On Thursday, February 9th at the McCormick County Library, Dr. Daniel Pardieck of Lander University will present the science of climate change and discuss the potential human responses to a warmer world. This public presentation is free and will begin at 6:30 pm in the library meeting room.
Earth’s climate system is complex, with significant year to year variability, as well as variability on longer timescales. Climate change impacts also differ significantly from place to place on the Earth. Most, but not all, of this variability is attributable to naturally occurring phenomena. The key questions of interest around the issue, however, relate to the role of humans in accelerating global warming, what impacts of climate change mean to humans and what, if anything, can be done to address accelerated warming. This presentation will touch on these difficult questions.
The focus of this presentation will be on the science, beginning with the basics of climate science, what we know about the climate of the past, how we know that the earth is warming today, what effects are occurring today, how we project climate change and its impacts into the future, what some of those projections are and what are limitations of the science.
Spirited and open questioning and discussion of this important topic are more than welcome.