NEWS In Memory of Paul Baer: champion of climate protection and equity
Paul Baer (1962 — 2016) – Memoriam
Paul was one of the first, and one of the most passionate, students I met upon my move from Princeton to Berkeley.
Paul played a central role – along with Barbara Haya and Nate Hultman – in working through the science, policy and legal story around an idea that was of some interest then, eighteen years ago, and is now very much on the global agenda: the need to fight for equity at a time of increasing inequality.
In fact, our team effort – the ‘climate laboratory’ – was a wonderful and productive[1] fusion of the interests, passions, and skills of a number of ERG students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty. We were able to work between theory and practice on how equity and environmental justice could evolve a project that that I had recently completed at Princeton with – another ERGie – Ann Kinzig[2] – into an operational proposal for the climate negotiations. Paul and Tom Athanasiou published Dead Heat two years later; a book that a decade of climate campaigners carried and cited regularly.
In our climate laboratory, and in the subsequent years of working, traveling, and debating a wide range of topics with Paul one thing always stood out: his unflagging passion for the project in the form of the people impacted by the lack of attention to justice and equity.
It is heartening to me that while Paul’s career and life stops after ERG were not always happy, they were always meaningful and chosen to better the lives of others.
I do, and will always miss you, Paul.
To download a copy of this memorial note, click here.
[1] Paul Baer, John Harte, Antonia Herzog, John Holdren, Nate Hultman, Daniel Kammen, Barbara (Kresch) Haya, Richard Norgaard, and Leigh Raymond “Equal per capita emission rights: the key to a viable climate change policy”, Science 289, 2287 (2000).
[2] Ann Kinzig and Daniel Kammen (1998) “National trajectories of carbon emissions: Analysis of proposals to foster the transition to low-carbon economies”, Global Environmental Change, 8 (3), 183 – 208 (1998).