The Climate tipping Points project will be at this September’s Winchester Café Scienitifique – details below:
Mon 4th September – Dr. David Armstrong McKay, Climate Tipping Points: The Point of No Return?
Man-made emissions have been pushing up Earth’s temperature through the Greenhouse Effect, and much more warming is expected during our lifetimes if emissions aren’t reduced. But warming may not be gradual – passing a ‘tipping point’ can cause sudden change. Scientists are now worried that we’re approaching some of these tipping points, beyond which rapid and difficult-to-reverse climate changes may occur. This helps to make climate change more of a so-called “Wicked Problem” to respond to, as it makes future climate change more difficult to predict and comprehend. In this month’s Winchester Science Café join Dr. David Armstrong McKay to find out about what climate tipping points are, how might they affect us, and whether we can predict and avoid them.
Dr. David Armstrong McKay is currently a Research Fellow in the Geography and Environment department of the University of Southampton studying early warning signals of tipping points in lake ecosystems. He completed his PhD at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton in 2015 with a thesis investigating perturbations and tipping points in the carbon-climate system over the last 66 million years, and launched the Climate Tipping Points (www.climatetippingpoints.info) ReCoVER Network-funded outreach project in Autumn 2016. He is fascinated by the co-evolution of the Earth, life, and human societies as complex and dynamic systems Earth, and his research focuses on using numerical modelling and analysis to investigate the resilience of the Earth System.
Café Scientifique:
Café Scientifique is a place where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology. Meetings take place in cafes, bars, restaurants and even theatres, but always outside a traditional academic context.
Winchester Café Scientifique is held at Winchester Discovery Centre, Jewry Street on the first Monday of the month; arrivals from 19:15 for a 19:45 start. There’ll be a licensed bar serving hot drinks, cakes, and snacks. There’s no charge to attend, but contributions are welcome.
climatetippingpoints.info 