IPY 2007-2008

International Polar Year Lecture Series at the Grand Valley State University

Title of the talk: Changing Ice & Snow: What the Past Can Tell Us About the Future
By Anders Carlson, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Location: Grand Valley State University, Allendale Campus: 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI 49401

Current observations of Arctic and Antarctic Ice Sheets are revealing rapid melting of our remaining ice massifs, likely in response to global warming. Less than a decade ago, most climate scientists thought such a rapid response to climate change by ice sheets was highly unlikely. While the number of observations of ice retreat is growing, their time span is limited to the last decade or so, hindering our ability to predict the future. In his talk, Dr. Carlson will focus on the behavior and retreat of ice sheets under past “natural” global warming experiments, specifically the last deglaciation of the Northern Hemisphere 21,000 to 6,000 years ago when ice sheets retreated from North America and Northern Europe, forced by a warming climate. He will demonstrate that ice sheets have responded essentially immediately to past climate warming and thus the currently observed retreat of the remaining ice sheets should be of little surprise, boding ill for the future.

All lectures have free admission and are appropriate for students in middle grades through adults. Lectures will be held at 7 p.m. in Loutit Lecture Hall 101, Seymour and Esther Padnos Hall of Science on Grand Valley State University’s Allendale Campus. Receptions to follow. Parking in Lot F after 6:30 pm.

Sponsored by:
Regional Math & Science Center at Grand Valley State University
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Michigan Space Grant Consortium

For more information, visit www.gvsu.edu/rmsc or contact:
Regional Math & Science Center, (616) 331-2267, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Download a poster for the lecture series (PDF).