, United Nations Senior Program Officer on Sustainable Development speaks out on the dangers of global warming.
Middle photo: Carroll Ann Simon, acting president and CEO of the Buffalo Museum of Science, poses with one of the museum’s polar bears. Polar bears are one of many species that face possible extinction if global warming continues unabated.
Photos by Charlie Quill
queenseyes
Newell Nussbaumer is 'queenseyes' - Eyes of the Queen City and Founder of Buffalo Rising. Co-founder Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts. Co-founder Powder Keg Festival that built the world's largest ice maze (Guinness Book of World Records). Instigator behind Emerald Beach at the Erie Basin Marina. Co-creator of Rusty Chain Beer. Instigator of Buffalo Porchfest, and Paint vs. Paint. Founder of The Peddler retro and vintage market on Elmwood. Instigator behind Liberty Hound @ Canalside. Throws The Witches Ball at Statler City, the Hertel Alley Street Art Festival, and The Flutterby Festival. And his latest adventure... FigBuffalo, with the intention of creating a Buffalo United Fashion Front (BUFF). Contact Newell Nussbaumer | Newell@BuffaloRising.com