Seminar

Abstract

Climate change, driven by human activities like fossil fuel burning, is causing rapid global warming that is unprecedented in recent millennia. By 2100, global temperatures could rise significantly higher, exacerbating ice melt, sea-level rise, and causing irreversible harm to ecosystems and human societies, particularly impacting vulnerable populations. The potential severe consequences of future climate change and relatively weak climate action to-date is leading to a growing interest among researchers, governments, NGOs and policy analysts in understanding if the deployment of some form of Solar Climate Intervention (SCI) would help to reduce some adverse climate change impacts while humanity works to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. SCI refers to a set of proposed large-scale interventions aimed at reflecting sunlight back into space to cool Earth. While it is generally accepted that SCI is the only way to quickly reduce global climate warming, proposed SCI strategies involve significant, uncertain risks that must be understood. In this presentation, I will summarize some recent, interdisciplinary research aimed at holistically assessing the benefits and risks of SCI, relative to the risks posed by climate change.

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Dr. James Hurrell is the Scott Presidential Chair of Environmental Science and Engineering at Colorado State University. Previously, he served as the Director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Dr. Hurrell’s research has centered on empirical and modeling studies and diagnostic analyses to better understand climate, climate variability, climate predictability, and proposed climate intervention approaches. He has been extensively involved in the World Climate Research Programme, including leading the Scientific Steering Groups of both the U.S. and International Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) research programs. Dr. Hurrell has also served the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in many ways, and he is currently a member of the NASEM Advisory Panel for the Division of Earth and Life Sciences. He is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society, the U.K. Royal Meteorological Society, and the American Geophysical Union.