UF senior attends world climate change summit

Correction: Rock Aboujaoude Jr.'s last name was misspelled in earlier versions of this article.

University of Florida senior Rock Aboujaoude Jr. is passionate about climate change.

Growing up in LaBelle, a rural farming community 30 miles east of Fort Myers, Aboujaoude has witnessed firsthand the impact that global warming has had on the agriculture industry in the state.

“It’s not something that the grown-ups sitting at the Democratic or the Republican tables are going to be able to fix for us,” Aboujaoude said. “It’s something we can do right now.”

This past week, Aboujaoude represented UF at the 14th Conference of Youth, an annual United Nations climate change conference that brings together students from around the world to present research and discuss global warming issues with scientists. The conference took place at Katowice, Poland.

The youth conference preceded the the COP24 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Last year, Aboujaoude attended the conference in Bonn, Germany, meeting students from Russia, France and even China.

“It was amazing, especially students from China who were able to admit that their degrees of energy spending and energy consumption were off the charts and were attempting to do something, perceptively, on their local level,” Aboujaoude said.

At last year’s conference, Aboujaoude arranged a Skype session for 500 students from the U.S. unable to attend to present climate change research. This year, Aboujaoude lined up 12 UF undergraduate and graduate students to present during the Skype session, on subjects ranging from citrus greening to water management.

“In an international setting, all of these students are showing up, thinking America is not doing their part,” Aboujaoude said. “Well guess what, at least we at the University of Florida, our own students, are doing something.”

A natural resource economics major at UF, Aboujaoude is presenting his own research on climate change bonds, which tie bond interest rates to project performance.

“I’m trying to get this to be both an intellectually researched paper and a paper that can be explained to the public as well,” Aboujaoude said.

According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2017 global land and surface area temperatures were 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average. At UF’s climate change session last month, international weather expert and University of Georgia professor Marshall Shepherd discussed the links between climate change and extreme weather events, ranging from Hurricanes Irma and Harvey to the recent California wildfires. A contributor to Forbes, Shepherd has written that science clearly shows carbon emissions represent a human steroid on top of a varying climate system.

“I’ll have people say what’s the big deal if (the Earth) is one degree warmer or two degrees warmer,” Shepherd said. “How many of you want your kids to run a permanent one- or two-degree fever? That system is going to feel that, eventually.”

Aboujaoude is interested in both climate change science and policy. In LaBelle, Aboujaoude was mentored by John Capece, who earned his doctorate in agricultural engineering at UF and works in water management and sustainable development. Capece founded Campus Climate Corps, an organization Aboujaoude first became involved with in high school. An Eagle Scout, Aboujaoude had natural leadership qualities that Capece recognized.

“He pushed me to go to UF,” Aboujaoude said. “He suggested I maintain a discourse and involvement in climate activities.”

Aboujaoude said he hopes to pursue master’s and doctorate degrees in natural resource economics. From there, Aboujaoude isn't sure if he'll pursue his passion in academia or politics.

“I want climate change to go from being a supportive narrative to a full-front issue that students can actually interact with and engage with in their respective lives,” Aboujaoude said.

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