Skip to main content

Predicting our climate future: what we know, what we don't know, what we can't know

David Stainforth discusses his new book Predicting Our Climate Future: what we know, what we don’t know, and what we can’t know - how climate science works and why you should absolutely trust some of its conclusions and absolutely distrust others.
David Stainforth discusses his new book Predicting Our Climate Future: what we know, what we don’t know, and what we can’t know - how climate science works and why you should absolutely trust some of its conclusions and absolutely distrust others.
Thursday 12 October 2023 | 1 hour 30 minutes 53 seconds
Download File | 83.23MB

Climate change raises new, foundational challenges in science. It requires us to question what we know and how we know it. The subject is important for society but the science is young and history tells us that scientists can get things wrong before they get them right. How, then, can we judge what information is reliable and what is open to question?

During the event the essential characteristics of climate change which make it a difficult issue to study will be highlighted. A series of challenges in the study of climate change across multiple disciplines will be presented and the audience will be taken on a journey through the maths of complexity, the physics of climate, philosophical questions regarding the origins and robustness of knowledge, and the use of natural science in the economics and policy of climate change.