Science and soda.

We had the second 2020 Climate Group lecture last week. This one was on the science around climate change. We had two boffins, Stephen Belcher from the Met Office and James Curran from SEPA, who did an excellent job in explaining the current scientific views and evidence on climate change. For example a lot of work is now being done to understand what climate change means for the occurrence of extreme weather events. The one event illustrated was the heat wave of 2003 where the statistical analysis suggests it was twice as likely to happen now than it was before the industrial era. The general consensus was that we can expect extreme weather events, like heat waves and floods to happen more regularly. This seems to be true anecdotally but it was good to hear it being backed up by experts.

I'm afraid that I brought the evening to a close with a slightly more mundane illustration. The increasing layer of greenhouse gases means we are trapping more energy in the atmosphere. And if you want to know what happens when you put more energy into a volatile system, try giving a toddler some Irn Bru!