This event is intended to educate the state’s legal and policy communities and the public on local climate impacts and associated costs now facing communities and taxpayers, and to initiate a dialogue on the growing trend of climate damages litigation in the U.S. Panelists will discuss the extent of climate harms in New Jersey as well as the scientific basis for holding the fossil fuel industry accountable for them. Panelists will also offer legal and community perspectives on damages litigation as a means to shift some of the burden from taxpayers to polluters.

Panel members will include Bob Kopp, director of the Rutgers University Institute of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences; Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science with the Union of Concerned Scientists Climate & Energy Program; and Jonathan Abady, a partner with Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP. The discussion will be moderated by Monmouth University Rechnitz Family/Urban Coast Institute Endowed Chair in Marine and Environmental Law and Policy Randall Abate. The names of additional speakers will soon follow.

The event will take place from 3:30-5:15 p.m. at the Wilson Hall Auditorium. A free reception will follow.  For more information, contact Aliya Satku at asatku@monmouth.edu or (732) 263-5662.

Registration is now open for the Atlantic Estuarine Research Society (AERS) Spring Meeting, to be held March 26-28 at Monmouth University. With a theme of “Estuarine Science in a Changing Climate,” the event will feature expert presentations, networking opportunities, a poster session, field trips and a concurrent Margaret A. Davidson Coastal Careers Workshop on March 26.

AERS brings together students, scientists, managers, and educators from the states of Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington, D.C., to discuss estuarine and coastal environmental issues and policies. The group’s mission is to a foster broader interest in our environment by increasing public awareness of current issues.

Among the planned field trips are a walking and birding tour of Sandy Hook, a Cheesequake State Park and Matawan Creek shark attack tour, and a ride aboard Monmouth University’s research vessel Heidi Lynn Sculthorpe in the Sandy Hook Bay area. Keynote speakers include Rutgers University Climate Institute Co-Director Anthony Broccoli, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary Senior Science Director Danielle Kreeger, and Monmouth University Marine and Environmental Biology and Policy Program Director John Tiedemann. Participants may submit abstracts until Feb. 18 for oral presentations or poster presentations.

Students are eligible for discounted registration costs and early bird rates are available through Feb. 22. Registration will also include an opening night social and a day two continental breakfast, lunch and evening banquet.

Separate registration is required for the career workshop, which will feature a morning of talks on career options, employment prospects, successful pathways toward local opportunities and opportunities around the nation, as well as inspirational testimonies from coastal professionals. The afternoon will offer a series of smaller group discussions about various skills needed to succeed, such as leadership, networking, mentors, publishing, resumes, and more. Students and young professionals in the coastal and environmental field are encouraged to attend.