Aspen Global Change Institute

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View materials from the most recent Aspen Global Change Institute meetings:
2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994

Or go to the AGCI Past Participant List
30 July- 5 August 2006: Earth Systems Modeling: The Next Generation
  • Co-chaired by Jerry Meehl and Kathy Hibbard from the National Center for Atmospheric Research
  • Meeting sponsored by NASA and agencies of the USGCRP
  • The meeting addressed the the form that the next generation of earth system models will take, with particular application for the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5).
  • Participants at the meeting represented the scientific communities that are going beyond the traditional global coupled model components of atmosphere, ocean, land surface and sea ice, and including carbon cycle, dynamical vegetation, aerosols, and chemistry.
13-19 August 2006: Exploring the Boundaries of Nature: A Reflective Dialogue on the Environment
  • Workshop Organizers: Jeffrey Kiehl, Stephen Bennett, Galin McGowan, Stephen Foster, Susi Moser, and Donald Williams
  • Meeting sponsored by NASA and agencies of the USGCRP
  • The purpose of the workshop was to bring together experts from a diverse range of communities to consider new ways of exploring our relationship to the environment.
  • In this workshop we did not assess the science of global environmental change, but worked to understand and explore impediments to reaching a consensus view among five communities, often functioning in separation: science, business, government, media, and education.
8-11 May 2005: University of Colorado Carbon, Climate, and Society Initiative IGERT graduate program retreat
  • Approximately 25 graduate students and faculty from the University of Colorado Carbon, Climate, and Society Initiative (CCSI) will convene in Aspen for a three day retreat and evaluation of the IGERT program. AGCI will assist in the evaluation of the program.
  • Program Directors are Drs. Jim White and Alan Townsend
  • CCSI is a subset of INSTARR (The Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research)
  • IGERT stands for Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship and it is sponsored by the US National Science Foundation.
National Science Foundation and University of Colorado logos
9-15 July 2005: Abrupt Climate Change: Mechanisms, Early Warning Signs, Impacts, and Economic Analyses
  • Co-chaired by Drs. Klaus Keller, Michael Schlesinger, and Gary Yohe.
  • Meeting is sponsored by NASA and agencies of the USGCRP
  • The weeklong workshop will bring together a group of experts on (i) the mechanisms of abrupt climate changes, (ii) detection of early warning signs, (iii) impacts of abrupt climate changes, and (iv) economic analysis of climate policies under climate thresholds with particular emphasis on near-term mitigation and the value of information.
thermohaline circulation
15-21 July 2005: North American Weather and Climate Extremes: Progress in Monitoring and Research
  • Co-chaired by Drs. Tom Karl and Jerry Meehl
  • Meeting is sponsored by NASA and agencies of the USGCRP
  • The primary objective of the workshop is to assess the latest scientific findings related to monitoring and projections of extremes and to see collectively where we are in our efforts to deal with research and monitoring of climate extremes for the North American continent.

Four general areas will be addressed:

  1. Develop a framework to define climate extremes of particular ecological or economic impact.
  2. Assess the state of the science in the historical and contemporary measurement of climate extremes.
  3. Examine and clarify the ability of climate models to simulate and project climate extremes including changes on the frequency, intensity, and duration of extremes.
  4. Define the measurements, analyses, and other actions required to reduce uncertainties about changes and trends in future climate extremes.
Hurricane Andrew
21-24 July 2005: Biodiversity in a Changing Climate: Assessing Uncertainties

There are three related goals of the workshop:

  1. Provide a qualitative, if not quantitative, assessment of current uncertainties in biodiversity impact projections. Anticipated product is a scientific paper at a level appropriate for use in the IPCC Fourth Assessment
  2. Using the above uncertainty assessment, provide guidelines for conservation planners as to the most appropriate use of projections of biodiversity impacts from different sources. Anticipated product is an IUCN distributed report.
  3. Provide guidelines for adopting existing methodologies or new research that would aid in reducing uncertainties in impact projections.
11-17 July 2004: Aerosols and the Hydrological Cycle
  • Co-chaired by Dr. William Collins (National Center for Atmospheric Research) and Dr. V. Ramanathan (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD)
  • Sponsored by NASA, NOAA, and NSF
  • This weeklong workshop is designed to help stimulate new national and international research to understand the links between aerosols in the atmosphere and the hydrological cycle.

 clouds
11-14 March 2004: Climate Scenarios and Projections: The Known, the Unknown, and the Unknowable as Applied to California
  • Co-chaired by Dr. Stephen Schneider (Professor of Biology, Stanford University) and Dr. Richard Moss (Director, U.S. Climate Change Research Program Office)
  • Co-Sponsored by the the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the California Energy Commission Public Interest Energy Research Program
  • This three day workshop utilized California as a regional case study to categorize and visualize scientific uncertainties and assess the state of the art emission and climate models with an emphasis on the regional scale.

 Golden Gate Bridge
6-11 July 2003: Energy Options and Paths to Climate Stabilization
Dr. Richard Smalley
5-10 June 2003: Learning from Regions: A Comparative Appraisal of Climate, Water, and Human Interactions in the Colorado and Columbia River Systems
Canyonlands
18 - 23 October 2001: Forest Management and Global Change: Near-Term Decisions and Long-Term Outcomes
10 - 19 August 2000: Atmospheric Composition, Biogeochemical Cycles, and Climate Change
22 - 28 July 2000: Industrial Carbon Management: Crosscutting Scientific, Technical, and Policy Implications
13 - 22 August 1999: Ecological Consequences of Climatic Extremes and Variability
13 - 22 July 1999: Integrating Human and Natural Systems to Understand Climate Change Impacts on Cities