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SUMMARY:Climate Change: Are we doomed? - Dr Hugh Hunt - Dr Hugh Hunt\, Dep
 artment of Engineering
DTSTART:20191121T180000Z
DTEND:20191121T190000Z
UID:TALK134875@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:87964
DESCRIPTION:[Please note that the formal hall with speaker has already sol
 d out.]\n\nPlease join us for a talk on environmental engineering by Dr Hu
 gh Hunt of the Department of Engineering on 21/11/2019 in Benson Hall\, Ma
 gdalene College. The title of the talk is "Climate Change:  Are we doomed?
 ".\n\nAfter the talk there will be a formal hall from 19:30 to 21:00 in Ma
 gdalene College so anyone interested can sign up for the dinner! Members o
 f Magdalene College can sign up via the usual booking system while non-mem
 bers can sign up via contacting this page or by emailing rr548@cam.ac.uk\;
  please include any dietary requirements.\n\nSynopsis:\nWe've heard enough
  about the Paris 1.5C target - which we'll miss.  We're probably heading f
 or a disastrous 4C.  So are we doomed?  What if we can we cool the planet 
 if we fail to meet our CO2 emissions targets? Scary stuff – we need to b
 e talking about it!  There are "geoengineering" technologies out there alm
 ost ready to go and some sound quite scary. Many pundits question whether 
 it is safe to meddle with the climate when we only have one Earth\, but ot
 hers argue that we haven't much time left before climate change runs away 
 from us. This talk will present technologies which may be urgently require
 d to slow down the progress of Arctic melting. One project\, SPICE (Strato
 spheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering)\, proposed a small exp
 eriment but the experiment was shut down for fear of "the slippery slope".
  Research in geoengineering has ground to a halt. But we're short on actio
 n on all fronts. If we're too late and the arctic permafrost warms up then
  we may need to capture billions of tonnes of atmospheric methane. The sca
 le of the problem is huge\, and we're not well prepared.\n\n\nSpeaker bio:
 \nDr Hugh Hunt is a Reader in Engineering Dynamics and Vibration at Cambri
 dge University.  His research centres on the control of noise and vibratio
 n from underground railways\, but he got caught up in geoengineering as Co
 -Investigator on the SPICE project\, 2010-15\, which looked at various asp
 ects of SRM (http://www.spicepipe.co.uk) . He was responsible for an outdo
 or experiment\, the 1km testbed\, which was intended to evaluate the influ
 ence of wind on the motion of a tethered balloon\, but controversy over ge
 oengineering experiments led to the testbed being canceled. He is now prom
 oting other technologies for the removal of non-CO2 greenhouse gases\, in 
 particular methane and N2O (http://www.suggr.co.uk) .  He also runs the Ca
 mbridge Climate Lecture Series which aims to raise awareness of the urgenc
 y around climate change (http://www.climateseries.com).\n\nHugh is a regul
 ar presenter on television documentaries on Channel 4\, PBS Nova and SBS\,
  including "Dambusters: Building the Bouncing Bomb"\, "Attack of the Zeppe
 lins"\, "Escape from Colditz" and "Guy Martin Wall of Death". He is Keeper
  of the Clock at Trinity College\, a clock which is demonstrably the most 
 accurate tower clock in the world (http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/clock) .  He 
 has an impressive collection of boomerangs which he uses to inspire studen
 ts in the study of dynamics and mechanics.
LOCATION:Benson Hall\, Magdalene College
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