What can studying core samples from over 2.5m years ago tell us about the likely impact of climate change today?
Join us as we talk with climate science expert Professor Martin Siegert about his work to investigate what conditions were like on earth during the Pliocene era (5.3 to 2.6 million years ago) – the last time atmospheric carbon emissions were around 400ppm for a prolonged period. We explore what conditions at that time can tell us about what we might encounter if we don’t reduce our current levels of carbon.
Watch this space for the link to Martin’s paper on the subject – due out soon.
Our guest:
Prof Martin Siegert FRSE has been the Co-Director of the Grantham Institute since May 2014. Previously, he was Director of the Bristol Glaciology Center at Bristol University, where he is now a visiting Professor, and Head of the School of GeoSciences at Edinburgh University, where he now holds an Honorary Professorship.
He led the Lake Ellsworth Consortium – a UK-NERC funded programme that designed an experiment to explore a large subglacial lake beneath the ice of West Antarctica. He has undertaken three Antarctic field seasons, using geophysics to measure the subglacial landscape and to understand what it tells us about past changes in Antarctica and elsewhere.
In 2013 he was awarded the Martha T. Muse Prize for excellence in Antarctic science and policy, and in 2007 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.