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In 2015, annual average atmospheric carbon dioxide levels passed 400 parts per million for the first time in three million years. This has, not surprisingly, caused widespread concern among climate scientists.

In his new book, The Climate Question, Professor Eelco Rohling discusses in straightforward terms why our climate changes. He outlines how it changed naturally before the industrial revolution and how it has changed since then. He compares the scale and rapidity of variations in pre-industrial times with those since, infers the extent of humanity's impacts and looks at what these may lead to in the future.

But the book does more than just explain the science. Professor Rohling also goes on to evaluate what Mother Nature could do to deal with human impacts by itself, and what our options are to lend her a hand.

At this book launch, Rohling will present some of the key themes from the book followed by audience Q&A.

Drinks and light refreshments will be served, sponsored by the Research School of Earth Sciences. This event is hosted by the ANU Climate Change Institute.

Registration via Eventbrite is essential.

About the speaker

Professor Eelco J. Rohling is based at the Research School of Earth Sciences, ANU and is also affiliated with the University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre Southampton, UK.

His research focuses on ocean and climate change with emphasis on sea level, climate sensitivity, and past episodes of enhanced carbon burial. Eelco has received many awards for his work - he has been recipient of a UK Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2011) and was an Australian Laureate Fellow (2013-18).

Eelco has been Vice-chairman and Chairman of the 26-nation International Marine Global Changes Study programme (2003-2008), and vice-president Palaeoclimatology at the European Geosciences Union (2000-2006). His first public science book “The Oceans: a Deep History” was released in 2017 by Princeton University Press, and his second, “The Climate Question: natural cycles, human impacts, future outlook”, was released in 2019 by Oxford University Press.