After Hours Lecture Series

Reservations to this free public lecture series are required due to limited space. Please register online or call 804-684-7846 for further information. Funding for this series is provided by the CBNERRVA and CCRM programs at VIMS and the VIMS Communications Department. Return here for details on upcoming lectures, which are generally scheduled for the last Thursday of each month, except May and December. Access information on past lectures here (2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003).

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All After Hours lectures begin at 7 pm in McHugh Auditorium in Watermen's Hall on the VIMS campus in Gloucester Point. Click for directions or a campus map.

Join us during the coming months as the After Hours lectures series takes on the topic of global climate change. This special series of After Hours lectures is brought to you by our regular sponsors as well as the VIMS Initiative for Coastal Climate Change Research. Please note that the May 14, June 5, and August 1 lectures will NOT occur on the last Thursday of the month.

Climate Change and National Security
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Lt. Gen. Lawrence Farrell (USAF Ret.) will consider the threats that climate change poses to national security. Farrell, currently President and CEO of the National Defense Industrial Association, will highlight a recent report that he co-authored as part of a blue-ribbon panel commissioned by the Center for Naval Analyses. The report contends that climate change has serious consequences for US military operations and facilities both abroad and at home, including those in Hampton Roads.

Links

Climate Change (aka Global Warming): Is it real or a hoax?
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Join NASA scientist Bruce Wielicki as he examines the science and politics of global warming. Wielicki, a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize as a contributing author to the latest IPCC Climate Change Report, will describe climate change past and present, as well as what researchers predict for the future. He will also discuss key uncertainties in climate change science, why controversy persists, and where to go for solid information.

Links

IPCC Chapters 3 | 9
Wielicki Home
CERES

Climate Change and the Coast
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Hampton Roads trails only New Orleans atop the list of U.S. coastal areas at risk to the impacts of climate change. Join Dr. Virginia Burkett, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize as a lead author of the IPCC chapter on coastal climate-change impacts, as she explores how global warming is likely to affect coastal zones around the world, including Chesapeake Bay.

Links

Climate Change Past, Present, and Future
Friday, August 1, 2008
Dr. Robert Correll, Director of the Global Change Program at the Heinz Center in Washington, D.C., will frame global warming in its historical context, looking at changes over the last 400,000 years from cores into Greenland and Antarctic ice. Correll is a Senior Policy Fellow with the American Meteorological Society and Chair of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. He was previously Asst. Director for Geosciences at the National Science Foundation, and chaired the committee that oversees the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

Links

Corn ethanol and Chesapeake Bay: Unforeseen consequences
Thursday, August 28, 2008
How might our drive to shift from fossil fuels toward renewable options such as corn ethanol affect Chesapeake Bay? Join Virginia Tech Professor Jim Pease as he explores the potential economic and environmental consequences of large-scale ethanol production for the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Links

Can algae fuel our cars?
Thursday, September 25, 2008
State and federal energy plans call for production of ethanol and biodiesel fuels from corn, soybeans, and other sources. Join VIMS Professor Liz Canuel as she describes her collaborative project to turn the algae that's choking Chesapeake Bay into a renewable fuel that might one day help power our cars.

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