Finding secure, safe and reliable sources of energy to power world economic growth will be one of the great challenges of this century. The Harvard University Center for the Environment invites the Harvard community to take up the challenge by participating in this ongoing series of discussions. THE FUTURE OF ENERGY Fall 2009 David Keith Director, Energy and Environmental Systems Group, Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment, and Economy, University of Calgary "Climate Engineering: A Necessary Tool for Managing Climate Risks" TODAY 5:00 pm Harvard University Science Center Lecture Hall D One Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA The combination of high inertia and high uncertainty makes the coupled climate-economic system dangerously hard to control. If the climate's sensitivity is at the high end of current estimates, it may be too late to avert dramatic consequences for human societies or natural ecosystems even if we could cut emissions to zero in a few decades. Emissions cuts are necessary but not sufficient to manage climate risks; prudence demands that we study methods that offer the hope of limiting the environmental risks posed by the accumulation of fossil carbon in the atmosphere. The engineered alteration of the earth’s radiation budget--geooengineering--offers a fast means of managing climate risk, but entails a host of new risks and cannot fully compensate for the risk posed by carbon in the air. I will argue that systematic management of climate risks requires the capability to geoengineer and discuss the technology and policy a geoengineering research program needed to build such capability. David Keith has worked near the interface between climate science, energy technology and public policy for twenty years. His work in technology and policy assessment has centered on the capture and storage of CO2, the technology and implications of global climate engineering, the economics and climatic impacts of large-scale wind power and the prospects for hydrogen fuel. As a technologist, David has built a high-accuracy infrared spectrometer for NASA's ER-2 and developed new methods for reservoir engineering increase the safety of stored CO2. He now leads a team of engineers developing technology to capture of CO2 from ambient air at an industrial scale. The Future of Energy lecture series is sponsored by the Harvard University Center for the Environment with generous support from Bank of America. All of the lectures are free and open to the public. --- Contact: Lisa Matthews Events Coordinator Harvard University Center for the Environment 24 Oxford Street Cambridge, MA 02138 lisa_matthews(a)harvard.edu p. 617-495-8883 f. 617-496-0425 ============================================== You are receiving this email because you indicated interest in Harvard University Center for the Environment events. Unsubscribe aspuru-list(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu from this list: http://harvard.us1.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=7532d1fbf18f39219ac742ebe&… Our mailing address is: Harvard University Center for the Environment 24 Oxford St. 3rd floor Cambridge, MA 02138 Our telephone: (617) 495-0368 Forward this email to a friend: http://us1.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=7532d1fbf18f39219ac742ebe&id… Update your profile: http://harvard.us1.list-manage.com/profile?u=7532d1fbf18f39219ac742ebe&…