Trends in Green Chemistry Open Access

Bowtie analysis of global warming: Linking mitigation to adaptation

Joint Event on 3^rd Annual Congress on Pollution and Global Warming & 4^th International Conference on Past and Present Research Systems of Green Chemistry

October 16-18, 2017 Atlanta, USA

Melvin L Myers

Emory University, USA

Keynote: Trends in Green chem

Abstract:

Global warming is a serious and grave societal issue and its scientific basis is well established. The core problem is emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) such as CO2. Bowtie analysis provides an overarching visual representation that associates and communicates the causes of the global warming hazard with its effects. It focuses on global warming as a risk event caused by the threat of anthropomorphic GHG emissions. Multiple threats are tied to multiple consequences at a nexus point at the center of the Bowtie. The threats include emissions of CO2, CH4, N2O and CFCs into the troposphere. A short list of consequences includes increased atmospheric heat, rising oceans, weather extremes and epidemics. Mitigation strategies such as innovations for the creative destruction of GHG emitting technologies are mapped against lines that connect the threats to the global warming risk event at the center. Likewise, adaptation strategies such as building resilient structures are mapped onto the lines that connect the risk event to its consequences. Factors that escalate the problem of global warming are considered as tangential to the success of the strategies such as the threat of the denial of global warming and its consequences.

Biography :

Melvin L Myers is an Engineer who served as a US Public Health Service Officer in the Environmental Protection Agency at its creation and for 10 years thereafter and at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 20 years. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Emory University where he taught Environmental and Occupational Health Policy for 25 years. During 2006-2014, he held the position of Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health as a Research Engineer at the University of Kentucky where he was a Principle Investigator for Aquacultural Safety and Health project. He currently holds a courtesy appointment at the University of Florida and is engaged on a seafood worker safety and health project.