Dr. Eduardo Brondizio will provide an overview of the process and some of the key findings of IPCC for biodiversity*.
Launched in May 2019 after three years of work by over 400 experts from 50+ countries, the Global Assessment is the most comprehensive analysis of the global environment to date, looking past 50 years and scenarios going forward. It covers terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems, it evaluates international agreements on sustainable development and biodiversity, and several multilateral conventions; it looks at interactions between climate change and other drivers of change, and their implications for society; it’s the first assessment to systematically consider the contributions of indigenous and local knowledge and issues relevant to Indigenous peoples and local communities; and, it assess options and approaches going forward.
(* the Global Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of the UN Intergovernamental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services IPBES)
Wednesday, June 19th: The Pharmacology of Capital Punishment
Regardless of one’s position on capital punishment, nearly all people agree that the method should be humane. This was the rationale for the embrace of lethal injection in the 1980s but has proven problematic, with ‘botch’ rates now much higher than for other methods. Much of this comes down to the pharmacology of the drugs used and problems with their administration.
Dr. Alex Straiker will talk about the history and pharmacology of lethal injections in the US.
Four things are different from our usual meetings:
1) We’re starting at 7pm
2) We’re at Hopscotch on Morton & Dodds
3) Hopscotch doesn’t traditionally have food, though they’re working on that and we’ll update this event as more information becomes available They do have coffee, tea, beer, and pastries all the time.
4) We’re on the 3rd, rather than 4th Wednesday, so as not to conflict with Green Drinks