The 2014 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns about record melting of the Arctic ice cap, rising sea levels, ocean acidification and more severe storms caused by increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by fossil fuels. Some scientists express concern about some climate change claims. This talk discusses how climate is affected by the sun, volcanoes and the atmosphere. Temperature and rainfall observations of the past few hundred years are compared to climate model predictions. Observed changes in sea level, ocean acidity and storm frequency are also presented.

William van Wijngaarden graduated from the University of Windsor in 1982 with a BSc in Computer Science and a separate Honours BSc in Physics. He went on to Princeton and obtained a MSc in 1984 and a PhD in 1986. He has been at York since 1988. His research has studied a variety of topics other than climate change. In 2003, his group laser cooled Rb atoms to create Canada’s first Bose Einstein Condensate. He also developed a technique to measure sizes of atomic nuclei with an uncertainty of 1 x 10-18 meter. Dr. van Wijngaarden has taught over 20 different courses and is known for lucid lectures.

Talk poster available here.