Global warming: old science, new science, controversies, and solutions
Steven Sherwood, University of NSW, Climate Change Research Centre
Sunday 21 March 2010
Recent events have witnessed growing rifts within society about whether climate change is a real problem, whether we truly know that greenhouse gas emissions are causing it, and what if anything should be done. Political pressures are presenting grave challenges to the integrity of the scientific enterprise and the methods by which findings are communicated to the public. In this talk Steven Sherwood will describe some of the lesser-known but crucial aspects of the science of climate and what it has to say about global warming, including the historical development of the science, a clear identification of what is now known beyond doubt and what remains uncertain, and some observations on past episodes where scientific findings were ‘inconvenient’. Join Steven to consider what the physical and economic sciences tell us we would have to do if we want to avert unprecedented transformation of our planet.