Speaker: Geeta Persad, assistant professor of climate science, University of Texas at Austin
Addressing climate change and achieving cleaner air are two paramount—and intimately interlinked—challenges. The human health impacts of poor air quality make reducing aerosol pollution an imperative. With this, though, will come the removal and redistribution of aerosols’ unique climate effects. At the same time, the increased exposure of human systems to climate change is creating a demand for impact-tailored
characterization of climate change that is outpacing scientific understanding, particularly for aerosol-driven change. In this talk, we will explore our recent work demonstrating how the shifting geography of aerosol emissions forces a reevaluation of historical attribution and near-term risks and lay out a roadmap for impact-tailored analysis that can both revolutionize our understanding of the climate system and build a much-
needed bridge between scientific theory and real-world decision-making in the face of rapidly evolving human emissions.