On Tuesday, August 9 at 7 p.m., the Block Island Maritime Institute (BIMI) welcomes back internationally-acclaimed climate scientist Dr. Michael Oppenheimer for a talk entitled “Climate change, sea level rise, the U.S. policy landscape, and implications for Block Island.” His talk is co-sponsored by the Block Island Historical Society.Oppenheimer’s current research focuses on sea level rise, migration, and other impacts of climate change from the perspectives of science, adaptation, and risk. Much of his work has centered on defining the concept of “dangerous” climate change, a key aspect of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement.Oppenheimer is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs at Princeton University and Director of the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. He has been an author of reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, since its First Assessment Report (1990).Most recently, Oppenheimer served as a coordinating lead author on IPCC’s Special Report on Oceans, Cryosphere and Climate Change, published in September 2019, and as a review editor of its Sixth Assessment Report, published in
