Name: PUBLIC LECTURE: Climate Change in Earth’s History.
Start: 2024-10-09T18:00:00+02:00
End: 2024-10-09T19:30:00+02:00
Location: 133, Melita Street, VLT1123 Valletta, Malta

$PUBLIC LECTURE: Climate Change in Earth\u2019s History.$

With so much misleading information out there about current and future climate change, how do you know what to believe?
What does the Earth itself tell us about past climate changes and their relevance to today?
Our speaker, geologist Gordon Knox, can guide you through some of the most important points.
Earth has gone through many climate changes since formation ~4.55 billion years ago. This free public talk will look at some of the major ones and indicate causes.
A recurring cause of warming is very significant introductions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by large, long periods of vulcanism. On the other hand, cooling can be related to removal of carbon dioxide by plants (from microorganisms to forests), limestone deposition and weathering.
Rare impactor events also have drastic effects. Variations in the Earth’s orbit, angle of tilt and wobble were important in ice ages creating a roughly 100,000 years cycle of glacial and interglacial periods, up until the present interglacial beginning around 11,700 years ago.
The current unprecedented rate of addition of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, by human activities, breaks the pattern of interglacial temperature trends.
Past analogues which could represent current climate change models will be presented as possible futures of where the Earth may be heading.
Bio:
Gordon Knox studied Geology at University College London and the University of Liverpool. He had a career in the petroleum exploration industry working in various locations and following retirement came to live on Malta in 2000. Early on, he gave a course on Applied Geology at the University of Malta and was an International Distinguished Lecturer for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists in 2003. He has contributed to the Malta Water Association, on the islands’ water challenges. Though retired, he has kept up with the geological sciences and likes to give talks on geological topics of interest, to organisations, societies and the general public.