The Green California Schools Summit and Expo will be held at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, Calif., from Dec. 9 through 11. From school gardens to recycling programs and energy efficiency retrofits, the summit will explore high performance schools — whether new buildings or renovations — that can save money, keep students and faculty healthier and engender life-long environmental awareness.

[caption id="attachment_7031" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Alec Loorz, founder of Kids vs. Global Warming, will speak at the Green California Schools Summit"][/caption]

Pre-conference workshops and concurrent education sessions offer the chance to learn from stakeholders and innovators in the green schools movement - from State Architect David Thorman to government agencies, green schools rating organizations, architects and curriculum experts. An exposition will feature more than 100 companies with sustainable products and services.

Welcoming attendees as they arrive at the convention center will be a green modular schoolroom erected by American Modular Systems. The exhibition floor will include a garden display from the Los Angeles Unified School District. Also in the exhibit hall, a Resource Center organized by the Office of the State Architect will include representatives from state agencies that can assist green programs, from the California Building Standards Commission and Department of Education, to the California Energy Commission and the Metropolitan Water District.

The summit also will include special event for teachers. At the Pathways to the Future Teachers’ Institute, educators will learn about real-world applications of sustainability from professionals in green fields including advanced transportation, recycling and green building — and engage in hands-on exploration of curriculum resources.

The Summit’s annual Leadership Awards will be presented at a reception on Dec. 10, honoring school districts, companies and individuals for contributions to California’s green schools movement. Keynote speakers will be Alec Loorz, a high school sophomore who has gained international attention for his efforts to help his peers understand global warming; and Bharat Patel, an expert in sustainability and green building who has worked on building projects in Europe, Asia and America and is also active in fields including finance, job development and carbon trading.

For more information on the summit and to register, go to www.green-technology.org/gcsummit/ or contact Eric Rennie at 626-577-5700, erennie@green-technology.org.

Men and women who are big on green style and earth-friendly substance have discovered that the Web is littered with natural and free-trade clothes and accessories. You can get vegan shoes for hundreds of dollars, or hoodies and Ts for a lot less.

We’ve combed through online shops to create a very merry Green His and Hers Gift Guide.

HIGH STYLE

Deborah Lindquist uses both  “reincarnated” and new Earth-friendly fabrics for her creations. From her current collection, “Goth Girl Goes to the Country, ” is a vintage cashmere crewneck floor sweeping dress, $394, and silk long-sleeve T-shirt underneath, $185 (above).  You can buy Lindquist’s edgy styles in stores, or directly on her Web site.

Linda Loudermilk, another hot natural designer, offers a striking organic cotton long jacket for him (below). It looks like leather, but it’s not – because the fabric is cured with mud. It has top-quality styling and details, which is good since it costs $2,350. You can take solace knowing that it will last a lifetime.

I’d be a hypocrite if I advocated without qualification for Buy Nothing Day (this Friday in the U.S. and Saturday internationally). For one, I just finished compiling and editing some green gift lists.

Granted, this consumer boycott being advocated by AdBusters has great appeal. It says “no” to what has become an embarrassing grab-fest of shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

[caption id="attachment_7014" align="alignright" width="279" caption="A "Buy Nothing" demonstrator in Manila"][/caption]

I like the concept of the boycott: Send a message to those corporations that want to hijack your wallet this holiday season. Refuse to shop. It makes a lot of sense. We really do need to cool it on the consumerism to help re-chill our warming planet. It’s painfully obvious now that our rabid consumption of limited natural resources coupled with our willingness to trash stuff is destroying our planet. Here in the U.S., we’ve got a TV or computer in every room in many households, and they’ll be in the landfill soon because tech wizards come up with the next generation of electronics about 28 minutes after we’ve purchased the first. We’ve got food, and clothing and houses large enough to sustain multiple families. And it’s not just us. Asia’s got a taste for luxury. Sharks are being killed for their fins. Coal pollution is encircling the globe thanks to the two biggest polluters, the U.S. and China.

So before I explain why I don’t see a boycott of Black Friday as an effective solution, let me make one thing clear: Less stuff — it’s a great idea. We need more time with our kids. More time outdoors. More reflection, more sharing, more recycling, more book reading (would that be on a Kindle or on paper?). We need to cook food “from scratch”; visit with our neighbors and install community gardens. But we don’t need more things.

We don’t need shopping as entertainment. And we don’t need to be brand slaves (check out the cute protesting “brand zombies” on Ad Busters).

That said, I confess, I am a home improvement junkie. Give me $25 and I’ll find a project. I’ll buy paint or varnish or plants or fabric and try to “improve” something.  And I’m a parent. I have a strong urge to give my kids a few magical moments, some of which involve gifts, many of which I will buy.

So here’s the problem with trying to stop the buying on Black Friday.  I don’t think it will work. But more important, consumers sometimes can find a darn good deal on Black Friday. Yes, the frenzy, the 4 a.m. openings, the loud advertisements, the bait-and-switch enticements, that’s all quite annoying and sometimes leads us to spend more than we should. But should we ask financially strapped people to skip the deals that could leave them with a little more cash on hand? Amid the hype, they might just get just what they need, for less than they would next week.

I’m not a marketing analyst. Maybe the best deals are to come. And maybe all the focus on this one day really does jack up our consumption, as those who do analyze these things have noted. But here’s an alternative solution: Let’s resist spending more than we should. Let’s act like adults. Don’t stampede anyone at the door. In fact, don’t even get up early and don’t stay out late. Pay cash if you have to make a point with yourself. Even better, make a holiday budget. Make a pact with your spouse, not your credit card.

If you want to add a little social consciousness to your shopping, look for the labels that count. Fair Trade goods assure you they come from socially responsible sources. Organic labels help say “no” to pesticides. Recycled products are a nice way to show you want to live more lightly. Non-toxic cosmetics and bath goods help tamp down the chemical creep, and they’re healthier for your recipients (go to your local natural market to find them.) Give the gift of nature by donating to a group that supports conservation or helps sustain communities in fragile ecosystems around the world. (There’s the World Wildlife Fund, Heifer International, Natural Resources Defense Fund, Habitat for Humanity and many more.) Spread the wealth by buying from artisans in developing nations. Give a gift of energy security with a gift basket of CFLs and a cute draft stopper to help someone cut their energy bills. (Yes, I’m that much of a geek, and I’ve got the solar tube I gave my husband for the holidays to prove it.)

And remember child labor practices. That is, put your kids to work on homemade gifts. Cookies, hot cocoa mixes, picture frames, all these come with extra love and help parents and kids spend time together. Want to get a little greener? Make a bird feeder or a seed bagel for someone’s backyard. Concoct a mix of wildflower seeds and package it with a bow. Older kids can give pledges, like the pledge to make a meal or visit a nursing home or help in the garden or at the local food pantry.

I’d like to think that we can hold onto the gift giving — but ditch the irresponsible behavior. Give a gift that really means something — I know your mom’s been telling you this for years. Use  the opportunity to remember what it is we truly cherish — the people we love and our home, planet Earth.

And if you want to buy nothing or  join a demonstration against rampant consumerism, go for it. Good luck and Happy Holidays!

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Nissan North America, Inc.  today announced the lease of a X-TRAIL Fuel Cell Vehicle (FCV) to Sacramento Coca-Cola Bottling Co., Inc.

The zero emissions X-TRAIL FCV will be used by the bottler for sales calls and public events in the Sacramento area in promotion of its Coca-Cola Zero soft drink. The lease is for one year, with an option for two additional years.

Nissan, which began development of fuel cell vehicle technology in 1996, has previously used FCVs in demonstration fleets in Japan and in California through the California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP), but this is Nissan’s first commercial FCV lease in North America.
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Got a greenie on your shopping list this year, someone who’s yearning for a composter or a bat house? Here are a few gift ideas for the newly minted or entrenched ecoist.

A Chlorine Filter for the Shower.

[caption id="attachment_6921" align="alignright" width="152" caption="Rainfall Showerhead filters out the chlorine and other chemicals"][/caption]

Give the gift of soft skin and hair with this High Output SHower Filter. It will collect the chlorine from your city water before it gets a chance to dry your skin, and seep into your pores. It can be used  with your own low-flow shower head, which some people are quite attached to. Buy a replacement filter when you order and you’re covered for two years.

Or get a spa-like Rainfall Showerhead with a built in filter, a gift of luxury and good health, it contains a filter to get out chlorine and a variety of other chemicals and meets federal guidelines for 2.5 gpm.

($58 and $78 at Gaiam, respectively.)

Envirocycle Composter

[caption id="attachment_6925" align="alignleft" width="223" caption="Envirocycle composter"][/caption]

Even the earthiest among us can get discouraged composting giant mounds of earth and grass that have to be turned with a pitchfork. This spinning Envirocycle Composter makes it easier to collect and reprocess  organic matter. Instead of grappling with a mountainous mass, you just spin. Not only can you produce fine compost, this contraption collects compost tea in the the base. The tea makes a great foliar treatment, and the solid compost can be spread on flower and veggie beds at any time. This particular composter may not accommodate a large household, but can handle conservative amounts of organic waste from the kitchen. It could be used in tandem with a compost pile. Enclosed it helps keep odor down, and it’s reasonable. ($126.50 at Greenfeet.)

San Francisco Bay Area-based Eco-Fuel Global this week signed an agreement with the Government of Rwanda to produce bio-fuels from Jatropha Curcas. The deal, estimated to be worth in excess of $250 million, would replace up to 20 percent of the Rwandan fossil fuel requirement with low emission bio-fuels.

Jatropha Curcas is a poisonous shrub whose seeds contain oil that is used to produce biodiesel fuel that is usable in a standard diesel engine.

“This marks the beginning of one of the largest sustainable biofuel projects in the world,” Mark O’Brien, CEO of Eco-Fuel Global, said in a statement. “Rwanda is leading the world in a new generation of environmentally friendly and economically responsible energy production.”

Eco-Fuel Global said some of the benefits of the project include:

• Increased fuel security and reduced price risk
• Direct employment estimated at 6,500 jobs
• Environmental benefits such as reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, soil stability and watershed protection
• Expanding U.S. exports through the use of U.S. - based biofuel refinery equipment and technology
• Food security through production of fertilizer as a by-product of the biofuel and the potential to increase agricultural yields with intercropping

The company plans to grow Jatropha Curcas on 10,000 hectares of land near Akagera National Park, which is projected to yield an estimated 20 million liters of bio-fuel annually.

Let’s shop green without being obvious about it, OK? You can, you know. There are many ways to tweak the holiday list this year to skew it toward recycled, socially conscious, energy-conserving goods. Of course, we don’t like to advocate lots of consuming. We definitely don’t buy that theory that it’s our patriotic duty to purchase our way out of the recession.

On the other hand, we are going to exchange gifts this holiday season. With that in mind, here are a few humble suggestions for keeping it green (and affordable), subtly.

A TOASTER OVEN

[caption id="attachment_6882" align="alignright" width="208" caption="Black and Decker CTO6301 Convection Toaster Oven"][/caption]

Mom, dad, a kid on her way to college. Lots of people can appreciate the utility and electricity savings of a Toaster Oven. Did you know that the average 1500 watts used by a toaster/convection oven is less than half, or even more, than that used by a full-size oven? How many times have you heated the entire oven just to warm rolls for dinner? Or to bake a couple ramekins of dessert? Or broil a tuna melt? Or brown a small brushetta?

Turn that big oven off, and use a tool that’s sized-right for the job. That’s the very sound idea behind this “smart” appliance. There are dozens to choose from. The Black & Decker one shown here can be had at Amazon and other stores for around $60. It gets good reviews for durability, space and function.

THE WOVEL

[caption id="attachment_6895" align="alignleft" width="170" caption="THe wovel uses see-saw action to shove snow."][/caption]

This goofy looking simple machine just might keep some snow blowers off the road. It’s unique enough to keep the relatives marveling about the weird gift Aunt Sally got Uncle Mel, but it’s got it’s serious side: It powers through snow without using fossil fuels.  More importantly to most users, it makes the job of shoveling the white stuff, pound per pound, easier. Easier on the back, mainly, because the motion of pushing and then “throwing” the snow engages leg and arm muscles.

We don’t actually have one, and we wonder if it’s quite as easy as it looks, but the see-saw action does appear to take a load off the back, a victory over bending, raising and twisting to shovel snow the old-fashioned way. The Wovel has made several YouTube appearances since being named on Time’s Best Inventions List in 2006. Check out this video by a convinced user.

It is expensive for a shovel ($119.95 retail), but it solves a problem, without adding another pollution-spewing machine to the household arsenal.

RECYCLED TIRE WALLET

[caption id="attachment_6897" align="alignright" width="155" caption="Recycled Tire Wallet made by artisans in El Salvador"][/caption]

Number three on our list is black, but so very green. This completely recycled, vegan friendly wallet is made from discarded tires. But it looks so much like the standard leather version we thought it would qualify as a green gift that doesn’t stand out as different. Each 9 x 3.5 inch wallet has a slot for money and six slots for credit cards, just like you’d expect. A Fair Trade artisan group in El Salvador makes these wallets, helping provide jobs and living wages in their community. You can buy it ($30)  through the GreenHeartShop in Chicago, at their online store.

Green Heart helps promote artisan craft goods, clothing and food from around the world and in the U.S.

Hyundai said that this week it will begin building a new four-cylinder engine that will be the centerpiece in its goal to becoming the auto industry’s fuel economy leader. The engine, which will be built at Hyundai’s Alabama plant, will debut in the company’s most popular car, the 2011 Sonata.

The company said its new 2.4-liter Theta II GDI engine features gasoline direct injection technology that operates with greater efficiency using less fuel, creating fewer emissions and delivering improved throttle response, all while making more power than a traditional port-injected engine. Hyundai said the 2011 Sonata will deliver 35 miles per gallon in highway driving.

Hyundai had announced in late 2008 that it would lead the industry in meeting newly proposed Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, that would have required a fleet average of 35 mpg by 2020. The company said it planned to reach that target five years early through a combination of new technologies, including hybrids and gasoline direct injection. The Obama administration has since proposed more aggressive standards of 35.5 mpg by 2016, which Hyundai said it supports and plans to meet ahead of schedule.

Hyundai’s Theta I-4 engine family is a proprietary design, engineered in Namyang, Korea and currently in production for applications all over the world at volumes exceeding 2 million annually, the company said. The new Theta II 2.4L GDI engine will deliver an estimated 200 horsepower @ 6,300 rpm and 186 lb.-ft. of torque @4,250 rpm.

The most significant technology in the new engine is direct injection, which uses individual fuel injectors for each cylinder strategically positioned to deliver the optimal fuel charge directly into the combustion chamber. In a traditional multi-port system, gasoline is delivered via the port of each cylinder, where it mixes with air and is drawn into the cylinders when the intake valve opens and the piston moves down. Hyundai said a drawback to the traditional system is when engine speeds increase, the time to open the valve to deliver fuel becomes progressively shorter making accurate delivery more challenging.

GDI avoids that issue and the shorter, more direct path of fuel delivery, allows for greater control of the optimum fuel mixture at the optimum moment, thus improving efficiency. Hyundai said that compared to a conventional engine of the same displacement, GDI delivers 7 percent more torque at low engine rpm’s and 12 percent more torque at the high-end for better take-off and overtaking performance. GDI boosts gas mileage by up to 10 percent compared to a conventional engine.

Hyundai said the new GDI technology will be expanded over time to the entire family of Hyundai gasoline engines.

It’s The Year of Living Dangerously all over again.

[caption id="attachment_6862" align="alignleft" width="250" caption="Orangutan (Photo: Tom Theodore/Dreamstime)"][/caption]

On Tuesday, two journalists were arrested in Sumatra while covering a politically sensitive topic - palm oil harvesting and the ensuing decimation of Southeast Asia’s old-growth, carbon-capturing rainforests, and the subsequent release of giant CO2 pockets that lie beneath the forests and their peat swamps.

More disturbing than the reporters’ deportation, though, is how little we consumers seem to realize that, not only are we what we eat, but when it comes to palm oil, we are eating our own lifeblood. We’re ‘eating’ our oxygen, we’re ‘eating’ our fellow species. We’re consuming our own future by driving up carbon emissions much faster than we can offset them. We are the snake eating its own tail.

Mass deforestation, due to the rapid establishment of palm oil plantations backed by multinational corporations, has recently made Indonesia the third-largest carbon emitter in the world. Think of it, number three  - after the more industrialized China and the United States.

Indonesia’s neighbors, Malaysia and Papaua, New Guinea, also are top producers of palm oil, making Southeast Asia a veritable carbon drain. Because of rapid rainforest loss in these sensitive areas, experts estimate that between 50 and 60 endangered orangutans perish each week, as their habits are destroyed or they are killed by workers. Roughly two football fields worth of rainforests are felled every minute by palm oil plantations, bellowing out stored carbon.

In addition, recent studies show that global deforestation creates one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions; and conversely, that tropical forests now absorb one-fifth of the world’s carbon emissions that are caused by burning fossil fuels.

“Rainforests are one of the biggest ways that carbon gets absorbed from the atmosphere, so rainforests and trees and peat swamps - the whole ecosystem - takes in a large amount of carbon and stores it,” says Margaret Swink, of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), which in the past year has stepped up its protests against companies like Cargill, which uses palm oil in many manufactured foods.

“It only releases when you destroy it - burning being the worst way. When rainforests are cut and burned, you’ve just released millennia of carbon absorption into the air, which is why rainforest destruction is such a threat. …You’ve just released all this carbon into the atmosphere, but because it’s a cycle (remember studying the carbon cycle in fourth-grade science?), you’ve also taken away the thing that was removing carbon from the atmosphere … and so when you replant a palm-oil plantation, it doesn’t absorb as much carbon that those older trees - as that whole ecosystem did” for many thousands of years.

And we, the current people generation, get a double carbon-whammy.

But until, say, two to five years ago, who knew that some of our favorite foods - holiday season or not - contain palm oil derivatives to preserve, add flavor to or fry foods to a golden crispness? Things like cocoa mix, crackers, potato chips, margarine, instant soups, cakes, chocolate bars, cookies, even certain types of granola are all formulated with palm oil.

Yet, as the holidays hover around us and we try to figure out what we’re really giving thanks for, we can take simple steps to slow rainforest destruction. We can learn about campaigns, such as RAN’s recent Call Cargill campaign and check out our pantry for products that rely on palm oil.

“Palm oil is the leading driver of deforestation in the second-largest standing rainforest, which is in Indonesia,” says Swink, who used to work for the Peace Corps in Cameroon; seeing trucks drive past her house, hauling thousand-year-old trees led her to RAN, headquartered in San Francisco.

“There are three areas of tropical rainforests still left in the world - the Amazon, Indonesia and Malaysia. Then there’s the Congo Basin. … But in Southeast Asia, we’re seeing the fastest rate of deforestation. RAN has been looking at the incredible rate of destruction, intersecting that with climate change. And Indonesia is now the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter on the planet, after the U.S. and China. But with the USA it’s fossil fuels and transportation that create the emissions. With Indonesia, it’s mostly deforestation. So when you take it all together, palm oil is a really large threat in terms of deforestation leading to climate change.”

As organizations like RAN, 350.org, Greenpeace, Rising Tide North America , World Wildlife Fund and the Rainforest Alliance amplify the clarion call, some companies are taking note. Gucci Group just declared its commitment to abandon paper products (i.e., those tony shopping bags) from Asian Pulp and Paper - and specifically from Indonesian plantations and rainforests, following Tiffany and a few other luxury brands’ leads.

And Cadbury recently announced that as a direct result of a New Zealand zookeepers’ boycott, it has vowed to dump palm oil and return to cocoa butter (but there’s a catch: that’s only in New Zealand).

[caption id="attachment_6871" align="alignright" width="198" caption="Burning forest to make way for plantations in Sumatra (Photo: Mark Edwards, WWF-Canon)"][/caption]

These companies are responding to the dire situation that’s resulted over the past 70 years of deforestation by various industries, mainly logging and agriculture, in these Southeast Asian rainforests.

Aside from the devastating impacts on climate change, the forest destruction is taking a big toll on the biodiversity of the area. World Wildlife Fund estimates that converting natural forest to palm plantations results in the loss of 80 to 100 percent of the mammal, bird and reptile species in these normally rich ecosystems. (For a good graphic depiction of the rainforest losses, see the WWF’s report on Borneo and Sumatra and maps of the region, which show, for instance, that Sumatra has lost 85 percent of its natural forest.)

All this begs the basic question: Why are palm oil derivatives in so many foods and emulsive products, to begin with?

The answer “is easy,” says Brihannala Morgan, an activist with Rising Tide North America who lived in Indonesia for nine years and is now based in the Bay Area, where she is a graduate student in forest and climate policy at UC-Berkeley.

“Palm oil is the cheapest oil in the world, second only to soybean oil,” she says. “It’s about how much oil you can produce per hectare of land, and you can produce more palm oil per hectare than almost any other oil. So the laws of supply and demand apply. …It’s used not only in foods but in industrial lubricants, biofuels. But, in foods, it’s mostly for preserving. I’m not a food chemist, but all these things have to have some kind of oil, and they pick the cheapest, for the highest profit. In most countries besides the United States - and we’re only responsible for five percent of all palm oil consumed - but in other countries, it’s used for a frying oil - particularly in China and India, which have populations that are becoming wealthier and can afford more fried foods.”

You don’t have to wait for next Halloween to track down energy vampires in your home. Any time of the year will do.

Just follow these Alliance to Save Energy guidelines, which are fun for kids and will surely be enlightening for adults too.

First step, turn off all the lights and appliances in the house. Take a flashlight outside to see if the meter is still running. It probably will be, because you’ve got things on “stand by” all over the house — hair dryers, phones, computers, televisions, DVRs.

Now investigate. Walk around the house with the flashlight and find the little LED lights that indicate an appliance is “ready.” Even in sleep mode, it’s drawing energy and you can

[caption id="attachment_6845" align="alignright" width="106" caption="KillAWatt EZ will tell you how much energy your electronics are gobbling"][/caption]

often tell by feeling the item or the plug-in. Is it warm? It’s drawing energy.

The solution, aside from unplugging individual appliances, is to put equipment on a power strip. Then turn the power strip off whenever possible.

The costs of “phantom energy” are real. The Department of Energy estimates that the constant energy draw of appliances and electronics that aren’t even turned on can account for 20 percent of your energy bill.

According to the Alliance To Save Energy’s worksheet (developed with Energy Star), it costs about $6.85 a year (on average) to keep a VCR on standby and $4.28 for a TV that’s plugged in. Seem like chump change? Multiply those by how many VCRs and TVs there are in the house, then add in all the other clocks, toasters, phones and computers you’ve got plugged into the wall.

If you want a more precise fix on your vampires, consider proving their harm with a KillaWatt, a device that you can plug suspicious appliances into to give you a read out of how many watts are being consumed. The KillaWatt, by P3 International, an electronics firm in New York, is sold in several versions. See the P3 website.

An emerging body of evidence suggests that the changing global climate is already affecting infectious disease transmission patterns. At a symposium today at the 58th annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Washington D.C., experts reported that such changes are expected to have a profound impact on global public health.

“There is concrete evidence that the global climate is changing, and these changes are expected to greatly impact human health as surface temperatures rise, agricultural belts shift, and extreme weather events become more commonplace,” Mary H. Hayden, Ph.D. of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., said in a statement. “Although most scientists agree that climate change is underway, the role it plays in infectious disease transmission is still in contention. The evidence presented today suggests that climate change will exacerbate the challenges of controlling infectious diseases in the developing world.”

Climate change is expected to impact global health through a variety of factors including greater heat stress, air pollution, respiratory disease exacerbation, and changes in the geographic distribution of vector-, food- and water-borne disease.

“The complexity of such influences requires that the next generation of climate and health scientists undergo training to ensure that they can address climate-related public health challenges. Such preparation will be critical as the population of at-risk individuals continues to grow,” said Dr. Hayden, who is a program coordinator of a joint NCAR/US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention postdoctoral fellowship combining public health applications and climate science.

NCAR Director Eric J. Barron, Ph.D., who discussed the potential use of available weather and climate models in health forecasting, noted that “we are moving into the age of ‘decision-making’ with regard to climate change after decades of focusing on reducing uncertainties in attribution and prediction.”

“Health has huge potential and should be first in line for greater investment to improve the decision-making process because of its clear ties to weather and climate,” Dr. Barron said in a statement. “Whereas the medical community has tended to respond in a ‘point-of-service’ manner — reacting to incoming cases with almost no discipline of forecasting — health/climate forecasting has real potential if we can design monitoring algorithms or a robust predictive capability.”

The aim of the symposium, “Changing the Climate: A Data-Driven Discussion About Climate,” was to address the use, utility, and limitations of weather and climate models toward a goal of providing data-driven evidence of the links between weather, climate, specific pathogens and ultimately, human health. The symposium included several evidence-based presentations by speakers from the US Centers Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Columbia University’s International Research Institute on the established effects of climate variability/change on specific climate-sensitive diseases such as meningitis, malaria, plague and other vector-borne bacterial pathogens.