Professor Richard Betts will give an overview of the evidence for human-caused climate change; explain how climate models work, including their strengths and limitations; and discuss the outlook for the future.  When could global warming reach 1.5°C or 2°C, the levels that the Paris Agreement seeks to avoid? How different will the world actually look when that first happens?  What are the longer term consequences? What if the world continues to warm? How long will the glaciers last, is sea level rise already unstoppable, and will some areas become uninhabitable? What about the flipside of increasing carbon dioxide – “global greening”? How well can we actually predict these things, and what do we not yet understand?  Can we rule out the worst case scenarios?  Cutting through the clamour of both alarm and scepticism, Richard provides a level-headed update of the science of climate change and its impacts, to help you ponder what level of risk you think we can take with our climate.

Image courtesy of NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis