JISAO Lecture Series
Climate Change: A Wakeup Call

Jisao_poster
As a leader in the environmental sciences, The Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and the Ocean (JISAO) launches its inaugural effort to bring science of local, regional, and global significance to the public with a lecture series that addresses the timely and critical issue of global warming. JISAO is honored to host three speakers of national stature who will discuss the challenges and opportunities before us: King County Executive Ron Sims; Dr. Konrad Steffen, director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences; and Dr. Jonathan Overpeck, director of the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth at the University of Arizona. Lectures will be held at Pacific Science Center and on the University of Washington Campus (see schedule below).
  • Admission to each lecture at Pacific Science Center is $5.00. Admission is FREE to Faculty, Staff and Students of the University of Washington, Pacific Science Center Members, and Town Hall Members.
  • Admission to each lecture held at the University of Washington is FREE to the public.
→JISAO is a Cooperative Institute at the University of Washington sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Its mission is to foster collaborative, multidisciplinary research within four major research themes: Marine Ecosystems; Climate; Environmental Chemistry; Coastal Oceanography.

Lecture Schedule:

"Shared Prosperity in an Age of Global Warming: King County's Vision for an Equitable Clean Energy Economy"
  • Ron Sims
  • Pacific Science Center, Eames IMAX Theatre
  • Wednesday, January 30, 2008, 7:30 - 8:30
  • Admission is $5.00. Admission is FREE to Faculty, Staff and Students of the University of Washington, Pacific Science Center Members, and Town Hall Members.
This lecture will feature King County Executive Ron Sims' vision of how the Martin Luther King, Jr. County region can and must address the social, economic and health inequities of climate change impacts, and what King County government is doing to reduce these disparities in our communities.

Highlights will include:
  • Executive Sims' perspective on shared goals of wealth, equity and health in an age of global warming
  • An overview of how climate change impacts will affect our most vulnerable communities, and what King County is doing about it
  • How King County proposes to employ people who most need work in our most necessary climate change solutions, by building a regional clean energy economy that benefits everyone in our community
"Sea Level Rise and Ice Sheets"
  • Konrad Steffen
  • Pacific Science Center, Eames IMAX Theatre
  • Wednesday, March 5, 2008, 7:30 - 8:30
  • Admission is $5.00. Admission is FREE to Faculty, Staff and Students of the University of Washington, Pacific Science Center Members, and Town Hall Members.
Sea level is currently increasing by 3.5 mm per year. Close to 50% of this increase comes from the glaciers and ice sheets - known as the cryospheric part of sea level rise. In the last century, glaciers have been the dominant part of the cryospheric sea level rise, but now the two large ice sheets Antarctica and Greenland are losing ice at an ever faster rate. What are the mechanism that lead to this ice loss and what are our sea level rise prediction based on the latest findings? The latest results from an expedition in Greenland will be shown, including the first video from water channels inside the Greenland ice sheet. For more on Konrad Steffen's work, please check this →New York Times article.

"Cryospheric Response to Climate Change"
  • Konrad Steffen
  • UW, Kane Hall, Room 210
  • Thursday, March 6, 2008, 7:30 - 8:30
  • Admission is free.
Air temperatures on the Greenland ice sheet have increased by 4 deg. C since 1991. The ice sheet melt area increased by 30% for the western part between 1979-2006. The increasing trend in the total area of melting bare ice is unmistakable at 13% per year, significant at a probability of 0.99. Hence, the bare ice region, the wet snow region, and the equilibrium line altitude have moved further inland and resulting in increased melt water flux towards the coast. Increase in ice velocity in the ablation region and the concurrent increase in melt water suggests that water penetrates to great depth through moulins and cracks, lubricating the bottom of the ice sheet. New insight was gained of subsurface hydrologic channels and cavities using new instrumentation and a video system during the melt peak in August 2007. These new results will be discussed in view of the rapid increase in melt area and mass loss of the Greenland ice sheet due to increasing air temperatures.

"Climate Change, Sea Level, and Western Drought: Dangerous Anthropogenic Interference?"
  • Jonathan Overpeck
  • UW, Kane Hall, Room 210
  • Tuesday, April 1, 2008, 7:30 - 8:30
  • Admission is free.
The reality of global warming, reflected in a broad spectrum of climate system change, is now unequivocal and human complicity in global warming has been established beyond a reasonable doubt. Many aspects of future global climate change will require mitigation efforts, but two major issues are already coming into focus. The first is global sea level rise coupled with increasing tropical storm intensities. The most recent estimates suggest that 1meter or more of sea level rise could occur by 2100. Although coastal areas could thus be big losers in the face of continued climate change, recent climate change coupled with climate change projections indicate that the American West could be a more near-term casualty. Surface air temperatures are rising faster than elsewhere in the coterminous United States and will likely continue to rise steadily. These temperature increases are already causing snow to fall increasingly as rain, and also to melt earlier in the year. Thus, even in the absence of a precipitation decrease, there will be less snow-related run-off and related surface water flow. There is a growing scientific consensus that winters will become much hotter and significantly drier due to the greenhouse-gas climate forcing. On top of these trends is the likelihood that multi-year, even multi-decade, drought will also become more common. The recent western drought - already the worst of the instrumental era - could be a harbinger of greater aridity to come, and also a significant threat to the West as we know it. Fortunately, there are solutions if we choose to act aggressively.

"Climate Change, Sea Level, and Western Drought: Dangerous Anthropogenic Interference?"
  • Jonathan Overpeck
  • Pacific Science Center, Eames IMAX Theatre
  • Wednesday, April 2, 2008, 7:30 - 8:30
  • Admission is $5.00. Admission is FREE to Faculty, Staff and Students of the University of Washington, Pacific Science Center Members, and Town Hall Members.

Science And Society
Pacific Science Center is committed to advancing the public’s understanding of science and contributing to the development of a scientifically literate society. As part of that commitment, we support and sponsor a number of lectures in the Seattle area. Some are held at our facility, others are conducted at various locations.