ABRUPT CLIMATE CHANGE SYMPOSIUM
Friday, April 15, 2005
1:30 - 2:15 PM

Richard Alley - Penn State University
"Big Ice Sheet Instability: Implications for Future Sea Level"

Rapid and surprising changes in the margins of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets are contributing to sea-level rise, and highlight our inability to predict accurately the future of these ice sheets and thus of our coasts. The ice-sheet contribution to sea-level rise remains small, but is larger than expected even a few years ago. Much fundamental research is required before confident predictions will be possible.

Richard Alley is Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University. He chaired a recent U.S. National Research Council study "Abrupt Climate Change", and he has received many awards including the 2001 Phi Beta Kappa Science Award for his book, "The Two-Mile Time Machine". His research combines field, laboratory, and modeling studies to help understand the role of ice in the Earth's climate system. Dr. Alley has spent three field seasons in Antarctica, six in Greenland, and three in Alaska, and has found widely cited evidence of abrupt climate changes in ice cores.