Seminar 22nd April 2010 6 p.m. Lanchester Building (Building 7), Highfield Campus, University of Southampton
Geoengineering the Climate: Science, Governance & Uncertainty: The Royal Society Study
Professor John Shepherd FRS
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
- Web page
- http://royalsociety.org/Geoengineering-the-climate/
- Categories
- Climate
- Submitter
- Petrina Butler
Professor John Shepherd FRS
The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and Centre for Coastal Processes Engineering and Management (CCPEM) invite you to attend the following lecture:
The climate change we are experiencing now is caused by an increase in greenhouse gases due to human activities, including burning fossil fuels, agriculture and deforestation. There is now widespread belief that a global warming of greater than 2oC above pre-industrial levels would be dangerous and should be avoided. However, despite growing concerns over climate change, global CO2 emissions have continued to climb. This has led some to suggest more radical “Geoengineering” alternatives to conventional mitigation via reductions in CO2 emissions. Geoengineering is deliberate intervention in the climate system to counteract man-made global warming. There are two main classes; direct carbon dioxide removal, and solar radiation management, which aims to cool the planet by reflecting more sunlight out to space. This talk will summarise the findings of a recent review of Geoengineering carried-out by the UK Royal Society discussing the climate effects, costs, risks, and research and governance needs for each approach.
The key findings from the review were that Geoengineering is not a magic bullet and not an alternative to emissions reductions; cutting global greenhouse gas emissions must remain our highest priority – but this is proving to be difficult and Geoengineering may be useful to support it; Geoengineering is very likely to be technically possible, however there are major uncertainties and potential risks concerning effectiveness, costs and social & environmental impacts; much more research is needed, as well public engagement and a system of regulation (for both deployment and for possible large-scale field tests); the acceptability of geoengineering will be determined as much by social, legal and political issues as by scientific and technical factors.
Professor John Shepherd is a Professorial Research Fellow in Earth System Science in the School of Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, UK. He is a physicist by training, and has worked on the transport of pollutants in the atmospheric boundary layer, the dispersion of tracers in the deep ocean, the assessment & control of radioactive waste disposal in the sea, on the assessment and management of marine fish stocks, and most recently on Earth System Modelling and climate change. His current research interests include the natural variability of the climate system on long time-scales, and the development of intermediate complexity models of the Earth climate system for understanding past climate changes. He was a founder member of the GENIE modelling project and of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, and recently chaired the Royal Society study on “Geoengineering the Climate: Science, Governance and Uncertainty”. http://jgshepherd.com/
Lecture room to be confirmed.
Tea and coffee
... will be available in the foyer from 5:30pm.
Please feel free to circulate these details to anyone you may feel would be interested.
For information please contact
Susan Hanson
School of Civil Engineering and the Environment
Tel: +44 (0) 23 8059 4796
Email: s.e.hanson@soton.ac.uk