Panel to Air Opinions on Warmer Earth

UC Irvine Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone will moderate a public discussion on global warming Friday featuring three renowned experts on the political and economic implications of climate change.

Cicerone, himself an expert in the subject, said the event will be unlike most discussions of global warming because it will not focus on scientific or doomsday predictions.

“It’s a very constructive approach to what I think has become a growing problem in the U.S.--the whole discussion has been polarized,” the chancellor said Wednesday.

“Some people think climate change is . . . going to be catastrophic and business is to blame for the problem. On the other side, the other extreme, there are people who say there is no climate problem. The suspicion is very deep.

“What’s been lacking is people . . . who look at the facts as they are and say, ‘Where does this lead us?’ ”

Members of the panel are Eileen Claussen, executive director of the Pew Center on Global Climate; William J. Merrell, president of the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment; and Robert T. Watson, director for environment and head of the Environment Sector Board at the World Bank.

It will be moderated by Cicerone, who holds the university’s chair in Earth System Science named for founding Chancellor Daniel G. Aldrich.

The discussion will take place from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at the Beckman Center for the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, 100 Academy Way, Irvine. Information: (949) 824-6455.