Since Hurricane Katrina, there has been an increasing concern that a changing climate will bring about more frequent and more intense extreme weather events. This concern has motivated scientists to investigate the connection between global warming and extreme events such as hurricanes. In this lecture, Dr. Greg Holland of the National Center for Atmospheric Research discusses the scientific evidence that suggests a connection between global warming and hurricanes and comments on the political ramifications of this connection.

Understanding the local impacts of global climate change is crucial, especially in places like Aspen where warming poses a threat to the ski industry, the economic life-blood of the town. However, such regional-scale assessments are difficult to accomplish with a satisfactory degree of certainty. In this lecture, Gerald Meehl, senior climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, offers the best-available scientific predictions for Aspen's future climate and discusses the implications these findings have for Aspens environment, economy, and society.

How can we better understand the future climate by investigating the past? As Ray Bradley explains, proxy records--things like tree rings, ice-cores, and sediment cores--offer an invaluable window into the past climate changes and their causes. Using this historical perspective, scientists can more accurately predict future climate change. In this talk, Bradley presents the careful detective work of paleoclimatologists and the implications of their findings for modern-day climate forecasting. 

According to the late Nobel Prize winning Richard Smalley, energy is the number one challenge facing humanity. In this engaging and thought-provoking lecture, Smalley explains that acquiring sustainable, renewable sources of energy will not only alleviate a growing energy crisis, but will help solve other world issues, such as water, terrorism, and health. In this 2003 lecture, Smalley presents his vision for our energy future, which focuses on the transition to renewable sources of energy by developing cost-effective technologies that capture solar, wind, and geothermal energy. Drawing from his professional experience, Smalley argues that advances in nanotechnology are the key to achieving a sustainable energy future.

Given Colorado's reliance on precipitation for agriculture and recreation industries, understanding natural variations as well as human-driven changes in climate patterns is a critical issue. Dr. Roger A. Pielke Sr. is the State of Colorado's Head Climatologist, and in this lecture he draws on his vast understanding of Colorado's climate to show past climate trends and comment on what the future climate may look like for Colorado residents. Pielke focuses in particular on the problem of drought explains how both natural processes and human behavior impact forecasts of future droughts. In his conclusion, Pielke suggests that in the absence of clear predictive capacity, we should assess future vulnerabilities, which in Colorado may include, flash floods, avalanches, insect infestations, and drought

The realization that society's reliance on fossil fuels is resulting in alarming changes to the Earth's climate is forcing people to evaluate a host of issues concerning energy consumption and its effect on the environment. This public event addresses these issues and endeavors to educate concerned citizens about the challenges that lie ahead. In the first half, David Keith, an expert on energy and professor at Carnegie Mellon University, describes the world's current consumption of fossil fuels and suggests future options for energy that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Keith presents the surprising idea that fossil fuel consumption can continue without its harmful side effects provided energy companies pursue carbon sequestration technologies, which Keith argues are both possible and practical. In the second half, Stanford University professor Steve Schneider talks about the challenging policy dilemmas presented by climate change in both the developed and developing world. As a possible model for pursuing environment-friendly policies, Schneider offers the case of Bhutan, a developing country that has favored environmental and cultural production over the material benefits of Western-style industrialization. This event is part of the Walter Orr Roberts Public Lecture Series. Recorded on July 25, 2000 in Aspen, Colorado.

Recent developments in space technology - and in the attitudes of political and economic figures - make it clear that the cost of access to limitless resources of nearby space can be dramatically reduced. Such cost reduction makes a host of new ventures far more attractive, and suggests an economically sound program for using those resources to provide cheap, clean, abundant energy for the residents of Earth. In this lecture, Dr. John Lewis, professor at the University of Arizona and co-director of the Space Engineering Research Center, argues that space travel can be accomplished at a fraction of the current cost so long as competitive private companies are allowed to take the place of the long-time government monopoly of space.

Improvements in energy efficiency alone are probably insufficient to stabilize carbon dioxide concentrations and mitigate their global warming potential. In this lecture, Dr. Martin Hoffert, Professor Emeritus at New York University, demonstrates that a global transition to sustainable carbon-free energy systems must be initiated to avoid a "stabilization crunch" and to meet Rio Treaty implementation demands.

Prospects of feeding China are compromised by serious environmental pollution and ecosystem degradation. Many of these negative trends will continue, but there are also encouraging possibilities for better management and more efficient use of resources. As an expert in global agriculture, Dr. Vaclav Smil, explains the various possibilities for China's food future. Dismissing alarmist views, Dr. Smil argues that China will likely be able to support itself agriculturally in the future.

In the present age, where humans are beginning to recognize their substantial, and often negative, impact on the environment, lawyers, philosophers, and activists are trying to find ways to use the established legal system to handle issues of environmental damage. In this talk, University of Southern California law professor Christopher Stone explains his bold idea to make natural objects legally considerate. Stone explains the various legal, moral, and environmental implications of his proposal.

Using satellite imagery, scientists have been able to monitor environmental change over large areas such as the Amazon. As Dr. Bruce Nelson discusses in this lecture, satellite technology enables monitoring of both natural and human-created change. Drawing from his work with Brazil's National Amazon Research Institute, Nelson explains why the human impact in the Amazon is cause for concern, and he also shows why natural disturbances in the rain forest are interesting to study.

One of the most troubling forms of global change is the alteration of natural landscapes, which leads to habitat loss, invasive species, and diminished biodiversity. In this talk, Carla D'Antonio from the University of California, Berkeley provides an overview of how human activity is having a profound affect on natural living systems. Dr. D'Antonio argues that while society does pay attention to impacts that affect agriculture or other economic activities, it must become aware of the widespread changes that are degrading natural habitats and reducing biodiversity.

About 20 stations have been established along the coastline of Antarctica, but only two are maintained year-round on the interior plateau: the Russian station at Vostok and the U.S. station at South Pole. In this entertaining and informative slideshow, Antarctic researcher Stephen Warren vividly illustrates the logistics of living at the South Pole. In addition, Dr. Warren discusses the results of the scientific research that brought him to the coldest place on Earth.

"Chaos" and "fractals" are two terms signaling a scientific revolution that has taken place in the last 20 years. In this talk, NASA researcher Warren Wiscombe explains how ordinary objects and events such as snowflakes and snowboarding exhibit the characteristics of chaos. Additionally, Wiscombe describes how chaos and fractal theory can shed new light on long-standing scientific conundrums such as weather and climate, fluid flows, cells, and life itself.