History of Our Work

Founded in 2000, Clean Air-Cool Planet began work on adaptation in 2003 when we hosted, in cooperation with the American Society for Horticultural Science, a symposium on Impacts of Climate Change on Horticulture. That first-of-its-kind meeting brought together experts in the field to discuss the likely affects of climate change and practical responses.

In 2006, as a result of a two-year program bringing representatives from US cities - including big ones like New York, Boston, and Pittsburgh - to see how Canadian cities were acting to reduce energy use and greenhouse gases emissions, we helped to host, with the Town of Guilford, CT, a day-long symposium on sea-level rise.

The success of the horticulture conference led, in 2006 and 2007, to a joint project with Cornell University and the University of Vermont to mount a program (and website) on Climate Change and Agriculture: Promoting Practical and Profitable Responses.

In 2009, following Congressional testimony about new science from Greenland and Antarctica indicating that sea-level rise of a meter or more is possible in only 100 years, we mounted a new program including mapping, science, and policy discussions. We "took the show on the road" to eight vulnerable cities on the eastern seaboard, from Portland, Maine, to Miami and Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida.

That "Hip-Boot Tour" brought the latest science - delivered by scientists working directly on the changing dynamics in polar ice sheets - and local impacts, demonstrated by high-resolution maps of a kind and quality not previously available to local planners and other officials. We also brought policy solutions, from federal climate legislation to international efforts to reduce key pollutants in the Arctic - and a message that adaptation was needed and possible.

In early 2010, we began a series of interviews and focus groups aimed at determining roadblocks to communicating with the public about adaptation, and potential solutions.