Spring Break
Cicerone addresses Hopkins on climate change
Issue date: 9/27/07
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This past Monday, Hopkins hosted Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone, the president of The National Academy of Sciences, as part of the George S. Benton Lecture Series.
Cicerone, one of the most prominent atmospheric scientists in the world, addressed climate change and its effects on the earth, issues that have been at the forefront of everyone's mind in recent months.
The frigid Hodson auditorium was about two-thirds full Monday evening. The audience consisted mostly of graduate students and professors chatting about their various research projects. Cicerone took the podium at around 5:15 p.m., presenting his topic of the evening - "Global Climate Change: Human Causes and Responses."
Cicerone started the evening off with a brief tribute to George Benton, the namesake of the lectureship and mentioned that it would've been Benton's birthday on exactly that day. Cicerone smiled when speaking of Benton's time at a laboratory in Boulder, Colo., during the heyday of planetary sciences.
The lecture formally began with an explanation of the ratios of energy given off by the sun and maintained around the Earth's atmosphere. Cicerone explained how the greenhouse effect, the phenomenon that traps heat close to the Earth, is essential to life on this planet - without it, the Earth's surface temperature would be kept at the freezing point. The greenhouse effect is due to a certain amount of CO2 that is present in the air. Since 1958, however, CO2 concentration has risen over 25 percent. At this point, there is 40 percent more CO2 in the atmosphere then ever before in the history of this planet.
"For all of you who saw An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore couldn't reach how high the CO2 levels were … so he had to reach up and jump," Cicerone explained and proceeded to jump up and down. A chuckle rippled through the attentive listeners.
The excess CO2, Cicerone explained, comes from the burning of fossil fuels, namely coal, petroleum, and natural gases. About 2.12, 2.98 and 1.18 billion metric tons of CO2 are produced annually from the burning of these fossil fuels, respectively. 2.32 billion tons of that CO2 come solely from the creation of electricity. Cicerone pointed out that hydroelectric energy's annual net CO2 output is zero.
Cicerone, one of the most prominent atmospheric scientists in the world, addressed climate change and its effects on the earth, issues that have been at the forefront of everyone's mind in recent months.
The frigid Hodson auditorium was about two-thirds full Monday evening. The audience consisted mostly of graduate students and professors chatting about their various research projects. Cicerone took the podium at around 5:15 p.m., presenting his topic of the evening - "Global Climate Change: Human Causes and Responses."
Cicerone started the evening off with a brief tribute to George Benton, the namesake of the lectureship and mentioned that it would've been Benton's birthday on exactly that day. Cicerone smiled when speaking of Benton's time at a laboratory in Boulder, Colo., during the heyday of planetary sciences.
The lecture formally began with an explanation of the ratios of energy given off by the sun and maintained around the Earth's atmosphere. Cicerone explained how the greenhouse effect, the phenomenon that traps heat close to the Earth, is essential to life on this planet - without it, the Earth's surface temperature would be kept at the freezing point. The greenhouse effect is due to a certain amount of CO2 that is present in the air. Since 1958, however, CO2 concentration has risen over 25 percent. At this point, there is 40 percent more CO2 in the atmosphere then ever before in the history of this planet.
"For all of you who saw An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore couldn't reach how high the CO2 levels were … so he had to reach up and jump," Cicerone explained and proceeded to jump up and down. A chuckle rippled through the attentive listeners.
The excess CO2, Cicerone explained, comes from the burning of fossil fuels, namely coal, petroleum, and natural gases. About 2.12, 2.98 and 1.18 billion metric tons of CO2 are produced annually from the burning of these fossil fuels, respectively. 2.32 billion tons of that CO2 come solely from the creation of electricity. Cicerone pointed out that hydroelectric energy's annual net CO2 output is zero.
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