Stephen Pacala is the Frederick D. Petrie Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. He has led a research team that organized and initiated a new effort entitled the Net-Zero America Project (NZAP). The project aims to provide policymakers with the necessary analyses to determine a pathway to net-zero greenhouse emissions in the United States. The outcomes of the work are already informing a new National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine Committee to which Pacala was appointed chair. The Pacala laboratory also continued its past efforts to improve modeling of the global carbon cycle and terrestrial biosphere.

To this end, his research is focused on the following questions. How and to what extent the terrestrial biosphere affects climate? Does the feedback between climate and vegetation lead to multiple stable states of climate? If so, could human land use cause a flip to an alternative state (we are most concerned currently by the possibility of a dry tropics caused by deforestation)? How does biodiversity affect global ecosystem function?

Hosted by The 2030 Project: A Cornell Climate Initiative - harnessing the collaborative scholarship, science, innovation, and entrepreneurialism of a world-class research university to scale tangible climate solutions.

Stephen Pacala (Princeton University) will present in the
2022 Perspectives on the Climate Change Challenge Seminar Series:

• Most Mondays, Spring Semester 2022, 2:45-4:00pm
• Available via Zoom
   

This university-wide seminar series is open to the public, and provides important views on the critical issue of climate change, drawing from many perspectives and disciplines. Experts from Cornell University and beyond present an overview of the science of climate change and climate change models, the implications for agriculture, ecosystems, and food systems, and provide important economic, ethical, and policy insights on the issue. The seminar is being organized and sponsored by the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.