A U.S. Science Envoy is in Apia to engage government, civil society, and academics on a range of oceans issues such as Marine Protected Area (M.P.A) management, ocean acidification and marine pollution, and deep sea mining, as well as overall environment and climate challenges.  

Leading this delegation is Dr. Margaret Leinen, a highly distinguished national leader, oceanographer and Director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Dr. Leinen will discuss what the U.S. has learned about ocean and climate-related issues. Her meetings and talks will touch on the consequences of CO2 (warming, acidification, deoxygenation, and sea level rise), how our view of these issues has been shaped by our ability to observe the ocean; how the global organizations - some of which Samoa is a member - are working on behalf of our ability to observe the ocean and adapt to the changes; and how technology can assist us in conservation efforts.

Dr. Margaret Leinen is an award-winning oceanographer and an accomplished executive with extensive national and international experience in ocean science, global climate and environmental issues, federal research administration, and non-profit startups.  

She is a researcher in paleo-oceanography and paleo-climatology.  Her work focuses on ocean sediments and their relationship to global biogeochemical cycles and the history of Earth’s ocean and climate.

She is the founder and served as president of the Climate Response Fund, a non-profit organization that works to foster discussion of climate engineering research and to decrease the risk that these techniques might be called on or deployed before they are adequately understood and regulated.  

Previously, she spent two years as the chief science officer of Climos, Inc., a startup focused on green technology for climate mitigation.