May 4, 2016
World-renowned climate expert speaks on campus today
One of the top climate experts in the world, Thomas C. Peterson, will present a special seminar, "The Story of Climate Data," from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 4, in 4031 Throckmorton Hall.
Peterson is the president of the World Meteorological Organization's Commission for Climatology, and retired principal scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Centers for Environmental Information. He was a lead author on the Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fourth Assessment Report published in 2007. Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the top 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2013 for his work on explaining extreme events from a climate perspective.
In his talk, Peterson will review the history of climate data, from the first instrumental observations in 1697 to the present day. In addition to describing how average global temperatures are determined and their implications, this talk will highlight the results of the latest science on global climate data as well as the latest political development on sharing climate data across the world. The talk will conclude with some comments on how the global climate record can be improved.