This is not a talk about whether there is or is not climate change. Widely accepted by the scientific community as fact, this multifaceted talk dives straight into the status of climate change and its threat to the human race, including a range of prognostication and a policy discussion about what world leaders are doing to protect the planet. This will include outcomes of the Paris Agreement and what the new administration in the United States is likely to do. The discussion will wrap up with a short update from Walking Mountains Science Center on what impacts climate change can have in Vail. Kevin Trenberth is a Distinguished Senior Scientist in the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He was a lead author of the 1995, 2001 and 2007 Scientific Assessment of Climate Change reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize which went to the IPCC. He focuses on climate variability and climate change, including global energy, water cycles and how they are changing. Panelist Peter Ogden is an expert in international climate policy and foreign policy in the United States and is a Senior Fellow at American Progress. From 2012 to 2013, he served on the White House National Security Staff as director for climate change and environmental policy. Prior to that, he served on the White House Domestic Policy Council as senior director for energy and climate change and at the State Department as chief of staff to the special envoy for climate change. Kim Langmaid is the vice president, director of sustainability and founder of Walking Mountains Science Center. Her focus includes local sustainability, collaborative conservation and environmental education. Mercedes Quesada-Embid is an associate professor of sustainability studies at Colorado Mountain College in Edwards.