IN THIS MODULE YOU WILL LEARN ABOUT:

  • What do we know about climate risks and responses?
  • What is climate justice?
  • How are climate risks and responses experienced in a major city like Miami?
  • How do we move towards equitable and just climate resilience?

INSTRUCTOR FOR THIS MODULE:

KATHARINE MACH, Professor, Department of Environmental Science and Policy , Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Email: KMACH@RSMAS.MIAMI.EDU, Phone: (305) 421-4741

Katharine Mach is a Professor at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and a faculty scholar at the UM Abess Center, focused on environmental science and policy. Her research assesses climate change risks and response options to address increased flooding, extreme heat, wildfire, and other hazards. Through innovative approaches to integrating evidence, she informs effective and equitable adaptations to the risks.

Mach was the 2020 recipient of the Piers Sellers Prize for world leading contribution to solution-focused climate research. She previously was a Senior Research Scientist at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Environment Assessment Facility. Before that from 2010 until 2015, she co-directed the scientific activities of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This work on impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability culminated in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report and its Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. The associated global scientific collaborations have supported diverse climate policies and actions, including the Paris Agreement.

Mach is a chapter lead for the US Fifth National Climate Assessment and was a lead author for the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. She serves as Co-Editor in Chief for Climate Risk Management, a member of the National Academies Climate Security Roundtable, an editorial board member for Oxford Open Climate Change and Environmental Research: Climate, and an advisory committee member for the Aspen Global Change Institute, the Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment, and Carbon180. Across all of her research projects, she engages in relevant policy processes, and she frequently discusses climate change risk and adaptation with the media, the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, and communities. Mach received her PhD from Stanford University and AB summa cum laude from Harvard College.

At UM, Mach is the Graduate Program Director for the Department of Environmental Science and Policy. She teaches Interdisciplinary Environmental Research: Introduction to the Why and the How (ECS 601/MES 603) and the Science of Actionable Knowledge (MES 511/611).

LECTURE

DOWNLOAD HANDOUT

READING ASSIGNMENTS

CRITICAL THINKING ASSIGNMENT

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

  • What are climate justice issues here in Metropolitan Miami?
  • What are solutions, and importantly, what processes are needed to make sure these responses are effective, desired, equitable, and just?

Consider the core examples from the filmed lecture: (1) inclusive design of the built environment to ensure climate resilience for those living with spinal cord injury; and (2) experiences with heat. And think big: for example, how do solutions for a person with tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, apply for most other mobility impairments, and how do the same climate risks and solutions, for example related to heat, matter for everyone although in different ways?

Further Explorations- 360 view of Climate Justice in Senegal

Further Explorations- Training Facilities at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis (360 video)