Climate Change Forums

In 2006 the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum will present a series of public forums throughout the metropolitan Chicago area on a variety of topics related to global climate change. The public forums will bring together scientists and interested members of the public in a series of open dialogues about climate change. Members of the public will hear firsthand perspectives from scientists at NASA and other U.S. science agencies as they share details about their work and how they are solving the mysteries of Earth's climate system.

Forum presenters will share all the latest evidence, ranging from bore holes drilled miles deep into ice sheets on Antarctica, to a fleet of space-based sensors observing our whole world from hundreds of miles above Earth's surface, to sophisticated new predictive models running on the world's fastest supercomputers. Together, these resources paint a picture of Earth's climate system with unprecedented clarity.

What changes are natural in origin and what changes are due to human influences? How do scientists know what they know about Earth's climate system, and how accurate are their predictions? How can we harvest this new knowledge for the benefit of society? These are some of the important questions to be tackled in the Adler Global Climate Change Forums, consisting of four events and an end symposium held at various locations in Chicago from February through August 2006.

Forum 1 | Forum 2 | Forum 3 | Forum 4

FORUM 4 "HOW CAN WE MEET OUR FUTURE ENERGY NEEDS WITHOUT JEOPARDIZING OUR PLANET'S HEALTH?"
Chicago Cultural Center Sunday, June 4, 2006 | Time: 10am - 1pm
Guest Speakers Include:
Dr. Robert Rosner Director of Argonne National Laboratory	Dr. Bil Becker Founder of Aerotecture, Ltd.	Dr. Tom Seaver NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center	Dr. Richard Eckman NASA Langley Research Center
Forum four will explore the ways in which humans use Earth's natural resources to produce energy. The ancient Mayans extensively harvested and burned trees to power their ancient civilization. New evidence suggest this may have ultimately led to their downfall. What can new space-based technologies today teach us about how to use nature's energy resources in a sustainable way? What new technologies lie ahead that will allow us to continue to grow our economies without harming Earth's environment?
FORUM 1 HOW MUCH? HOW SOON? HOW DO WE KNOW?
Guest Speakers Include:
Dr. Wally Broecker Columbia University	Dr. Gavin Schmidt NASA Goddard Space Flight Center	Dr. Ray Pierrehumbert University of Chicago
Location: Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum Saturday, February 25, 2006 | Time: 10am - 12pm Free with Museum Admission The first forum in the series outlines a brief history of climate change through three scientific perspectives. Today, scientists use a variety of techniques to decipher the mysteries of Earth's climate changes and to understand how and why the climate system changes. Armed with samples of gases and particles trapped for centuries in polar ice sheets, data collected by a new fleet of Earth-observing satellites, and sophisticated new computer models, can scientists accurately predict what our world's climate will be like in the future? What are the forces and feedbacks at work in our climate system today? Which of these forcings are natural, and which are caused by humans? And what do they portend over the next century? How do we know what we know? The panel will present the current state of the science in global climate modeling and discuss scenarios for how Earth's climate is likely to change over the next century.
FORUM 2 "IS THE EARTH'S OZONE SHIELD RECOVERING?"
Guest Speakers Include:
Dr. Paul A. Newman NASA Goddard Space Flight Center	Dr. Stephen Andersen Environmental Protection Agency	Former U.S. Ambassador Richard Benedick President of the National Council for Science and the Environment
The Field Museum, Rice Hall Saturday, March 25, 2006 | Time: 10am - 12pm Free With Museum Admission From observations to theory, to data collection, , to international policy, to smoking-gun proof, the story of the Antarctic ozone hole has all the makings of a drama with a happy ending, right? No so fast! Despite ongoing expectations that the ozone hole will recover, we have yet to see evidence that a recovery is underway. Why was so much ozone lost so fast in the early 1980s? Why hasn't the ozone shield recovered? What is the status of the ozone hole today? What are the human health implications of losing stratospheric ozone? What are the chemicals that destroy stratospheric ozone, where do they come from, and what exactly makes them so destructive? Will the ozone shield ever recover and, if so, when? In many ways, the story of the Ozone Hole parallels the global warming controversy of today. How can decision makers effectively implement policy in the face of so much uncertainty? This forum will present lessons learned from the 1980s that may lend some perspective to today's public discussions about climate change.
FORUM 3 "HUMAN FOOTPRINTS: EXPLORING THE INTERSECTIONS OF SOCIETY AND THE NATURAL WORLD"
Guest Speakers Include:
Dr. Michael E. Schlesinger University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	Dr. Marc Imhoff Goddard Space Flight Center	Dr. Compton Tucker Senior Earth Scientist - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Northwestern University - Chicago Campus Hughes Auditorium, 303 E. Superior Ave. Saturday, April 22, 2006 | Time: 10am - 12pm Today we know that everything within Earth's climate system is connected at some level. Humans have taken on the magnitude of a geological force in our ability to reshape our environment. Widespread changes across Earth's landscapes have altered natural cycles at work in the climate system. This forum will explore some of the myriad intersections between human society and the natural cycles of life, energy, water, and carbon. This panel will provide stunning new insights into the ways in which humans are influencing Earth's climate system and, in turn, how climate changes can impact society.