Even if we stopped burning fossil fuels today, the carbon already lingering in our atmosphere would continue warming the planet for centuries.
This unsettling reality means that simply cutting emissions isn’t enough—the fight against climate change demands that researchers study all potential approaches and tools that could be used to mitigate the risks of accumulated emissions.
This year’s Arthur H. Compton Lecture Series at the University of Chicago will examine the science, technologies and policy implications behind large-scale interventions such as sunlight reflection methods, open-systems carbon removal and glacial preservation. The free public talks will feature leading researchers from the UChicago Climate Systems Engineering initiative and runs every Saturday morning at 11 a.m. from Oct. 4 to Nov. 22.
The cross-disciplinary initiative applies insights from systems engineering and climate systems science to research technologies that might reduce the risks of accumulated greenhouse gases. The talks, given by professors David Keith, Tiffany Shaw, B. B. Cael and potentially others from the institute, will serve as a primer on what's possible in this emerging field and what kinds of policy and research are needed to pursue these tools.
Sponsored by the Enrico Fermi Institute, the Arthur H. Compton Lectures honor the Nobel-Prize-winning physicist who led the pioneering 1942 UChicago experiment that produced the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear reaction. The series has been running since 1976 to give public access to remarkable recent developments in physical science. Videos from past lectures are available at the Enrico Fermi Institute site.
The free talks are held at the Kersten Physics Teaching Center, 5720 S. Ellis Ave., in Room 106. Learn more here.
This announcement was originally published on the Physical Sciences Division website.