Climate futures

Last year, the University of Adelaide hosted two seminar series on climate change, addressing the science, impacts, adaptation and mitigation: Climate 2030 and Climate Change Q&A. Starting next week, we’ve got a new 12-part series launching: Climate Futures.

The 2008 Climate 2030 seminars (podcasts and slides downloadable here) addressed a range of issues relating to the mitigation of carbon emissions and adaptive strategies for responding to the anticipated impacts of climate change.

The 6-part Climate Change Q&A series provided an assessment of the scientific answers to a host of commonly-raised sceptical questions that are slowing the world’s response to this critically important issue (podcasts and over 500 slides here).

So what will be new in Climate Futures? The  lecture series explores leading edge developments to enable society to adapt to anticipated future changes in our climate. The schedule of seminars is available here, and covers the following topics: the carbon cycle, climate change trends (hosted by me — includes a talk by me, Andrew Watson from them Bureau of Meteorology and Murry Townsend on sea level rise impacts), integrated energy systems, our changing coastline, reshaping urban environments, options for carbon capture and storage, human responses to climate change, people-culture-and-religion, challenges for rural communities, the carbon economy, emergency health responses, and climate futures.

Climate Futures will be presented on Wednesdays at 5-7pm in the Horace Lamb Lecture Theatre, University of Adelaide North Terrace campus, from 4 March to 8 April and from 29 April to 2 June. Note that the final presentation is on Tuesday 2 June at 6-8pm. The 12 lectures are convened by specialists in these fields, and will feature 2-3 expert speakers. The presentations are suitable for anyone with an interest in the challenges posed by climate change for a sustainable society. Slides and podcasts will be available after each lecture.

All are welcome. The seminars are free of charge and registration is recommended using the following email: environment@adelaide.edu.au

Next up, I’ll provide Part IV of my review of Prescription for the Planet.