Making Sense of Climate Projections

The world is facing unprecedented changes in climate worldwide due to human activities, in particular the burning of fossil fuels which release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Global climate models, which are based on the laws of physics, provide an experimental laboratory for probing the response of the earth’s climate system to projected rises in greenhouse gases. In this lecture, I will discuss how to interpret what climate models tell us about human-induced climate change over the coming decades, and the confounding effects from natural variability.

Series: Graduate Students’ Distinguished Visiting Lecture