Time: 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Victoria University of Wellington
Lecture Theatre 1, Faculty of Architecture and Design
139 Vivian Street, Te Aro Campus, Wellington
This is the third event to accompany the exhibition “Lessons from the Arctic: How Roald Amundsen won the race to the South Pole” (Link to event here).
Changes caused by natural and anthropogenic drivers are communicated to the Antarctic region by oceanic and atmospheric processes, and influence the polar atmosphere, ocean, ice sheet, sea ice, and biosphere. Likewise, changes to the region and the surrounding Southern Ocean have worldwide consequences.
Arguably, the biggest uncertainty of societal and policy relevance facing climate science today is, “What will be the future contribution of the Antarctic ice sheet to global sea level rise?” The latest science says that limiting global warming to less than 2°C, the target of the Paris Agreement, may prevent the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets from major melt down, and vastly reduce the risks from catastrophic sea-level rise. James and Tim will explain how the Antarctic ice sheet is now changing in response to global warming, and the increasing risk that it could soon be too late save the South Pole as we know it!
Prior to the talk at 6pm, we will re-screen the film ‘The Ten Who Dared’ (poster attached below) at 4:45pm, and will also serve refreshments from 5:30pm.
Biographical notes:
James has around 30 years’ experience in weather and climate research, starting as a forecaster with the Met. Service. He was involved in writing both the IPCC 4th and 5th Assessment Reports. His interests are large-scale climate variability, climate dynamics, climate change research. He enjoys statistical data analysis and am interested in weather and climate forecasting on all time scales, from
days to centuries.
Tim has participated in 11 expeditions to Antarctica and helped found ANDRILL, an international Antarctic Geological Drilling Program. He was involved in writing the IPCC 5th Assessment Report. His research focuses on reconstructing past ice sheet and global sea-level changes relevant to future climate projections. He currently leads an MBIE-funded project to assess future sea level rise around New Zealand.
Contact: Peter Barrett, Antarctic Research Centre, VUW
Email: [email protected]
Poster of the talk:
Poster of the movie ‘The Ten Who Dared’, which we will be re-screening prior to the talk.
