Speaker Thursday April 3

The next lecture features Mr. Tom Boden, Director of the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases and of the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center of the Environmental Sciences Division in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After graduating from the Institute of Environmental Sciences with a concentration in Applied Ecology, Mr. Boden and his family moved to Tennessee where he began work with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His professional interests include archival, analysis, documentation, and distribution of global climate-change-related databases, or the trends in atmospheric trace gas concentrations and CO2 emissions resulting from fossil fuel burning. The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center is the primary climate-change data and information analysis center of the U.S. Department of Energy. CDIAC's data holdings include records of the concentrations of carbon dioxide and other radiatively active gases in the atmosphere; the role of the terrestrial biosphere and the oceans in the biogeochemical cycles of greenhouse gases; emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere; long-term climate trends; the effects of elevated carbon dioxide on vegetation; and the vulnerability of coastal areas to rising sea level. Mr. Boden’s lecture serves as continuation of the in-depth analysis and discussion of the topic of global climate change which has been at the forefront of recent Institute of Environmental Sciences’ events such as the Willeke Frontiers in Environmental Sciences’ lecture held last year whose guest lecturer was IPCC panelist, Dr. Neil Adger, and this past week’s Focus the Nation event during which nine Miami professors from seven different departments discussed climate change from the perspective of his or her discipline.