Climate change is arguably the most challenging problem the world faces. Caused by the emission of greenhouse gases by human activity, it is going to have a profound and often negative effect on humanity. In this talk I will describe the basic science underpinning our understanding of the climate system, the observational evidence for global warming and how climate is projected to change in the future. I will also discuss the impact of these changes on society, from agriculture to geopolitics, and how we can respond to the so-called "climate emergency".

Speaker:  

Samar Khatiwala is a Professor in the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University. Before that he was Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford. Prof. Khatiwala is an oceanographer whose research interests include the marine carbon cycle and the ocean’s role in regulating climate. His research is widely used in international assessments of climate change such as the UN’s IPCC reports, the Global Carbon Budget’s annual report on the Earth’s carbon cycle, and the annual US National Climate Assessment. It has also been featured in media such as The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Guardian, National Geographic and German Public Radio.

Moderator: Kyle Cleveland, ICAS Co-director and Associate Professor of Sociology, Temple University Japan