Webinar: Braving the Storm – How Climate Change Will Affect How and Where We Live

How will climate change affect where – and how – we live? Join an expert panel of demographers as they give a virtual briefing to members of the U.S. Congress that attempts to provide research-based answers to that existential question. “Braving the Storm: How Climate Change Will Affect How and Where We Live” is sponsored by the Population Association of America and the Association of Population Centers and is scheduled for noon ET on December 6.

As climate change accelerates, extreme weather events and natural disasters (hurricanes, drought, forest fires, polar vortexes) have proliferated, and long-term effects—including rising sea levels and other coastal hazards—are becoming more apparent. But what about the impact on demographic change? Who is at risk? What trends have already surfaced due to climate change, and what might be coming just over the horizon? Shifting migration patterns and emerging risks for vulnerable subpopulations in local communities are among the myriad issues that demographers are examining in the context of climate change.

Join this panel of experts as they share their most recent research and respond to questions:

• Sara Curran, professor of international studies at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. She holds a joint appointment as professor of sociology, is director at the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, another joint appointment at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, and is adjunct professor in the Department of Global Health. Curran researches migration, globalization, gender, climate change and adaptation, and development.
• Parfait Eloundou-Enyegue, professor in the Department of Global Development Cornell University. His research agenda broadly addresses the interrelationships between population, social change, and sustainable development.
• Mathew Hauer, assistant professor of sociology at Florida State University. He studies the impacts of climate change on society. Recently, his research has focused on how migration induced by sea level rise could reshape the U.S. population distribution. 

The free, one-hour event will be moderated by Vida Maralani, associate professor and interim director of the Center for the Study of Inequality at Cornell University. Her research is distinctive for bringing demography to bear on the study of social stratification in order to capture the multidimensionality and dynamics of inequality.