Date/Time
Date(s) - Mon Oct 19 2026
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Notes:
Is anthropogenic climate change the greatest environmental challenge the world has ever faced (World Wildlife Federation)? Or a hoax concocted by stupid people (Donald Trump)? Or a real thing, but an issue that should receive less attention than the current economy (airline executive Pieter Elbers)?
Arguments over climate change have never actually been about climate, and they still aren’t, but societal notions of whether to do anything about climate, and what, have waxed and waned over the last 30 years. Presently, concern is at a relatively low point, following the high point of 10 years ago.
Meanwhile, as the culture wars rage, climatologists, atmospheric physicists, and social scientists are increasingly confident that failure to cut emissions has already had significant consequences (e.g., this summer’s mega-fires and mega-smoke) and will have increasingly dire physical and economic consequences in this century and probably for centuries thereafter.The climate imbroglio is basically an ethics problem: should we worry about and act upon, at least to some degree, the future welfare of our children and grandchildren, or should we direct all our behaviuor and wealth to the here and now, and leave our descendants to their own devices?
About Jerry Osborn:
Jerry Osborn is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Earth, Energy, and Environment at the University of Calgary. He is interested in glacial history, urban geology, and the science and politics of climate change, the latter in particular because he has grandchildren that likely will live through this century.