Season 1, Episode 1

Deborah Lawrence on Forests and the Climate

On this episode of Free Range, Mike Livermore speaks with Dr. Deborah Lawrence, a Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia, about her research on land use and the connection between deforestation and climate change. In this discussion, Lawrence provides an in-depth explanation of the role forests play in affecting the global climate and then discusses how climate scientists use mathematical modeling to project the future of climate change.

Episode is an appropriate teaching tool for but not limited to the following topics & courses: climate modeling and history, environmental science, habitat protection

Discussion Questions

  • How do economic interests, like logging and agriculture, conflict or align with forest conservation and reforestation objectives?
  • How might a global carbon market, where carbon credits are bought and sold, impact reforestation and forest management efforts?
  • What are the potential social impacts of large-scale reforestation projects on agriculturalist indigenous and local communities?
  • What are the primary uncertainties in integrating economic feedbacks into climate models?
  • How do assumptions about future technological developments or market behaviors impact the results of integrated climate-economy models?
  • Dr. Lawrence told a story about how farmers in Indonesia began cutting more forest than they had in past in order to secure land tenure. This decision ended up being very profitable for them. How can certain land use policies and traditions encourage or discourage forest protections or reforestation? 
  • Who should own protected forests and lands designated for reforestation? Can such use be sufficiently incentivized with private ownership? Or should the state own this land directly?
  • Livermore and Lawrence discuss the incredible complexity of climate models and the challenges of accounting for all parameters. Climate models have often been disparaged as inadequate or misleading. Do you believe that climate models are basically correct, and that whatever errors there may be can largely be explained by lack of fidelity in data? Or are there significant assumptions or informational gaps that make you more skeptical?

Additional Readings