Climate change expert Professor Sir David Hendry will explore how humanity has accelerated global warming when he delivers the annual China Institute Li Siguang lecture at the University of Birmingham on Wednesday 20th November.
And his talk ‘Climate Change in the Long Run’ will illustrate how climatologists, volcanologists, dendrochronologists, meteorologists, geophysicists and health scientists are working together to tackle climate change and its consequences.
There are still seats available and anyone wishing to attend the lecture, which starts at 4pm, in University House, should register.
The Earth’s climate has varied over a huge range from frozen to very hot over geological time, driven by natural forces. During this period, most previous species of life have become extinct from the impact of that climatic variation.
The talk traces the `great extinctions’ and their associated major climate events, then shows that humanity can easily affect our oceans and atmosphere-and is doing so.
The lecture links to the work being undertaken with Nankai University where the University of Birmingham has established a Joint Research Institute that sees experts from both universities working together on global environmental challenges.
Professor Sir David commented: “I’m delighted to provide this year’s China Institute Li Siguang Lecture. Although climate change is a long run process in nature, humanity has accelerated it dramatically for reasons explained in my lecture.
Climate change is a global phenomenon and requires international multi-disciplinary research and I am very pleased to know that the University of Birmingham, through the Nankai-Birmingham Joint Research Institute, is supporting collaborative research with China.”
Professor Sir David Hendry is Director, Program in Economic Modeling, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, Co-director of Climate Econometrics, and Senior Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford University.
His Climate Econometrics research group has developed tools to model evidence on evolving processes that are also subject to abrupt shifts, as climate data are. His research interests span econometric methods, theory, modelling and history; computing; empirical economics; macro-econometrics; climate econometrics; and forecasting.
He was knighted in 2009; the ISI lists him as one of the world’s 200 most cited economists and he is a Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate. He founded the Econometrics Journal and has been Econometrics Editor of the Review of Economic Studies and the Economic Journal.
The Joint Research Institute on Green Economy and Sustainable Development, established by the Universities of Birmingham and Nankai, allows research activities in interdisciplinary areas, faculty exchange, and joint PhD education.
It brings together science and social science research - for example, setting the global policy agenda by combining understanding of how individuals and economy respond to environmental policy with scientific research identifying problems and how they might be solved.
