Environmental and Climate Science Under Attack: What is Happening in the Amazon?

Date: 

Monday, October 21, 2019, 11:00am

Location: 

Harvard University Center for the Environment, MCZ 440

Speakers
Tasso Azevedo, General Coordinator, SEEG Network and MapBiomas; Affiliated Scholar, Brazil Lab, Princeton University
Beto Veríssimo, Co-founder, Imazon; Director, Amazon Center for Entrepreneurship; Affiliated Scholar, Brazil Lab, Princeton University
Gina McCarthy, former U.S. EPA Administrator, Director, C-CHANGE (Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Moderator: Daniel Schrag, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology; Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering; Director, Harvard Univ. Center for the Environment; Director, Science, Technology and Public Policy Program, HKS; Area Chair for Environmental Science and Engineering

Satellite Imaging of Deforestation in the AmazonAmazonia is at a crossroads. After more than a decade of progress in combating deforestation, the region faces major threats with increasing deforestation and forest fires. Brazil’s current federal government has been calling for a new cycle of business as usual “development" based on the expansion of deforestation, subtraction of the rights of indigenous peoples, and reduction of protected areas. This composes a perfect storm scenario with serious threats to the future of the whole Amazon biome with catastrophic consequences for biodiversity and climate regulation at regional and global levels.

Presented in collaboration with the Harvard University Center for the Environment