Features
Nobel Prize Lustre Reflected at Guelph
U of G geographer and climate change expert enjoys vicarious share of
2007 Nobel Peace Prize
BY ANDREW VOWLES
About $400: That's what geography professor Barry Smit calculates somewhat tongue-in-cheek as his — or perhaps the University's — share of this year's Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Referring to the efforts of numerous researchers underpinning the United Nations body's deliberations and periodic reports, he says: “There were about 2,000 scientists involved. I was one of them.”
This fall, the IPCC was chosen to share the Nobel Peace Prize with environmental activist and former U.S. vice-president Al Gore for their work in compiling and disseminating information about human-made climate change. In its citation, the Nobel committee wrote that climate change may cause large-scale migration and increase competition for scarce resources, leading to heightened danger of violent conflicts or war.
Smit was a lead author in the IPCC's fourth assessment report, published earlier this year. That work was just one aspect of his studies of environmental change that also saw him named to lead a research group studying changing Arctic communities as part of the International Polar Year (IPY).
The first IPCC report, published in 1990, sparked international negotiations that led to adoption of the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and, later, the Kyoto Protocol.
Smit has been an IPCC author on adaptation to climate change since 1992. This year's report also included contributions from U of G researchers Johanna Wandel, James Ford and Tristan Pearce.
In a press release following the Nobel Prize announcement in October, IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri said: “This is an honour that goes to all the scientists and authors who have contributed to the work of the IPCC.”
The prize will be presented in Oslo Dec. 10, and 25 representatives from the IPCC will be on hand. Smit, who is currently in Indonesia for the UN Climate Change Conference, was not among the 25 chosen by lottery to attend.
The Guelph geographer has written numerous research papers and advises on climate change issues to federal and provincial agencies and international organizations. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Environmental Change and serves as director of the Canadian Climate Impacts and Adaptation Research Council Network's agriculture node.
Smit says the original climate framework agreement was intended to underline responsibilities for tackling climate change, including the roles of developed nations in reducing greenhouse gases and helping poorer countries with more sustainable development.
But developed nations, including Canada, have been slow to meet those goals, he says.
Noting that Canada has fallen far short of its greenhouse-gas reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol, he adds: “Canada has done a poor job of meeting that particular commitment. It would be wonderful if Canada would re-establish itself as a credible player and demonstrate action in its own backyard. We used to play a leading role in helping countries vulnerable to climate change effects, but we are now seen internationally as just standing on the sidelines, or worse.”
Under the IPY program, Smit also co-leads a project called “Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in the Arctic Regions.” The project involves researchers in northern countries — Canada, the United States, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Greenland, Russia and Iceland — in assessing how sensitive Arctic communities are to such forces as climate change and how those communities might adapt to changes. The group has received $1.4 million for the Canadian IPY component. Smit says the project is expected to yield policy and management ideas for coping with changes in northern communities.
Canadian members had already been working together under ArcticNet, a Network of Centres of Excellence involving more than 100 researchers from 27 universities along with public and private partners. That project is intended to recommend strategies to help Canadian Arctic communities deal with climate change and globalization.
Smit leads an ArcticNet project on adapting to change. For that work, he has visited Iqaluit and Arctic Bay in Nunavut. Comparing his experiences there with his work in African countries, he says he sees people living more closely attuned to the “rhythm” of the natural environment — something foreign to many southern researchers. Talk about adaptation, he says: “That's a lot of adjustment for someone like me.”