Global Warming and the Habitability of Planet Earth...( HOBOKEN N.J. Dr. D. James Baker a c...)

HOBOKEN, N.J. Dr. D. James Baker, a consultant to UNESCO and a former Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will deliver a talk at Stevens Institute of Technology, Sept. 26, titled, Global Warming and the Habitability of Planet Earth: A Time of Reckoning.

The talk will be delivered at Stevens Babbio Center for Technology Management, Room 122, at 3:00 p.m., Sept. 26. The Babbio Center is located on the Stevens campus in Hoboken, N.J., near the intersection of River and Sixth Streets.

The first part of Bakers talk will outline the science of climate change as driven by greenhouse gases as understood from both from the past historical record and from the basic physics and chemistry of the atmosphere and ocean.

I will talk about what is known and what uncertainties remain, and how these uncertainties can be reduced, said Baker. I will draw examples of projections for the future for global and for regional climate change from the reports of the International Panel on Climate Change.

The second part of the talk will focus on what can be done to mitigate or slow down the emissions of carbon dioxide with examples from technology, economics and policy.

Using the steady trend toward an ice-free Arctic as a special example, said Baker, I will show how we are rapidly reaching a point where we will have to adapt to dramatically changed economics, ecosystems, and national interests in that region. In the end, governments need to understand and act soon on the risks of climate change and industry needs to respond with the deployment of new technology for clean energy.

If the developed countries, particularly the United States, can show leadership in accepting the risk and dealing with it, he continued, it is likely that China, India, and others to follow will take a sustainable course. It will not be easy, because we will need the application of major resources and human will. But preserving our h
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