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Show Notes

One of the most obvious markers of climate change has been the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events in recent years. On the tenth episode of Not Cool, Ariel takes a closer look at the research linking climate change and extreme events — and, in turn, linking extreme events and socioeconomic patterns. She’s joined by Stephanie Herring, a climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration whose work on extreme event attribution has landed her on Foreign Policy magazine’s list of Top 100 Global Thinkers. Stephanie discusses the changes she’s witnessed in the field of attribution research, the concerning trends that have begun to emerge, the importance of data in the decision-making process, and more.

Topics discussed include:

• Extreme events & how they're defined
• Attribution research
• Risk management
• Selection bias in climate research
• Insurance analysis
• Compound events and impacts
• Knowns and unknowns

References discussed include:

• Explaining Extreme Events from a Climate Perspective
• Observing Mother Nature, Stephanie Herring
• U.S. Global Change Research Program Climate and Health Assessment, Extreme Events Chapter
• IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 ºC

We've seen more people start to ask the question, "Is there a linkage between that impact of climate change and some kind of socioeconomic factor?" — building this bridge between the pure climate change science component and actually connecting that to, "Why does it matter to the world? Why does it matter to people and humans and our societies?"

~ Stephanie Herring