Dr. Jeffrey Hiapo Yin, Ph.D., Climate Scientist
Our Global Kuleana: Climate Change and Renewable Energy
KONA: Keauhou Beach Resort, Ballroom II
Date/Time: March 27, 2009 5:30-7:00 p.m.
HILO: UH Hilo, University Classroom Building #127
Date/Time: March 30, 2009 Noon-1:30 p.m.
Abstract
Climate change is truly a global, interconnected issue: the carbon dioxide that is produced by our cars and our electrical power plants affects not just our neighborhood or our island, but contributes to environmental changes that are felt around the world. For example, increasing carbon dioxide has the potential to melt the ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica, which in turn would raise sea levels around the world and impact not only the natural environment of our coasts, but also the huge numbers of people who live near sea level. Because the influence that we have on our environment and fellow humans is global, our responsibility, our kuleana, is also global. While modern technology has given us the power to cause the global issue of climate change, it also offers opportunities for us to address this issue, including the use of renewable energy in the place of energy that is produced by burning fossil fuels. By harnessing the energy of the sun, wind, water, and earth in sustainable ways, we have the opportunity to balance our modern society's desire for energy with our kuleana to care for the global environment and the people who share this interconnected world with us.
Biography
Dr. Jeffrey Yin was born and raised in Honolulu, and graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 1991 as a 13-year senior. He was drawn to the field of atmospheric sciences as an undergraduate at Harvard University, and went on to earn a Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences from the University of Washington in 2002. The greatest inspiration for his research was his desire to understand both the natural variations of climate during the ice ages and the influence of humans on future climate change. After five years of postdoctoral research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, the results from research on future climate change convinced him that it was time to shift from working to understand climate change to taking action to reduce its impact. He is currently a Resource Assessment Scientist at 3TIER, Inc., a growing company whose mission is to provide weather and climate information to the renewable energy industry.