Popular and political discussions of the changing climate invariably invoke “The Science” as settled. But a careful reading of the research literature and government assessment reports shows a very different picture. Steven Koonin will describe some of the surprises in the official science that belie the notion that we have already broken the climate and face certain doom unless we take prompt and drastic action. These lead to pragmatic conclusions about climate policy at national and international levels.

Bio: Steven Koonin, a University Professor at NYU, wrote the recent bestseller Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters. He has previously served as Under Secretary for Science at the U.S. Department of Energy (2009-2011), as Chief Scientist for BP (2004-2009) moving the firm into renewable energy, and as a professor at Caltech (1975-2004, the last nine years as the Institute’s Vice President and Provost). Koonin is member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the JASON group of government advisors, a Governor of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution, and a Trustee of the Institute for Defense Analyses. He holds a BS in physics from Caltech and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from MIT. 

Hosted by Prof. John LoSecco

This talk is part of the Lynch Lecture Series.