More than 200 people have already signed up to hear U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, North Carolina Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and more than a dozen other national and local experts at the Nicholas Institute conference, "The Future of Water in North Carolina: Strategies for Sustaining Abundant and Clean Water," March 1, 2007, in Raleigh. The conference will bring together experts from across the country to discuss what North Carolina's leaders can do to protect the state's water quality and make sure there will be enough clean water to meet the future needs of its rapidly growing population. For more information, click here. 

Brian Murray, director for economic analysis, gave an invited plenary address at the 4th USDA Greenhouse Gas Conference, Feb. 6-8 in Baltimore. The three-day conference brought together hundreds of experts from science, industry, agriculture, government and non-governmental agencies to discuss ways to position forestry and agriculture to meet the challenges of climate change. Murray's topic was, "That's Not What I Mean: Bringing Science to Policy in a Politicized and Media-Savvy World."  To learn more, click here. 

Gabriele Hegerl, associate research professor at the Nicholas School, was a coordinating lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 4th Assessment Report. The report, released earlier this month, concluded it is very likely that human activity is the dominant factor behind global warming. Hegerl is one of many Duke faculty members who work with the Nicholas Institute on climate change and other policy-related science topics. She and Roni Avissar, W.H. Gardner professor of civil and engineering are slated to testify in coming weeks before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality on the results of the IPCC report. 

MeadWestvaco Corp., a global packaging company with operations in more than 29 countries, has pledged $1 million to support the Climate Change Policy Partnership. The partnership is a four-year initiative that pools the expertise of the Nicholas Institute with other academic and corporate partners. Its mission is to provide unbiased data and analyses on climate change to government, corporate and environmental leaders. MeadWestvaco's pledge will support research and policy analysis on issues relating to the impact of climate change on forest resources. To learn more, click here.