Seminars of Interest

Abstract:

Climate change due to human activities is the most important challenge of our generation. Human activities release a host of gases and particles that change Earth's radiative balance. Recent high-visibility national and international assessments have comprehensively documented the scientific basis, changes in the industrial era, and future projected impacts. The Climate Change Building offers a valuable perspective of the infrastructure needed to effect adaption and mitigation in a climate change world. While everyone has a place in this building, science has the foundational role. In this presentation, I will narrate how my research group has contributed to the climate change building with two examples. The first concerns increasing the protection of climate under the Montreal Protocol, which is an international treaty primarily designed to protect the ozone layer. The second is new global measurements of black carbon aerosol, which is considered to be the second most important anthropogenic climate forcing agent after carbon dioxide. As an introduction I will summarize the major conclusions of the 2014 IPCC climate science assessment and end by noting how NIST is helping us achieve our new measurement objectives in the atmosphere. Download presentation: Contributing to the Climate Change Building: A Scientist-to-Scientist Perspective