Is our changing climate a direct result in the rise of human generated greenhouse gases or could there be another reason? Can we in any case reverse the trend and save our planet?

• Public debate on Climate Change, 8 March 2008

British Council organizes a public debate in partnership with the Romanian Academy, the Romanian Authority for Scientific Research, and AdAstra Association, on Saturday, 8 March, starting with 11 a.m. at the Library of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Calea Victoriei 125 ("Ion Heliade Radulescu" Amphitheatre). If interested to take part in this public debate e-mail us at dana.radler@britishcouncil.ro. to get an invitation. Please include the name of your study/work place.

The debate is led by:

Dr Roxana Bojariu, Head of the Climate Research Group at the National Meteorological Administration, Bucharest, Romania. Her expertise is in climate dynamics and associated impacts. Dr. Bojariu was a lead author of the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Scientific Assessment of Climate Change and a review editor of the associated Synthesis Report.

Dudley Shallcross, professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Bristol, UK and is also a visiting scientist at the Hadley Centre for Climate Change in the UK. His research interests include air pollution, long term measurements of greenhouse gases and the impact of climate change on global Biogeochemical cycles.

Claudia Sliwinski, Scientist from the GEOECOMAR Institute in Bucharest, Romania, Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the Université Paris-Sud XI in Paris, France. Analyzing marine sediments, she focused on environmental changes associated with climate changes of the past 30,000 years. She took part in the European project ASSEMBLAGE - ASSEssMent of the BLAck Sea sedimentary system since the last Glacial Extreme.

Mirela Voiculescu, physicist, working as Lecturer at "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati. She has a doctoral degree in space (ionospheric) physics. Her research activity focuses on solar-terrestrial interactions, atmospheric and ionospheric processes and their coupling with near Earth environment, among which a challenging and rewarding subject is the hot topic of solar effects on climate.

The debate is moderated by Gabriel Giurgiu.

Gabriel Giurgiu has worked for the Romanian Television since 1990. He has been a moderator in talk shows, has worked on feature reports in finances and economy (the World Bank, FMI, banking), architecture, European affairs; contributed to editing “Eco-Economy”, Technical Publishing House, for which he interviewed Lester Brown. Interested in a bias-free exploration of global warming.

• Have your say

You are also invited to join the online debate on climate change and the public perception on this issue in Romania: vote in the opinion poll open until 7 March.

According to the last Eurobarometer results, nearly 90% of Europeans feel concerned about climate change and global warming, most of them being well aware of the negative impact of energy production and consumption on this phenomena. We were interested in knowing how the message is getting across to the public in Romania.

“In my opinion public awareness related to climate change is generally lagging behind western perception, but its raising dynamics looks good. The public has become more and more interested, especially in how the global warming signal projects on Romanian regions.” (Dr Roxana Bojariu, Head of the Climate Research Group, National Meteorological Administration, Bucharest, Romania Lead-author in Working Group I for THE IPCC FOURTH ASSESSMENT REPORT of the World Meteorological Organization and United Nation Environmental Programme).

Dr. Adrian Stanica, Senior researcher, Romanian National Institute for Marine Geology and Geo-ecology And Freelance science journalist for the Romanian Service of the BBC World Service Radio (since 2000), co-producer of the “Science Magazine” said that “the general perception level on the effects of Climate Change is very low. Nevertheless, some concerns appeared during the past years, due to the increased number of draughts and floods. Why? Widespread low living standards (most people’s planning level is about “How to live tomorrow”, while for the even-not-very-remote future “We'll manage somehow”). Most of the climate news generally reflects political meetings or related sensationalist news.”  

We invite you to Have your Say. Send us your views about how people from Romania perceive climate change and how the media influences this issue, at gabriel.ivan@britishcouncil.ro