[E&E seminars] Reminder: Tomorrow - MITEI Earth Day Colloquium - James McCarthy

[Jameson Twomey]

We would like to remind you that tomorrow, Wednesday, April 22, we  
will be hosting the inaugural MIT Energy Initiative Earth Day  
Colloquium, featuring James McCarthy, Chair of the American  
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Alexander  
Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography at Harvard University.  
The Colloquium kicks off MIT's Earth Week Celebration. Please visit web.mit.edu/earthday 
  for a complete schedule of activities throughout the week.

Reflections on: Our Planet and Its Life - Origins and Futures
James McCarthy

Wednesday
April 22, 2009

4:15 - 5:45 PM
Reception to follow

Kirsch Auditorium, Stata Center
32 Vassar Street, Building 32
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Abstract

Largely as a result of our dependence on fossil fuels, Earth's climate  
is changing. Regional shifts are now evident in precipitation  
patterns, in storms, in diminished land and ocean ice, in rising sea  
level, and in the distributions of plants and animals. Advances in  
technology and advances in science have led both to our current  
condition and our understanding of its implications.  As we look to  
the future, the wise use of technology and scientific understanding  
that allows us to decarbonize our energy systems will give us a choice  
among alternative futures.

About the Speaker

James J. McCarthy is Chair of the AAAS and the Alexander Agassiz  
Professor of Biological Oceanography at Harvard University. He  
received his Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and B.S.  
in biology from Gonzaga University. He teaches courses in ocean and  
climate science and oversees Harvard’s program in Environmental  
Science and Public Policy. His research interests relate to marine  
plankton, biogeochemical cycles and climate. He has served on and led  
many national and international groups charged with planning and  
implementing studies of global change, including chair of the  
international scientific committee that establishes research  
priorities and oversees implementation of the International Geosphere  
- Biosphere Program from 1986 to 1993; founding editor for the  
American Geophysical Union’s Global Biogeochemical Cycles; co-chair of  
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Working Group  
II, which had responsibilities for assessing impacts of and  
vulnerabilities to global climate change for the Third IPCC Assessment  
(2001); lead author of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment; and vice- 
chair of the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment. He has been elected  
a fellow of AAAS and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a  
foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
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