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White House taps Emory expert to speak on Climate Resilience Panel

Idowu (Jola) Ajibade’s presentation begins at the 5:30 mark in the video.

“The climate is changing. We also need to think about ways to change ourselves as a society so we can begin to meet the important challenges ahead of us,” says Idowu (Jola) Ajibade, associate professor in Emory University’s Department of Environmental Sciences.

As a deadly heat waves blanketed parts of the United States, Ajibade spoke on a guest panel of experts for a meeting of the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). PCAST consists of experts from who advise the president on policy matters where the understanding of science, technology and innovation is key.

Idowu (Jola) Ajibade, associate professor in Emory’s Department of Environmental Sciences.

The public meeting, entitled “Social Impact of Research: Climate Resilience,” was livestreamed on July 11 and also recorded.

Ajibade is an environmental and human geographer. She explores how climate change is transforming the lives, livelihoods, social-cultural landscapes and housing access for members of historically marginalized communities.

“If we’re going to build resilience to climate change, we need multiple perspectives, multiple expertise and, certainly multiple methods,” Ajibade explains during her PCAST presentation.

She stresses the need for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines to strive for diversification, strip out structural biases and to join forces with the humanities and social sciences to work towards solutions to climate change. She also calls for centering resident experts and voices of community members within research frameworks in order to translate findings into effective policies that build climate resilience.

“We already know what the data is telling us, that the climate is changing unequivocally,” Ajibade says. “But data don’t change society. People do.”


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