UW News

November 30, 2006

Climate change researcher to give free lecture

One of the leading scientists studying the Himalayan mountains and how they might impact long-term climate change will give a free lecture at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5 in 102 Johnson. Christian France-Lanord, director of the Research Federation on Water, Soil & Earth in Nancy, France, will speak on The Chilling Effect of Mountain Growth: Has the Rise of the Himalaya Changed the Atmospheric Balance of Greenhouse Gases?

France-Lanord will visit the Department of Earth and Space Sciences Dec. 5-9 and will give a series of presentations sponsored by the department and the Mindlin Foundation Lectureship.

France-Lanord’s work is part of global research on a major issue: whether accelerated weathering due to major mountain growth could consume sufficient CO2 to decrease the greenhouse gas sufficiently to cool the planet, or whether a cooling climate could underlie evidence for major mountain growth

This issue, which has yet to be resolved fully, has ignited research excitement and catalyzed major advances across a whole community of researchers who previously had few interests in common.

For details about additional France-Lanord presentations, refer to: http://www.ess.washington.edu/Program/Seminars/AUT06Seminars.html.