Colorado State Hosts Climate Change Lecture Series for Students and the Public

Just how, and why, is the planet’s climate changing? What does this mean to people in Colorado and worldwide? To help answer these and other climate change questions, CSU is launching a series of seven public lectures that will run through the academic school year addressing global warming from a variety of perspectives.  The series, "Climate Change: What We All Need To Know," will kick-off at 7 p.m., Sept. 11 in the North Ballroom of Lory Student Center with, "Climate Change: Past, Present, and Future," given by David Randall, professor in CSU’s Department of Atmospheric Science.  An open discussion will follow.

All lectures in the series are free and open to the public.

Randall is one of the world’s leading atmospheric scientists and his current research focuses on modeling studies of how clouds affect the global climate system.  He is the director of the Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes, a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center headquartered at CSU.  For ten years he was the chief editor of the Journal of Climate. He was a coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 4th Assessment Report which was awarded a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Like the other lectures in the series, Randall’s presentation will be aimed at both a broad student audience and the greater Fort Collins community and will highlight the current science and scholarship on the topic.

The remaining lectures will look at climate change from the perspectives of biological effects, policy and policy makers, economics, effects on people, literature and creative writing, and possible solutions.  The series will draw on the breadth and depth of CSU’s involvement in climate change research, featuring national experts among its faculty as well as leading scholars and writers from other universities.

All lectures will be held at 7 p.m. in the North Ballroom of the Lory Student Center. The full schedule follows:

Sept. 11

"Climate Change: Past, Present, & Future," presented by David Randall, CSU, Atmospheric Science

Oct. 9

"The Biological & Ecological Effects of Climate Change," presented by Alan Knapp, CSU, Biology

Nov. 6

"The Economics of Climate Change," presented by Charles Kolstad, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, Economics

Nov. 13

"Climate Change and the Literary Imagination," presented by Linda Bierds, Univ. of Washington, English and Marybeth Holleman, Univ. of Alaska, Anchorage, English

Feb. 5

"Solutions to the Climate/Energy Problem," presented by Scott Denning, CSU, Atmospheric Science

March 12

"The Effects of Climate Change on People," presented by Lori Peek, CSU, Sociology

April 9

"Climate Change Politics & Policy Making," presented by Dr. Michele Betsill, CSU, Political Science

This year’s lecture series is part of an on-going program called Changing Climates @ CSU which seeks to increase public awareness and understanding of current science and research on climate change.

For more information, contact John Calderazzo in the CSU Department of English at (970) 491-6896 or jcaldera@lamar.colostate.edu, or visit Changing Climates @ CSU on the Web at http://changingclimates.colostate.edu.

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