TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dr. Kevin E. Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., will present the lecture, “Global Warming: Coming Ready or Not!,” Dec.6 at 7:30 p.m. in room 127 Biology Building on The University of Alabama campus.
The lecture is free and open to the public.
Trenberth’s lecture is the third in the Alabama Perspectives on Sustainability and Climate Change lecture series sponsored by UA’s College of Arts and Sciences and its department of physics and astronomy and New College program. Details about future lectures will be posted on the lecture series’ Web site at http://www.as.ua.edu/apsacc.
In his lecture, Trenberth will discuss the problems related to human activities, changes in atmospheric composition and the greenhouse effect and will offer evidence that global warming is “unequivocal,” according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He will explain the historical context and lay out future projections surrounding global warming. Trenberth will also discuss how global warming has been addressed on an international level.
Trenberth has been a major contributor to research concerning the global heat and energy resources of planet Earth. Trenberth was familiar with El Niño research long before it became popular and helped identify major changes in El Niño over the decades and the 1976-77 climate shift. He correctly attributed the 1988 La Niña as a cause of the 1998 North American drought. He has played a major role in uncovering the effect of the climate on the global water cycle and on how droughts and floods change. Trenberth has also studied the relation of hurricane changes to climate changes.
A native of Christchurch, New Zealand, Trenberth received a first class honors degree in mathematics at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch and obtained his doctoral degree in meteorology in 1972 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. He was a lead author of the 1995, 2001 and 2007 Scientific Assessment of Climate Change. He recently served on the Scientific Steering Group for the Climate Variability and Predictability program and was co-chair from 1995 to1999.
Trenberth has published more than 400 scientific articles or papers, including 40 books or book chapters and more than 175 journal articles. After several years with the New Zealand Meteorological Service, he joined the department of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois and became a full professor before moving to National Center for Atmospheric Research in 1984.
Contact
Carmen Brown, College of Arts and Sciences, Dean’s Office, 205/348-8539, Carmen.brown@ua.edu