Addressing Vermont’s concerns on climate change

As a climate scientist, I realized 12 years ago that one of my responsibilities was to help Vermont understand and adapt to climate change. My road-map has four components:

1) Newspaper articles, radio and TV interviews to explain climate issues and how to deal with them in plain English (about 100 so far)

2) Public talks across the state to schools, professional, business and citizens groups, the legislature and state government -in fact to anyone that asked -with a willingness to honestly and clearly address all issues raised (230 so far).

3) Specific research on how the climate and seasonal cycle of Vermont have changed in the past, and are likely to change in the future, exploring the unknowns.

4) A personal web-site to make all my writings, talks and research open access(http://alanbetts.com ).

Vermont is a small state with a rural, environmental ethos and a strong desire to understand climate change. An EPSCoR project, through the University of Vermont is addressing the resilience of the Lake Champlain basin to extreme events in the future climate. In parallel, Vermont has put in place an ambitious renewable energy policy.

My multifaceted strategy is open, clear and transparently honest, aimed at helping society understand and deal with critical issues. (In sharp contrast with the deceptive strategy to discredit climate science by well-funded groups.)