SFU science puts global warming under microscope
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Claire Cupples, 778.782.3771, scdean@sfu.ca
Colin Jones, (contact through assistant, Rosemary Hotell, (778.782.3772), cwjones@sfu.ca
Francis Zwiers, PCIC, 250.472.4682, fwzwiers@uvic.ca
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3210, cthorbes@sfu.ca
Claire Cupples , dean of the SFU Faculty of Science, says the faculty is gladly fronting the bill for mounting an ambitious lecture series on global warming from a science perspective.
Under the leadership of Colin Jones, SFU chemistry professor emeritus, the chairs of eight SFU science departments are presenting six lectures delivered by experts from around the world on climate change.
“The series,” says Cupples, “complements SFU’s involvement in B.C.’s inter-university Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) and aims to present excellent science in the context of an important societal issue.”
PICS, based at the University of Victoria, involves researchers at SFU and the University of Northern British Columbia.
Intended to engage SFU science students and faculty in discussion, the one-hour lectures followed by one-and-a-half hour audience discussions, will take place at SFU’s Burnaby campus. The Interdisciplinary Research in the Mathematical and Computational Sciences (IRMACS) Centre will host the seminars, which with the exception of one, start at 12:30 p.m.
They will be streamed live on the web and available later through the Faculty of Science web page. Francis Zwiers , director of the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium at PICS, will deliver the series’ opening lecture on Feb. 23 — The Instrumental temperature record and what it tells us about climate change .
Zwiers will discuss the reliability of global climate-change records based on temperature-recording instruments whose measurements can vary according to location, functionality and exposure to urban heat islands.
Zwiers is internationally known in the field of climate variability and change. He will explain why instrumental temperature records show that most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20 th century is very likely due to increased greenhouse gas concentrations generated by human activities.
Thomas Pederson , PICS director, will conclude the lecture series with a presentation entitled Responding to the Climate Change Challenge at 12:30 p.m. on Wed., March 30 at IRMACS.
Don DeVoretz
Colin, I assume you will have dissenters to debate this issue and allow the spirit of debate to prevail. There are serious scientists who do not buy into this claptrap. What nest, a debate on Happineness by old cranks like myself. dond,