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Recent conferences attended

Global Climate Change: National Security Implications
2nd Alexander von Humboldt International Conference
Prototype Training Workshop for Water Affairs

Welcome to Michael Glantz's Home Page

Michael (Mickey) Glantz is a Senior Scientist and was the Director of the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group, a program at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) for 17 years. When he first came to NCAR in 1974, he looked quite different. He is interested in how climate affects society and how society affects climate, especially in how the interaction between climate anomalies and human activities affect quality of life issues.

Mickey at COP10 in Argentina

Most Recent Updates

Mickey is experimenting with some different ways to communicate with the scientific community, as well as the general public, and has created a new publication entitled QUICK. It is available here in PDF and its size is about 2MB. (2 April 2007)

Mickey organized a workshop for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Hanoi, Vietnam, in December 2006. A report has been prepared and is available on the website. (28 February 2007)

Mickey, in cooperation with APN, NOAA's Office of Global Programs, and NCAR hosted a workshop in Bangkok, Thailand, on the effects of climate change on seasonality and environmental hazards in the region. For more information, see the website. (28 March 2006)

Glantz and CIIFEN hosted a workshop in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on El Niño Early Warning for Sustainable Development in Pacific Rim Countries and Islands. (1 September 2004)

Usable Science 8: Early Warning Do's and Don'ts was held in Shanghai, China, and organized by Mickey and the Chinese Meteorological Service. The final report is now available on line and in HTML. (15 November 2003)

Climate Affairs: A Primer is Mickey's latest book, which was released in May 2003. This link gives you more information about the book and sends you to the publisher so that you can order a copy. (1 May 2003)

La Niña and Its Impacts: Facts and Speculation, edited by Mickey, has been released by UN University Press. This book is based on a meeting of researchers, forecasters, and users of La Niña forecasts held in July 1998. (11 September 2002)

A meeting on Water, Climate, and Development Issues in the Amudarya Basin website is on line and contains recommendations for the area based on workshop deliberations. The meeting was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 18-19 June 2002. (22 July 2002)

The Climate Affairs website has been expanded with the addition of more information about the concept, as well as links to two workshops that have been held on Climate Affairs during 2002. (21 March 2002)

On 22 January 2002, Boulder's Daily Camera honored Mickey with the 2002 Award for Environment. See more about this honor at 2002_pacesetter. (1 February 2002)

On 15 May 1999, a 19-month study was launched on the impacts of the 1997-98 El Niño event on 15 countries. This study was a partnership among UN agencies in addition to ESIG, the WMO and the IDNDR. See the website at www.esig.ucar.edu/un/. A summary of the results was placed on this website at the end of 2000, and a book (with accompanying CD) on the results was released in October 2001. (25 October 2001)

Currents of Change: El Nino and La Nina Impacts on Climate and Society was released in October 2000, a comprehensive update of the 1996 edition of the book. This book explains in simple terms what El Niño and La Niño are, how their effects might be forecasted, and the far-reaching impacts the ENSO cycle has on all of us. (1 February 2001)

Global Environmental Problems in the Caspian Region. The Caspian region is politically interesting and sensitive for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the most prominent reason relates to its large-scale oil reserves that are coveted by many nations. It is also of great interest to environmental groups concerned about the impacts of oil exploration on the sea and its biological resources. This paper explores many of these sensitive issues. (31 March 2000)

ESIG publishes the ENSO Signal and the Network Newsletter four times a year, with financial support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Global Programs. Glantz is the Editor of both of these publications. They are available both in hard copy and electronic versions. (18 January 2000)

Creeping Environmental Problems and Sustainable Development in the Aral Sea Basin This multidisciplinary book is the first to comprehensively describe the slow onset of low-grade but incremental changes which affected the Aral Sea Basin. Edited by Michael H. Glantz. (30 March 1999)

Mickey organized the La Niña Summit . A workshop supported by the United Nations University, UNEP, NSF, and NCAR, it reviewed the causes and consequences of cold events. The workshop was held in Boulder, Colorado, USA 15-17 July 1998, and led to the release in 2002 of a book.

He organized a Summer Colloquium on A Systems Approach to El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO): Oceanic, Atmospheric, Societal, Environmental, and Policy Perspectives which was held between 20 July and 1 August 1997 in Boulder, Colorado.

His research relates to:

• African drought; desertification; food production problems and prospects;
• Societal impacts of climate anomalies related to El Niño events; the use of El Niño-related teleconnections to forecast these impacts;
• Developing methods of forecasting possible societal responses to the regional impacts of climate change; and
• The use of climate-related information for economic development.

He has also coordinated joint research in the Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union, with a special interest in the Aral Sea basin. In 1999, Cambridge University Press published a book he edited on "Creeping Environmental Problems and Sustainable Development in the Aral Sea Basin" (see above).

He has edited several books and is the author of numerous articles on issues related to climate, environment, and policy. He organizes multidisciplinary, multinational workshops on climate-related issues. Dr Glantz used to write a column for the Boulder Planet. He maintains those columns and new ones on the "Fragilecologies" web site. Prior to that, he wrote a biweekly newspaper column, "Environmental Minute," for the Boulder Daily Camera.

Other books that Dr. Glantz has published are:

• Scientific, Environmental, and Political Issues in the Circum-Caspian Region (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997)
• Drought Follows the Plow: Cultivating Marginal Areas (Cambridge University Press, 1994)
• The Role of Regional Organizations in the Context of Climate Change (Springer-Verlag, 1994)
• Climate Variability, Climate Change and Fisheries (Cambridge University Press, 1992)
• ENSO Teleconnections Linking Worldwide Climate Anomalies: Scientific Basis and Societal Impact (Cambridge University Press, 1990)
• Societal Responses to Regional Climate Change: Forecasting by Analogy (Westview Press, 1988)
• Drought and Hunger in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 1987 and 1988)

You can write to Mickey directly at glantz@ucar.edu

Center for Capacity Building (CCB)
National Center for Atmospheric Research
3450 Mitchell Lane
Boulder, Colorado USA 80301
Tel: 303-497-8119; Fax: 303-497-8125
Email: glantz@ucar.edu
www.ccb.ucar.edu/glantz/