Holdren delivers keynote at AAAS conference

Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at the Kennedy School of Government John Holdren recently delivered the keynote address at the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) last month in San Francisco. The director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program at the Belfer Center and a professor of environmental science and public policy, Holdren is the outgoing president of the prestigious science and technology association.

In his speech, Holdren outlined four key challenges for science: meeting the basic needs of the poor; managing the competition for land, soil, and water and the net primary productivity of the planet; mastering the energy-economy-environment dilemma; and moving toward a world free of nuclear weapons.

On the subject of climate change, Holdren said: “Climate change is not a problem for our children and grandchildren — it’s a problem for us. It’s already causing harm.”