This lecture will review the evidence for greenhouse gas trends in this interglacial, compared to earlier interglacials, and then describe experiments with climate models that address three questions:
1. What would the climate be now without the combination of the proposed effects of early agriculture and the well-documented effects of modern industry and agriculture? 2.What is the relative importance of the two revolutions in influencing our climate? and 3.What natural processes and feedbacks may have amplified these trends ? What lessons can we learn? If early agriculture practiced by several million people disturbed the natural rhythm of climate, how much greater and more certain is the modern impact of several billion people? Are we finally beginning to understand the magnitude of our actions - literally altering, for the first time, the grand swings of climate that have governed our natural history for more than a million years and throughout the period of hominid evolution? This lecture is presented by the School of Earth and Environment and the Institute of Advanced Studies at UWA and is free and open to the public, no RSVP required.
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