April 13, 2006
Speaker: We may already have technology to beat global warming
Stabilizing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide at tolerable levels may be possible using cost-effective technology that already exists.
So says Stephen Pacala, Princeton University professor and guest speaker for the fifth annual public lecture sponsored by the UW’s Program on Climate Change.
Pacala will speak Solving the Carbon and Climate Problem with Technology Available Today, at 7 p.m. Monday, April 24, in 120 Kane. The lecture is free and pre-registration is not needed. For more information call 206-543-6521 or see http://depts.washington.edu/uwpcc/ourprog/Pacala_lecture.html
“Pacala argued in Science magazine in 2004 that humanity already has the fundamental scientific, technical and industrial know-how to solve the carbon and climate problem for the next 50 years, at least,” says James Murray, UW professor of oceanography and director of the UW Program on Climate Change.
The options range from capturing carbon and storing it in geological reservoirs such as depleted oil and gas reservoirs or coal beds to increased energy efficiency and the use of renewable electricity and fuels. Pacala will describe these options and others and outline safe levels of greenhouse gasses that we should be aiming for, and how much emissions will have to be reduced to achieve that.
He also will describe how the solutions come with their own set of environmental risks, such as potential carbon dioxide leaks from where carbon has been stored.
“This lecture comes at a time when the general public thinks that more than 70 percent of scientists are highly uncertain about whether there is global warming, according to a recent poll,” Murray says. “In reality there is almost no uncertainty among scientists on this issue. While there is uncertainty about the amount, scientists are in agreement that man-made warming has occurred and much more will occur in the future.”
The question, Murray says, then becomes, “What can we do?”
The UW Program on Climate Change coordinates research and teaching among colleges, departments, and research units that focus on important questions about how climate and the physical and human world interact. Part of the goal to help inform the public and to train future scientists and policy makers in understanding of past, present, and future climate, Murray says.
