SLAS Regular Meeting
February 15
7:30 pm

Global Warming: Causes and Cures

by

Professor Carl Bender

Global warming; the increase in the Earth?s average surface temperature; now poses a serious threat to plant life, wild life, and human life around the world. Changes in global climate have occurred naturally in the past, but this time human activity is accelerating the pace and magnifying the results. Sea levels will rise, flooding much of the most heavily populated areas. Temperature and rainfall patterns will change, disrupting many ecosystems and driving many plant and animal species to extinction. Dr. Bender will discuss the primary factors that are causing global warming, and the irreversible, catastrophic damage that will occur, very soon, if human activity is not changed. He will also point out some things that need to be done on the personal level, the regional level and the international level to combat global warming now, before it is too late.

Carl Bender is the Konneker Distinguished University Professor of Physics at Washington University. His research interests primarily involve aspects of quantum field theory. He has received numerous scientific awards and honors, serves on a number of science and university advisory and editorial boards, and is coauthor of a highly regarded textbook, Advanced Mathematical Methods for Scientists and Engineers.