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Hot Weather, Heated Argument

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Hot Weather, Heated Argument

History Thursday, May 5, 2016 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Francis Scott Key Hall, 0106

The 2016 Nathan & Jeanette Miller Lecture in History and Public Policy

Last year all the world’s governments agreed that they must radically change their economies to avoid dangerous climate change, relying on nothing but the word of a few thousand scientists. What does it take to make science trustworthy? One way to answer this essential question is by looking at the story of the discovery of global warm-ing. In a history that stretches back to the nineteenth century, generations of scientists deployed a remarkable variety of methods, evidence, and social mechanisms, cooperating and arguing with one another, to work out what humans might be doing to our planet’s climate. Beginning in the 1970s, the public and politicians became engaged in the discussion. By 2000 the scientific community had reached near certainty. But political argument redoubled, even as theoretical impacts of global warming began to show up in the real world. Spencer Weart is a noted historian of physics. Born in 1942, he received a B.A. at Cornell University (1963) and a Ph.D. in Physics and Astrophysics at the University of Colorado, Boulder (1968) followed by postdoctoral work at Cal Tech, publishing papers in leading scientific journals. In 1971 he began graduate work in history of science at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1974 became Director of the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics. He developed the Center and its Niels Bohr Library into a major international research and archival institution with an award-winning Website, retiring in 2009. He has written or co-edited ten books, including The Rise of Nuclear Fear and The Discovery of Global Warming (2nd. ed. 2008), expanded at www.aip.org/history/climateWine and cheese will be served. To RSVP contact millercenter@umd.edu or 301-405-4299.
Add to Calendar 05/05/16 4:00 PM 05/05/16 6:00 PM America/New_York Hot Weather, Heated Argument

The 2016 Nathan & Jeanette Miller Lecture in History and Public Policy

Last year all the world’s governments agreed that they must radically change their economies to avoid dangerous climate change, relying on nothing but the word of a few thousand scientists. What does it take to make science trustworthy? One way to answer this essential question is by looking at the story of the discovery of global warm-ing. In a history that stretches back to the nineteenth century, generations of scientists deployed a remarkable variety of methods, evidence, and social mechanisms, cooperating and arguing with one another, to work out what humans might be doing to our planet’s climate. Beginning in the 1970s, the public and politicians became engaged in the discussion. By 2000 the scientific community had reached near certainty. But political argument redoubled, even as theoretical impacts of global warming began to show up in the real world. Spencer Weart is a noted historian of physics. Born in 1942, he received a B.A. at Cornell University (1963) and a Ph.D. in Physics and Astrophysics at the University of Colorado, Boulder (1968) followed by postdoctoral work at Cal Tech, publishing papers in leading scientific journals. In 1971 he began graduate work in history of science at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1974 became Director of the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics. He developed the Center and its Niels Bohr Library into a major international research and archival institution with an award-winning Website, retiring in 2009. He has written or co-edited ten books, including The Rise of Nuclear Fear and The Discovery of Global Warming (2nd. ed. 2008), expanded at www.aip.org/history/climateWine and cheese will be served. To RSVP contact millercenter@umd.edu or 301-405-4299.
Francis Scott Key Hall