Prof. Nir Shaviv (Hebrew University)

Date: Nov. 5, 2006

Title: A Physicist's View of Global Warming

Abstract:

The 20th Century has seen a notable temperature rise, generally
attributed to the greenhouse effect of anthropogenic gases, and a
future "business as usual" policy is generally believe to be
catastrophic. I will show, however, that the story is not that
simple. I will address the following questions, all of which have a
far from trivial and often surprising answer:
How large is the greenhouse effect? Could some of the temperature rise
be natural and not anthropogenic? If so, what is this natural driver?
How sensitive really is Earth's climate? What should we expect in the
future? How effective will the implementation of the Kyoto protocol
be?