Is Earth still our planet? Climate change beyond denial and exaggeration, edition no. 5 of the ICUB Meetings invited geographer Alfred Vespremeanu-Stroe and climatologist Sorin Cheval, two important specialists with training and complementary experiences in the field.
The present discussion starts from the idea that, as many scientists constantly warn us, joined by activists, writers and journalists, climate change is no longer a problem concerning a distant and imprecise future, but rather an issue of the present.
Daily reality brings us an increasing number of floods, draughts and prolonged heat waves, devastating storms, tornadoes and hurricanes. In other words, it seems like a dystopic world, hard to imagine before, is being created right in front of our eyes and we either don’t know how to, we don’t want to, or we can no longer stop the process.
In this context, we invited professors Alfred Vespremeanu-Stroe and Sorin Cheval, teaching staff at the Faculty of Geography of the University of Bucharest, to look at this subject from various perspectives, so that we can point out the most important aspects of this complex issue. This was done by starting from general things and progressing to individual ones, from global to local, but also vice versa.
- What is climate change? What are the differences between climate variability and climate change?
- How have the various climate change crises affected the evolution of societies in the course of history?
- Are we facing today what journalist Elizabeth Kolbert calls a sixth extinction, this time produced by man?
- What are the main causes of climate change?
- What’s the current state of this phenomenon at global level?
- What are the most important indicators of climate change?
- Are the ever increasing extreme phenomena an indicator of climate change?
- Have we started doing something to limit the effects of climate change? Where should we insist? What can we do as a society? What about as individuals?
- What is the situation in the polar regions of the planet? Are we entitled to speak about what American writer and essayist Jonathan Franzen, inspired by a trip to Antarctica, calls the end of the end of the world?
- What are, at the time being, the most significant manifestations of climate change in Romania?
- How will these evolve in the future?
- Is the desertification in the south of Romania a result of climate change?
- What are the risks for the Danube Delta in the context of these climate modifications?
- How harmful can an anthropic intervention such as the widening of the Black Sea beaches be on the environment?
About all these and many others, in edition no. 5 of the ICUB Meetings Is Earth still our planet? Climate change beyond denial and exaggeration, with geographer Alfred Vespremeanu-Stroe and climatologist Sorin Cheval.
Sorin Cheval is a climatologist and university professor who teaches at the University of Bucharest, Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca and the Henri Coandă Air Force Academy in Brașov. He is a researcher at the National Administration of Meteorology. In 2017, he founded the Romanian Association of Applied Meteorology and Education (ARMAE), which aims to promote practical applications of meteorology, meant to assist in better preparing the population in preventing extreme weather phenomena and a more efficient use of atmospheric resources, as well as increasing the level of meteorological education among young people, in order to support real and active adaptation to climate change.
His areas of interest include the integrated use of tele-detection and other information, in monitoring urban climate and evaluating the urban heat island effect, the variability of climate, as well as hazard and climate risks. More information about Sorin Cheval are available here and here.
Alfred Vespremeanu-Stroe is a geographer, geomorphologist and geoarchaeologist, professor at the Faculty of Geography of the University of Bucharest and Director of the Research Center for Geomorphology, Geoarchaeology and Paleo–Environments affiliated to ICUB. At the same time, he coordinates the activity of the Sfântu Gheorghe Marine and Fluvial Research Station of the University of Bucharest, which undergoes monitoring activities, analysis and interpretation of fluvial, maritime and coastal systems behaviors, in order to acquire knowledge of their dynamic and evolutive specific and their current state of functioning, but also to elaborate evolutive scenarios in accordance with the tendencies of specific environment factors.
His areas of interest include coastal geomorphology, geoarchaeology (coastal and fluvial), paleo–environment renderings and periglacial processes. More information on Alfred Vespremeanu-Stroe are available here and here.
The ICUB Meetings were designed as a frame of discussion for relevant themes, approached from an inter-, trans- and multidisciplinary perspective. As such, the main objective of this series of meetings and discussions is to reveal the kaleidoscopic character of certain phenomena and to contradict, ergo, the unilateral approach, marked by certitudes over certain events or problematics.
