The speaker suggests that climate change is somewhat more real than Big Foot and Unicorns (unlike what some skeptics would have us believe). This is the speaker's personal journey from the ethics to the science of climate change.

45mins talk + 45mins Q&A

The talk will focus on the issues that reach beyond merely the hard sciences and into the social and economic domains, with their potential to call into question our economic systems and social choices (for example, the link between development and energy consumption). The talk will also explore the importance of the basic sciences in societal development.

Climate change skepticism" is a term that has, unfortunately, been hijacked largely (but not completely) by climate changedenialists. Unfortunate because all scientists may be described as skeptics and scientific progress is fundamentally driven by skepticism. The recent narrative accompanying climate change denialism has obscured the fundamental science on which climate research rests, the massive consensus among climate scientists the world over, and the incontrovertible evidence observations are providing us. What the talk proposes to convey is simple: climate change is real, it's us, it's dangerous, and we can indeed do something about it.

SPEAKER Chirag Dhara is a physicist and mathematician, and recently concluded his PhD in earth sciences at the Max Planck Institute. His previous work was on foundational quantum physics, specializing in quantum randomness. He is drawn into the field of thermodynamic perspectives on climate, due to his concern about the twin problems of climate change and peak energy.