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WELLS — What does a scientist who served as a Highly Qualified Expert for the Defense Department due upon retirement? Move to Maine and write about the experience, of course!

The books are distillations of the First Annual International Technical Workshop on Climate Risk hosted by the former HQE and now editor, Dr. Carole LeBlanc, in Wells in October 2016.

The first book covers environmental, health and societal impacts while the second book focuses on industry and infrastructure.

The editor’s premise is that, long before the 2015 Paris Agreement, many professionals from diverse fields were working to solve the problems of anthropogenic, that is, human-caused climate change.

The 1987 Montreal Protocol, the world’s most successful treaty for atmospheric protection, is now in support of some of the Agreement’s key emission reduction goals. It was time for the seasoned leaders who implemented the Protocol to share their knowledge and wisdom with the next generation before that expertise was lost.

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According to LeBlanc, the purpose of bringing these communities of practice together was to: (1) leverage the many successes to date to inspire future innovations through ‘lessons learned’; (2) ensure that new or updated regulations are timely communicated and economically executed; and (3) identify opportunities for related sustainable development.

The Second Annual International Technical Workshop on Climate Risk was held Oct. 25-26, 2017 in Kennebunk. 

Highlights of that event include keynote speaker and Nobel Prize recipient, Dr. Donald Wuebbles.  Efforts to publish the results of this workshop are currently underway.

The titles, Demystifying Climate Risk, Volumes I and II are available through Amazon and other online retailers or through the publisher, Cambridge Scholars, and their network of distributors including Bertram, Gardners, Baker & Taylor, Ingram, YBP, Inspirees and MHM Limited.

Dr. LeBlanc also serves as Adjunct Professor at the University of New England on the Biddeford campus in the Environmental Studies Department.


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