Global Warming 101 with Susan Joy Hassol

— -- Susan Joy Hassol is a climate change communicator known for her ability to translate science into English, making complex issues accessible to policymakers and the public. She is the author of Impacts of A Warming Arctic, the synthesis report of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, on which she worked for four years with 300 scientists from the Arctic and beyond. She testified about the impacts of Arctic warming before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, and served as a spokesperson for the assessment's findings.

In September 2006, Susan was honored with the Climate Institute's first-ever award for excellence in Climate Science Communication.

Susan wrote HBO's global warming documentary, Too Hot Not To Handle, which premiered in April 2006. She was a lead author of Climate Change Impacts on the United States, the synthesis report of the U.S. National Assessment of the Consequences of Climate Change. She co-authored a chapter on Arctic climate impacts for a book titled Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change, published by Cambridge University Press in 2006. Susan served as Associate Editor of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program's report Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere, published in 2006.

Susan is also very interested in solutions to global warming. She authored a chapter on energy efficiency in a book titled Innovative Energy Strategies for CO2 Stabilization, published by Cambridge University Press in 2002. She wrote a feature article titled "A Change of Climate" in Issues in Science and Technology (Journal of the National Academy of Sciences, Spring 2003) focusing on the actions of U.S. states, localities, and corporations in mitigating climate change.

Susan has also written and edited numerous articles, papers, and books for organizations including the United Nations Environment Programme, Scientific Committee On Problems of the Environment, and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. She has served as Environment Fellow for the Aspen Institute, and as Research Associate and Director of Communications for the Aspen Global Change Institute, and has been affiliated with Carnegie Mellon's Center for the Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions of Global Change.