Co-Chair of International Panel on Climate Change to Address High School Students at Conference

Note to Editors: Reporters and photographers interested in attending the conference should contact Emily Narvaes Wilmsen at (970) 491-2336.

Susan Solomon, current co-chairwoman of Working Group 1 of the International Panel on Climate Change – the leading source of authoritative scientific assessments on climate change – will give the keynote talk at the Colorado Global Climate Conference for high school students at 9 a.m. April 13 in Fort Collins.

High school students from across Colorado and their teachers can attend the conference, which is an opportunity to learn about climate, alternative energy technology and atmospheric physics. The event will be at Rocky Mountain High School, 1300 W. Swallow Road, on April 12 and 13.

The goal of the conference is to educate and inspire students to be informed citizens on global climate issues. Participants from across Colorado and as far away as Molokai, Hawaii, are scheduled to attend.

The conference will begin at 6:30 p.m. April 12 with a showing of "An Inconvenient Truth." The documentary will be followed by a facilitated discussion on the film and an ice cream social. Refreshments are being donated by Ben and Jerry’s Scoop Shop of Fort Collins.

On April 13, presentations will begin with Solomon’s talk at 9 a.m. Throughout the day, students and teachers will be able to choose from a range of hands-on exhibits and talks on such issues as alternative energy technology, atmospheric science, the use of computers in climate studies, environmental ethics, national and international climate policy, and how scientific knowledge differs from other kinds of information.

Solomon, who is a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a foreign member of the French and European Academies of Science. She is the recipient of the Carl-Gustaf Rossby Medal from the American Meteorological Society and the National Medal of Science. In 1994, Solomon Glacier and Solomon Saddle were named in honor of her leadership in Antarctic research. She is author of "The Coldest March", a book about one of the early explorers of Antarctica.

The conference is sponsored by Colorado State University, which hosts the multi-institutional Center for Multi-Scale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes – a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center. Information about Colorado State programs, scholarships and research opportunities will be available at the event.

Pre-registration is closed. Late registration will be accepted at the event at 6 p.m. April 12. Students must have chaperones to attend. For more information, go to www.cmmap.org and click on Colorado Global Climate Conference.

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