Carlson Lecture
2nd Annual John Carlson Lecture
| Date |
Time |
Location |
| November 1st, 2012 |
6:30pm-8:00pm |
The New England Aquarium |
Predicting Climate in a Chaotic World: How Certain Can We Be?
Event Website
Speaker: Professor Tim Palmer, Royal Society Professor of Climate Physics at Oxford University
6:30p.m. Community Reception
7:00p.m. Lecture
Lecture summary: Edward Lorenz's pioneering work on systems whose evolution is unpredictable and chaotic was motivated by a skepticism about the use of statistical models to predict next month's weather. And yet, on the web and elsewhere, one can find predictions not only of next month's weather, but also of the human effect on long-term climate. Can we have any confidence at all in long-range predictions of weather? And should we believe these estimates of human-induced climate change? Or is the whole notion of predicting long-term changes in climate misguided and unscientific?
The event is free and open to the public. Students and families welcome.
For more information, contact:
Shira Wieder
swieder@mit.edu