Date: January 26, 2004
Time: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Monday, January 26, 2004, 4:00
Panofsky Auditorium
SLAC Colloquium
Speaker: Burton Richter
"Gambling with the Future: Energy Environment and Economics in the 21st Century"

In the late 1950's measurements of the concentration on carbon dioxide in the atmosphere began at Mauna Loa in Hawaii. It soon became clear that atmospheric CO-2 was increasing and the scientific community began to try to understand why, and what the consequences might be. It was not until the "Earth Summit" at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 that governments began to support a world wide effort to understand what is now called Global Climate Change. Today, it is generally accepted that human activity is affecting the heat balance of the planet and that the greenhouse effect from increased CO-2 will increase the global temperature with uncertain consequences. We are already in a regime that has no precedent in the last 400,000 years, and these consequences are almost certainly bad if greenhouse gas concentrations increase unabated. The driving force is the increase in global population and the economic development, coupled to energy use that everyone wants so as to increase their standard of living. I will summarize the evidence, the projections for the next 50-100 years, and outline what our options are. The problem can be brought under control without miraculous intervention if we have the will, something that is not at all clear.

See the presentation slides here!