Dr. Shugart provides insight into how the Earth's carbon cycle works and into what still remains unknown about this essential Earth life support system. He discusses the unique importance of Russian forests in the global carbon cycle and presented the unexpected results indicating that climate change might alter the Russian forests in ways that may promote further warming. Dr. Shugart concludes by making the surprising point that Russian compliance with the Kyoto Protocol (by re-growing forests) might, in fact, produce further warming, combating the intent of the protocol.

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.

"Geoengineering" - ways of mitigating the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, as opposed to reducing those emissions - was proposed by Gregory Benford as a planetary scale solution. Geoengineering options range from the simple to the complex. Benford also discussed the assets and liabilities of these global scale engineering projects.

This public lecture is taken from a scientific meeting on the topic: "Global Change and Natural Hazards." In this talk, Dr. William Hooke, director of the US Weather Research Program Office at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, explores extreme events, which include geophysical phenomena, ecosystem events, and societal extreme events. He discusses how the research community and government programs approach this "cycle of disaster."

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.

Dr. Kenneth Strzepek of the University of Colorado provides an introduction to the "Greenhouse Effect" and its effects on the global water cycle. The talk focuses on the impacts of climate change on regional and local water supply and demand in the Colorado River Basin, which includes the Roaring Fork Valley. The lecture also includes a look at the impacts of climate change on society.