Climate Change: What Do We Know, and What Should We do?

Richard C.J. Somerville
Distinguished Professor Emeritus Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego
"Climate Change: What Do We Know, and What Should We Do?"
Thursday, March 4, 2010
4:00 - 5:30 PM
Robinson Auditorium, UC San Diego
Registration required, at http://iicas.ucsd.edu

Richard C. J. Somerville will discuss a new scientific synthesis, “The Copenhagen Diagnosis,” which assesses recent climate research findings, including: measurements showing the Greenland and Antarctic ice-sheets are losing mass and contributing to sea level rise; Arctic sea-ice has melted far beyond the expectations of climate models; global sea level rise may exceed 1 meter (about 3 feet) by 2100, with a rise of up to 2 meters (6 feet) considered possible; in 2008 carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels were about 40% higher than those in 1990; and at today’s emissions rates, after just 20 more years the world will no longer have a reasonable chance of limiting warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

To avoid dangerous climate disruption, global emissions must peak and then start to decline rapidly within the next five to ten years, reaching near-zero well within this century. (The report is available at www.copenhagendiagnosis.org.)

Richard C. J. Somerville, a theoretical meteorologist, is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. His Ph. D. is from New York University, and he has been a professor at Scripps since 1979. He has received awards for both his research and his popular book, “The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change,” a new edition of which was published in 2008. His honors include election as a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Meteorological Society.

Somerville was a Coordinating Lead Author for the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize equally with Al Gore.

Event information and directions: http://iicas.ucsd.edu/events/speakerseries/ruleoflaw.php
Event questions, contact iicasintern@ucsd.edu or (858) 822-5297.
For special arrangements to accommodate a disability, contact IICAS two weeks in advance of the event.
The 2009-2010 International Law Speaker Series is jointly sponsored by the Institute for International, Comparative, and Area Studies (IICAS), at UC San Diego, and the International Legal Studies Program, at California Western School of Law.