Lisa Dilling

Last updated
Lisa Dilling
Alma materPh.D. University of California, Santa Barbara
B.A. Harvard University
Awards Leverhulme Visiting Professorship 2016-2017
Scientific career
Fieldsclimate change, decision making, science policy
Institutions NOAA
NCAR
University of Colorado Boulder
Website https://www.colorado.edu/envs/lisa-dilling

Lisa Dilling is an interdisciplinary scholar who focuses on the energy transition, climate adaptation, decision making, the use of information, and science policy. She aims to improve the effectiveness of policies for climate change. [1] Dilling is Associate Chief Scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, an environmental non-profit that works on climate change, clean air and public health, and supporting the ability of people and nature to thrive.

Contents

Early life and education

Born in Washington State, Dilling moved between the United States and Europe before college. Dilling graduated from the Menlo School in Atherton, California and went on to receive her Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude.| [2] Dilling earned her Ph.D. from University of California, Santa Barbara in biological sciences, where she worked with Alice Alldredge. [3] She went on to work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). [4]

Career and research

Lisa Dilling is known for her research on the usability of science in decision making, particularly in regard to managing climate changes. [1] Specific research topics include: the energy transition, urban and rural water systems, climate resiliency of cities and municipalities, carbon management, geoengineering, and climate adaptation. [4] Dilling studies how we make policy decisions about climate change, and focuses on the use of science in decision making for climate. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

From 1995-2002 Dilling worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the Office of Global Programs, managing a program on carbon cycle science research and collaborating across agencies in the U.S. Global Change Research Program. From 2002-2004 she worked at NCAR, and from 2004-2007 was a visiting fellow with CIRES. [4] Dilling was co-lead of the first State of the Carbon Cycle Report, also known as Synthesis and Assessment Product 2.2. [12]

From 2015 to 2023, Dilling was Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, a Fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), [4] and a member of the Center for Socio-Environmental Futures (C-SEF). From 2014 to 2021, she was director of the Western Water Assessment, a CU Boulder and NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessment (RISA) program that works with decision makers to improve the use of science in managing the impacts of climate variability and climate change on water resources. [13]

Dilling is Associate Chief Scientist/Vice President at the Environmental Defense Fund where she supports teams of scientists who produce cutting-edge research in service of protecting people and the planet. She is a member of the Board on Environmental Change and Society of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Awards and honors

Publications

Lisa Dilling has published numerous articles and a book in her years of work, the majority of which focuses on the use of science and decision making for climate risk . Her earlier work focused on how various factors like marine snow affected marine life, such as zooplankton, and can impact the ocean's ability to cycle carbon. [15] In the last two decades, Dilling has published several papers on carbon management, [16] climate adaptation on public lands, [17] geoengineering, [18] the use of tools in water management, stakeholder needs and building networks for adaptive capacity, and the dynamics of vulnerability. [19] Listed below are some of Dilling's most cited publications:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land use</span> Classification of land resources based on what can be built and on its use

Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as settlements and semi-natural habitats such as arable fields, pastures, and managed woods. Land use by humans has a long history, first emerging more than 10,000 years ago. It has been defined as "the purposes and activities through which people interact with land and terrestrial ecosystems" and as "the total of arrangements, activities, and inputs that people undertake in a certain land type." Land use is one of the most important drivers of global environmental change.

Climate engineering is an umbrella term for both carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation modification, when applied at a planetary scale. However, these two processes have very different characteristics. For this reason, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change no longer uses this overarching term. Carbon dioxide removal approaches are part of climate change mitigation. Solar radiation modification is reflecting some sunlight back to space. All forms of climate engineering cannot be standalone solutions to climate change, but need to be coupled with other forms of climate change mitigation. Some publications place passive radiative cooling into the climate engineering category. This technology increases the Earth's thermal emittance. The media tends to use climate engineering also for other technologies such as glacier stabilization, ocean liming, and iron fertilization of oceans. The latter would modify carbon sequestration processes that take place in oceans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon footprint</span> Concept to quantify greenhouse gas emissions from activities or products

A carbon footprint (or greenhouse gas footprint) is a calculated value or index that makes it possible to compare the total amount of greenhouse gases that an activity, product, company or country adds to the atmosphere. Carbon footprints are usually reported in tonnes of emissions (CO2-equivalent) per unit of comparison. Such units can be for example tonnes CO2-eq per year, per kilogram of protein for consumption, per kilometer travelled, per piece of clothing and so forth. A product's carbon footprint includes the emissions for the entire life cycle. These run from the production along the supply chain to its final consumption and disposal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocean fertilization</span> Type of climate engineering

Ocean fertilization or ocean nourishment is a type of technology for carbon dioxide removal from the ocean based on the purposeful introduction of plant nutrients to the upper ocean to increase marine food production and to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Ocean nutrient fertilization, for example iron fertilization, could stimulate photosynthesis in phytoplankton. The phytoplankton would convert the ocean's dissolved carbon dioxide into carbohydrate, some of which would sink into the deeper ocean before oxidizing. More than a dozen open-sea experiments confirmed that adding iron to the ocean increases photosynthesis in phytoplankton by up to 30 times.

Tropical ecology is the study of the relationships between the biotic and abiotic components of the tropics, or the area of the Earth that lies between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The tropical climate experiences hot, humid weather and rainfall year-round. While many might associate the region solely with the rainforests, the tropics are home to a wide variety of ecosystems that boast a great wealth of biodiversity, from exotic animal species to seldom-found flora. Tropical ecology began with the work of early English naturalists and eventually saw the establishment of research stations throughout the tropics devoted to exploring and documenting these exotic landscapes. The burgeoning ecological study of the tropics has led to increased conservation education and programs devoted to the climate. Tropical ecology provides a wealth of natural resources to humans, this includes contributing to the carbon cycle, with the ability to store 50% of carbon emissions as well as turnover 40% of global oxygen. However, despite the natural services provided by tropical ecology, deforestation is a threat of tropical rainforests. Any plant of interest can be exploited for commercial reasons and extraction of these specific plant species can be at a rapid rate without time for healthy regeneration. Most of the global plant biodiversity is hosted in tropical areas, however studies in this area is mostly covered by scientist from Northern countries. Inclusion of scientist from countries where rainforest is present is heavily encouraged because it extends global knowledge and research which advances scientific contributions, benefiting tropical ecology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solar radiation modification</span> Reflection of sunlight to reduce global warming

Solar radiation modification (SRM), or solar geoengineering, is a type of climate engineering in which sunlight would be reflected back to outer space to offset human-caused climate change. There are multiple potential approaches, with stratospheric aerosol injection being the most-studied, followed by marine cloud brightening. SRM could be a temporary measure to limit climate-change impacts while greenhouse gas emissions are reduced and carbon dioxide is removed but would not be a substitute for reducing emissions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine cloud brightening</span> Proposed cloud-seeding technique

Marine cloud brightening also known as marine cloud seeding and marine cloud engineering is a proposed solar radiation management climate engineering technique that would make clouds brighter, reflecting a small fraction of incoming sunlight back into space in order to offset anthropogenic global warming. Along with stratospheric aerosol injection, it is one of the two solar radiation management methods that may most feasibly have a substantial climate impact. The intention is that increasing the Earth's albedo, in combination with greenhouse gas emissions reduction, carbon dioxide removal, and adaptation, would reduce climate change and its risks to people and the environment. If implemented, the cooling effect is expected to be felt rapidly and to be reversible on fairly short time scales. However, technical barriers remain to large-scale marine cloud brightening. There are also risks with such modification of complex climate systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stratospheric aerosol injection</span> Putting particles in the stratosphere to reflect sunlight to limit global heating

Stratospheric aerosol injection is a proposed method of solar geoengineering to reduce global warming. This would introduce aerosols into the stratosphere to create a cooling effect via global dimming and increased albedo, which occurs naturally from volcanic winter. It appears that stratospheric aerosol injection, at a moderate intensity, could counter most changes to temperature and precipitation, take effect rapidly, have low direct implementation costs, and be reversible in its direct climatic effects. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes that it "is the most-researched [solar geoengineering] methodagreement that it could limit warming to below 1.5 °C (2.7 °F)." However, like other solar geoengineering approaches, stratospheric aerosol injection would do so imperfectly and other effects are possible, particularly if used in a suboptimal manner.

David W. Keith is a professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. He joined the University of Chicago in April 2023. Keith previously served as the Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics for Harvard University's Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and professor of public policy for the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University. Early contributions include development of the first atom interferometer and a Fourier-transform spectrometer used by NASA to measure atmospheric temperature and radiation transfer from space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental issues</span> Concerns and policies regarding the biophysical environment

Environmental issues are disruptions in the usual function of ecosystems. Further, these issues can be caused by humans or they can be natural. These issues are considered serious when the ecosystem cannot recover in the present situation, and catastrophic if the ecosystem is projected to certainly collapse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Micro-sustainability</span> Individual or small scale sustainability efforts

Micro-sustainability is the portion of sustainability centered around small scale environmental measures that ultimately affect the environment through a larger cumulative impact. Micro-sustainability centers on individual efforts, behavior modification, education and creating attitudinal changes, which result in an environmentally conscious individual. Micro-sustainability encourages sustainable changes through "change agents"—individuals who foster positive environmental action locally and inside their sphere of influence. Examples of micro-sustainability include recycling, power saving by turning off unused lights, programming thermostats for efficient use of energy, reducing water usage, changing commuting habits to use less fossil fuels or modifying buying habits to reduce consumption and waste. The emphasis of micro-sustainability is on an individual's actions, rather than organizational or institutional practices at the systemic level. These small local level actions have immediate community benefits if undertaken on a widespread scale and if imitated, they can have a cumulative broad impact.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oceanic carbon cycle</span> Ocean/atmosphere carbon exchange process

The oceanic carbon cycle is composed of processes that exchange carbon between various pools within the ocean as well as between the atmosphere, Earth interior, and the seafloor. The carbon cycle is a result of many interacting forces across multiple time and space scales that circulates carbon around the planet, ensuring that carbon is available globally. The Oceanic carbon cycle is a central process to the global carbon cycle and contains both inorganic carbon and organic carbon. Part of the marine carbon cycle transforms carbon between non-living and living matter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate change and Indigenous peoples</span>

Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples describes how climate change disproportionately impacts Indigenous peoples around the world when compared to non-Indigenous peoples. These impacts are particularly felt in relation to health, environments, and communities. Some Indigenous scholars of climate change argue that these disproportionately felt impacts are linked to ongoing forms of colonialism. Indigenous peoples found throughout the world have strategies and traditional knowledge to adapt to climate change, through their understanding and preservation of their environment. These knowledge systems can be beneficial for their own community's adaptation to climate change as expressions of self-determination as well as to non-Indigenous communities.

Geotherapy is the metaphor that earth's Biophysical environmental problems, like global warming, can be soundly diagnosed and corrected, in much the same way that a medical doctor diagnoses and heals a human body by restoring imbalances in a patient's health. Geotherapy refers to the process of restoring the earth's health by strengthening natural biogeochemical and physiological mechanisms that regulate the earth's planetary life support systems and control global temperature, sea level, atmospheric composition, soil fertility, food, and fresh water supplies. Geotherapy views human health and quality of life as a part of, and hence dependent on, the ecosystem services provided by healthy biomes. It also recognizes the urgent need to regenerate the earth's severely damaged ecosystem services for a sustainable future.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shared Socioeconomic Pathways</span> Climate change scenarios

Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) are climate change scenarios of projected socioeconomic global changes up to 2100 as defined in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report on climate change in 2021. They are used to derive greenhouse gas emissions scenarios with different climate policies. The SSPs provide narratives describing alternative socio-economic developments. These storylines are a qualitative description of logic relating elements of the narratives to each other. In terms of quantitative elements, they provide data accompanying the scenarios on national population, urbanization and GDP. The SSPs can be quantified with various Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) to explore possible future pathways both with regards to socioeconomic and climate pathways.

Susana Mourato is a professor of environmental economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She holds a leader position at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

Xuemei Bai (白雪梅) is a professor of Urban Environment and Human Ecology at the Australian National University. She was the winner of the 2018 Volvo Environmental Prize, and is an elected fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lorraine Whitmarsh</span> British psychologist and environmental scientist

Lorraine Elisabeth Whitmarsh is a British psychologist and environmental scientist at the University of Bath. She serves as Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations. Her research considers how the public engage with climate change, energy and transport.

Sarah Burch is a Canadian environmental scientist who is Canada Research Chair at the University of Waterloo. Her research considers strategies to respond to climate change at the community scale. She is a lead author for the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.

Karen Fisher is a New Zealand human geographer, and is a full professor at the University of Auckland, specialising in freshwater and marine socio-ecological systems.

References

  1. 1 2 "ENVS Lisa Dilling". www.colorado.edu/envs. 18 November 2015. Retrieved 2023-03-05.
  2. ↑ Dilling, Lisa (1989). "An ontogenetic study of the jaw mechanism and feeding modes in Amphiprion frenatus and A. polymnus". Harvard University.
  3. ↑ Dilling, Lisa (March 1997). "Consumption and Fragmentation of Marine Snow by Euphausiids and Copepods". University of California, Santa Barbara.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Lisa DillingCIRES | Lisa Dilling". cires.colorado.edu/council-fellows/lisa-dilling. 29 May 2015. Retrieved 2023-03-05.
  5. ↑ Dilling, L; Daly, M; Travis, W; Ray, A; Wilhelmi, O (March 2023). "The role of adaptive capacity in incremental and transformative adaptation in three large U.S. urban water systems". Global Environmental Change. 79: 102649. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102649 . ISSN   0959-3780. S2CID   256967594.
  6. ↑ Dilling, L; Morss, R; Wilhelmi, O (September 2017). "Learning to Expect Surprise: Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Beyond". Journal of Extreme Events. 04 (3): 1771001. doi:10.1142/s2345737617710014. ISSN   2345-7376.
  7. ↑ Averyt, Kristen; Derner, Justin D.; Dilling, Lisa; Guerrero, Rafael; Joyce, Linda; McNeeley, Shannon; McNie, Elizabeth; Morisette, Jeffrey; Ojima, Dennis (May 2018). "Regional Climate Response Collaboratives: Multi-Institutional Support for Climate Resilience". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 99 (5): 891–898. Bibcode:2018BAMS...99..891A. doi:10.1175/bams-d-17-0183.1. ISSN   0003-0007.
  8. ↑ Wibeck, Victoria; Hansson, Anders; Anshelm, Jonas; Asayama, Shinichiro; Dilling, Lisa; Feetham, Pamela M.; Hauser, Rachel; Ishii, Atsushi; Sugiyama, Masahiro (2017-09-20). "Making sense of climate engineering: a focus group study of lay publics in four countries". Climatic Change. 145 (1–2): 1–14. Bibcode:2017ClCh..145....1W. doi: 10.1007/s10584-017-2067-0 . ISSN   0165-0009.
  9. ↑ Smith, Rebecca; Kasprzyk, Joseph; Dilling, Lisa (2017-09-01). "Participatory Framework for Assessment and Improvement of Tools (ParFAIT): Increasing the impact and relevance of water management decision support research". Environmental Modelling & Software. 95: 432–446. doi: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.05.004 . ISSN   1364-8152.
  10. ↑ Dilling, Lisa; Lemos, Maria Carmen (May 2011). "Creating usable science: Opportunities and constraints for climate knowledge use and their implications for science policy". Global Environmental Change. 21 (2): 680–689. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2010.11.006. ISSN   0959-3780.
  11. ↑ Dilling, Lisa; Doney, Scott C.; Edmonds, Jae; Gurney, Kevin R.; Harriss, Robert; Schimel, David; Stephens, Britton; Stokes, Gerald (November 2003). "The Role of Carbon Cycle Observations and Knowledge in Carbon Management". Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 28 (1): 521–558. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.207.1211 . doi:10.1146/annurev.energy.28.011503.163443. ISSN   1543-5938.
  12. ↑ "State of the Carbon Cycle Report" (PDF). www.globalcarbonproject.org. Retrieved 2023-03-05.
  13. ↑ Combest-Friedman, Chelsea; Nierenberg, Claudia; Simpson, Caitlin (2019-08-03). "Building a learning network:reflections from the RISA program". Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. 39: 160–166. Bibcode:2019COES...39..160C. doi: 10.1016/j.cosust.2019.10.006 . ISSN   1877-3435. S2CID   213419634.
  14. ↑ "Knauss Fellowship Programs". seagrant.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
  15. ↑ Dilling, Lisa; Wilson, Jacqueline; Steinberg, Deborah; Alldredge, Alice (1998-09-03). "Feeding by the euphausiid Euphausia pacifica and the copepod Calanus pacificus on marine snow". Marine Ecology Progress Series. 170: 189–201. Bibcode:1998MEPS..170..189D. doi: 10.3354/meps170189 . ISSN   0171-8630.
  16. ↑ Dilling, Lisa; Doney, Scott C.; Edmonds, Jae; Gurney, Kevin R.; Harriss, Robert; Schimel, David; Stephens, Britton; Stokes, Gerald (November 2003). "The Role of Carbon Cycle Observations and Knowledge in Carbon Management". Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 28 (1): 521–558. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.207.1211 . doi:10.1146/annurev.energy.28.011503.163443. ISSN   1543-5938.
  17. ↑ Ellenwood, Mikaela S.; Dilling, Lisa; Milford, Jana B. (2012-03-22). "Managing United States Public Lands in Response to Climate Change: A View From the Ground Up". Environmental Management. 49 (5): 954–967. doi:10.1007/s00267-012-9829-2. ISSN   0364-152X. PMID   22437431. S2CID   18647603.
  18. ↑ Dilling, Lisa; Hauser, Rachel (2013-07-16). "Governing geoengineering research: why, when and how?". Climatic Change. 121 (3): 553–565. Bibcode:2013ClCh..121..553D. doi:10.1007/s10584-013-0835-z. ISSN   0165-0009. S2CID   12862891.
  19. ↑ "Lisa Dilling - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
  20. ↑ Dilling, Lisa; Lemos, Maria Carmen (May 2011). "Creating usable science: Opportunities and constraints for climate knowledge use and their implications for science policy". Global Environmental Change. 21 (2): 680–689. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2010.11.006. ISSN   0959-3780.
  21. ↑ Moser, Susanne C.; Dilling, Lisa (December 2004). "Making Climate HOT". Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development. 46 (10): 32–46. Bibcode:2004ESPSD..46j..32M. doi:10.1080/00139150409605820. ISSN   0013-9157. S2CID   153492974.
  22. ↑ Oxford handbook of climate change and society. Dryzek, John S., 1953-, Norgaard, Richard B., 1943-, Schlosberg, David. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press. 2011. ISBN   9780199566600. OCLC   694395525.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  23. ↑ Moser, Susanne C.; Dilling, Lisa, eds. (2007). Creating a Climate for Change. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511535871. ISBN   9780511535871.
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