Against the backdrop of Sebastião Salgado's photographs, Peter deMenocal, a climate scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory specializing in paleooceanography and marine geology, delivers a primer on the work of climate scientists and how their findings illuminate our understanding of climate change.
Peter deMenocal uses ancient sediments collected from the deep sea to examine changes in Earth's climate over timescales ranging from centuries to millions of years. Analyses of these sediments reveal how and why past climates changedvaluable information that is used to understand how climate may change in the future. DeMenocal is a professor at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where he leads the Center for Climate and Life, a new initiative that addresses the near-term impacts of climate change on secure access to food, water, shelter, and energy. He was awarded the Lenfest Columbia Distinguished Faculty award in 2008, the Distinguished Brooksian award in 2013, and is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.
This event is part of the Fall 2014 programming series ICP Talks: Climate Change. For a complete listing of series events, click here.
ICP gratefully acknowledges our partnership with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society of Columbia University | Earth Institute, The Climate Group and Climate Week NYC, and The Human Impacts Institute, Brooklyn, in developing and presenting public programs to accompany the exhibition Sebastião Salgado: Genesis.
Image: Peter deMenocal investigates how changes in East African climate two million years ago may have influenced the evolution of early hominins and other African mammals, including lions. © Charlie Naebeck.