Staff Report
Issues of global warming, greenhouse gases and the Unites States' refusal to ratify the Kyoto Pact have sparked interest in the issue of global climate among many Americans.
That debate will be coming to UNM tonight when meteorologist and climate researcher Richard C. J. Somerville will present "Can Climate Models be Trusted" at 5 p.m. in the Continuing Education Conference Center, Room G, at 1634 University Blvd.
Somervile is an associate professor of meteorology at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego. He is also the author of The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change.
The presentation will consist of a comprehensive overview of the climate change issue including recent research results and the current international political debate regarding climate change and global warming.
Somerville will also address how governments and private businesses should respond to climate model forecasts and how climate research can affect the future of the planet.
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Somerville, who is a member of the American Meteorological Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, focuses his current research on the microscopic properties and characteristics of clouds.
For six years, he has been conducting studies of clouds and climate at the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement sites in Oklahoma and Kansas.
Somerville has also contributed to the debate on climate change, including an appearance at the international global climate summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in November 1998.
The presentation is being sponsored by the Scientific Research Society Sigma Xi and is co-sponsored by the Office of the Vice Presidents for Research and for Health Sciences, the School of Engineering, the College of Pharmacy, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Physics and Astronomy, the Division of Continuing Education and the Albuquerque Section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
Admission is free.
