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SUMMARY:Ocean Heat and Hot air (with apologies to David MacKay) - Prof. Ch
 arles F Kennel\, Scripps Institution of Oceanography\, University of Calif
 ornia\, San Diego
DTSTART:20160316T143000Z
DTEND:20160316T153000Z
UID:TALK65050@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Prof. Ramji Venkataramanan
DESCRIPTION:The 2015 Paris Agreement commits governments every five years 
 to set more ambitious emission reduction targets\; report on how well they
  are doing\; and track progress through a transparency and accountability 
 system.  This new system for diplomacy could be more effective than the ea
 rlier one\, but to make it effective the scientific community will need to
  be ready with new goals and measures for policy progress.\n\nGovernment a
 mbitions will be influenced by how their publics perceive climate change. 
 Thus far\, the primary intuitive guide to thinking about it has been surfa
 ce air temperature.\nThis is not enough.  Over-reliance on air temperature
  has gotten climate science in hot water with vocal segments of the public
 \, as the “hockey stick” and the more recent “hiatus” controversie
 s illustrate.  \n\nWhy do we let the world rely on surface temperature whe
 n more than 90% of the energy humanity is putting into the climate system 
 goes into the ocean? As we will show\, had ocean heat had been as prominen
 t in the public’s mind as hot air\, there would be no hiatus controversy
 . \n  \nPolicymakers need a basket of indicators\, just as in areas like c
 entral banking\, trade policy\, and sustainable development where issues a
 re multi-dimensional\, complex\, and interacting. Like medical doctors\, t
 hey need vital signs. It is time for planetary vital signs.  But vital sig
 ns are only the beginning. The evaluation of the risks to human systems-he
 alth\; food\, water\, and energy security-will require a major deployment 
 of big data Bayesian analytics - one more place where the engineering disc
 iplines will help the world cope with climate change.\n\n*Biography*:\n\nC
 harles F. Kennel is Distinguished Professor\, Vice-Chancellor\, and Direct
 or emeritus at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University o
 f California\, San Diego.  He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at t
 he Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy and a Distinguished Visiting Sc
 holar at Christ's College.\n\nHe was educated in astronomy and astrophysic
 s at Harvard and Princeton. After a post-doctoral year at the Internationa
 l Centre for Theoretical Physics\, Trieste\, he joined UCLA’s Department
  of Physics and its Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics. There 
 he pursued research and teaching in theoretical space plasma physics and a
 strophysics\, eventually chairing the Physics Department. He served as UCL
 A’s Executive Vice Chancellor\, its chief academic officer\, from 1996 t
 o 1998.\n\nFrom 1994 to 1996\, Kennel was Associate Administrator at NASA 
 and Director of Mission to Planet Earth\, a global Earth science satellite
  program. Kennel’s experiences at NASA influenced him to go into Earth a
 nd climate science\, and he became the ninth Director and Dean of the Scri
 pps Institution of Oceanography and Vice Chancellor of Marine Sciences at 
 the University of California\, San Diego\, serving from 1998 to 2006. He w
 as the founding director of the UCSD Environment and Sustainability Initia
 tive.\n\nKennel was a member of the National Science and Technology Counci
 l and the international Committee on Earth Observation Satellites while at
  NASA. He has chaired the US National Academy’s Board on Physics and Ast
 ronomy and Committee on Global Change Research. He has served a total of 1
 2 years on the NASA Advisory Council\, chairing it from 2000-2005\, and wa
 s a member of the Presidential (“Augustine”) Commission on human space
  flight in 2009. Kennel remains on the NASA Advisory Council and has chair
 ed the Space Studies Board of the US National Academy of Sciences since 20
 08. For the State of California\, Kennel was a member of the founding boar
 d of the California Climate Action Registry\, the first chairman of the Ca
 lifornia Ocean Sciences Trust\, and now chairs the California Council on S
 cience and Technology.
LOCATION:LT1\, Department of Engineering
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