ACT (the Adaptation to Climate Change Team) is a policy planning initiative from SFU designed to develop timely options for sustainable adaptation to climate change impacts.

Climate change is here, from the pine beetle to West Nile virus to storm damage, bringing unprecedented challenges, but also new opportunities. It is vital that we equip policy-makers with resources that will assist industry, governments, and communities to adapt to impacts we cannot control. SFU has formed ACT in response to this need.

ACT will study nine key climate change-related areas (Biodiversity; Extreme Weather Events and Natural Hazards; Energy Production; Fresh Water Supply; Food Adaptation; Health Risks; New Technologies; Population Displacement; and Sea Level Rise) and consider ways to protect Canadian environmental, economic and social well being throughout its five-year program. Working in conjunction with leading experts, and tapping into the expertise of SFU’s own researchers, ACT will study the problems posed as well as potential solutions, and produce policy recommendations for adaptation.

Climate change is the challenge of a lifetime – it’s time to ACT!

BLOG CONTRIBUTORS

Michelle Harper

ACT’s Administrative Assistant

As ACT’s Administrative Assistant and Logistics Coordinator, Michelle Harper plays a fundamental role in the organization and smooth running of all ACT’s conferences and public events. Michelle is also responsible for ACT’s financial and office administration, and plays an active role in building ACT’s online presence through managing the website, and authoring ACT’s blog and Facebook page.

A recent graduate of Simon Fraser University in Communications and Geography, avid field hockey player, dragon-boater, and all-round keener, Michelle’s previous work in administration and corporate communications are an asset to this role, as is her background experience in large-scale event operations.

Deborah Harford

ACT’s Executive Director

As executive director of ACT (SFU’s Adaptation to Climate Change Team), Deborah Harford is responsible for development of the initiative’s pioneering vision and its unique partnerships with the public and private sectors, as well as overall coordination and management of the program; she also directs and produces ACT’s pioneering policy recommendations for effective adaptation strategies at all levels of government, as well as communication and promotion of the program’s outcomes. Through Deborah’s efforts, ACT has created networks between local, national and international climate change research practitioners, NGOs, industry representatives, all levels of government, First Nations groups and local communities; and high-profile public events such as their recent International Climate Impacts and Responses conference featuring speakers from Africa, South America, Australia and the Arctic. Deborah’s work with ACT has gained her national recognition as a resource for those seeking information on climate change adaptation and practical coping strategies.

Amber Church

ACT Researcher and Masters Student

Amber is a M.Sc. student in Earth Science at SFU. She studies glacier retreat and natural hazards in the Yukon. She founded and co-chaired the International Polar Year Youth Steering Committee (now the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists – APECS). Amber’s passion is climate change. She was part of the official youth delegation to the UN Climate Change Meetings and was one of 200 Canadians selected to be trained by Al Gore to present his Inconvenient Truth slideshow. She travelled to Antarctica in 2006 with Students on Ice as a youth mentor to teach their student expeditionners. She is currently working with SFU’s Adaptation to Climate Change Team, is a member of the International Coordinating Committee for Global Youth Service Day, and is helping to organize the Canadian Science Writers Association Conference.