Cawthron Lecture - Climate Change : Choices & Consequences

Dr David Wratt is Chief Scientist (Climate) at NIWA, Director of the New Zealand Climate Change Centre, an Adjunct Professor in the Climate Change Research Institute at Victoria University, and Chair of the Royal Society’s New Zealand Climate Committee. He is now a Vice Chair of IPCC Working Group 1, which assesses the Physical Science Basis of Climate Change.

Humans are already affecting the earth’s climate, through activities such as burning fossil fuels that add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. If we continue with “business as usual”, then serious impacts are expected later this century. However we have choices – the future amount of climate change depends on the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted from human activities over coming decades.

This lecture will begin with a brief review of the science of climate change. Natural and human influences on climate will be discussed, and likely causes of past changes will be identified. Information from the scientific literature about potential impacts on both natural and managed systems associated with various potential future levels of global climate change will then be summarised. Projections of future climatic changes for various future greenhouse gas emission scenarios will be examined. The choices we face as a global community about the level of emission reductions to aim for, and the consequences for both human activities and natural systems, will then be discussed. Throughout the lecture, consideration will be given to changes in New Zealand and the Pacific, as well as for the globe as a whole.

Entry to the lecture is by way of complimentary ticket. For your tickets please contact cawthron.receptionist@cawthron.org.nz or ph. (03) 548-2319.

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