Climate Expert Joseph Romm to Give Climate Change Talk April 17

Climate change is advancing more swiftly than most of society realizes; in the coming years and decades, the ramifications of global warming trends will become the primary focus of both the nation’s private and public sectors, according to nationally renowned physicist, climate expert, author, and blogger Joseph Romm, hailed by Time magazine as a “Hero of the Environment.”

Romm—widely regarded as one of the nation’s most influential and respected voices on the topic of climate change—will discuss how climate change will impact American society during a 3 p.m. April 17 free public lecture titled “To Hell and High Water: What You Need to Know About Climate Change” in the J.W. Connolly Ballroom of the University of Pittsburgh’s Alumni Hall. Even though the event is free, reservations are requested; visit www.honorscollege.pitt.edu/joseph-romm-lecture to reserve a seat.

Romm’s lecture will be the inaugural installment in Pitt’s University Honors College Climate Change Series, a long-term program to educate students, faculty, and staff members on issues regarding climate change.

“There are some challenges to civilization that are of such urgency that every college graduate should understand them, and the implications of research on climate change are among them,” said University Honors College Dean Edward Stricker. “Accordingly, the Honors College is launching with this lecture a climate change series to feature public presentations and discussions to continue next year in collaboration with schools and departments on campus and with neighboring Pittsburgh institutions. We urge everyone to participate.”

Romm, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, has contributed his expertise on the subject of climate change to numerous U.S. congressional committees, and his opinions and research have been cited in such national publications as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and U.S. News & World Report. Rolling Stone magazine has designated him as one of “100 People Who Are Changing America.”

Romm currently serves as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he is editor of the center’s nationally acclaimed climate blog, Climate Progress, which was recognized by Time as one of the 25 “Best Blogs of 2010.”

Romm served as acting assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy during 1997 and as principal deputy assistant secretary in that office from 1995 though 1998. In that capacity, he helped manage the largest program in the world for working with businesses to develop and use advanced transportation and clean energy technologies, including hybrid vehicles, electric batteries, hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies, renewable energy, distributed generation, and biofuels. Romm helped lead the Clinton Administration’s climate technology policy formulation, and he initiated, supervised, and publicized a comprehensive technical analysis by five national laboratories of how energy technologies can reduce greenhouse gas emissions at low cost. 

Romm is the author of eight books, among them Straight Up: America’s Fiercest Climate Blogger Takes on the Status Quo Media, Politicians, and Clean Energy Solutions (Island Press, 2010) and Hell and High Water: Global Warming—the Solution and the Politics—and What We Should Do (William Morrow, 2006).

Romm earned a Bachelor of Science degree and a PhD degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982 and 1987, respectively.