“Estimating Natural Versus Human

Impacts on Global Climate Change”

The forum was designed to provide an overview of the current understanding of the natural and human factors forcing global climate change based on the latest scientific observations and research.  Each panelist will present his/her view of the causes and consequences of global climate change. The forum includes four very distinguished scientists who have spent much of their professional careers conducting original research on the subject of global climate change.

Forum Moderator

Program Director, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi; President, Deep Search Inc.; Explorer in Residence, National Geographic Society

M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Duke Univ. In 1990 she was appointed

as Chief Scientist of NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration) where she served until 1992. In 1992, she founded Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, (D O E R), to design, operate, support, and consult on manned and robotic sub sea systems.

Recognized by the Library of Congress as a Living Legend, Dr. Earle is presently, Chairman of D O E R and the Explorer in Residence at the National Geographic Society. In addition, she serves as the Executive Director of Conservation International’s Marine Conservation Program, Chairman of the Advisory Committee for the Harte Institute Marine Advisory Board, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Chairman of the Science Committee for the National Park Service Advisory Board and Honorary President of the Explorers Club. She led the Sustainable Seas Expeditions, a five-year study of the National Marine Sanctuaries sponsored by National Geographic and funded by the Goldman Foundation. She is an adjunct scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), a Director of Kerr-McGee Inc., and serves on various boards, foundations and

committees relating to marine research, policy and conservation. These include the World Resources Institute, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, World Environment Center, University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography, Duke University Marine Laboratory, Lindbergh Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, the Natural Resource Defense Council, United Nations Environmental Program and National Park Service.  She is a Fellow of the AAAS, the Marine Technology Society, the California Academy of Sciences, and the World Academy of Arts

and Sciences.  Dr. Earle has led more than 50 expeditions worldwide involving in excess of 6500 hours underwater in connection with her research.  She led the first team of women aquanauts during the  Tektite Project in 1970 and holds a depth record for solo diving (1000 meters). In October 2000, she was inducted to the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

Maurice Ewing Professor of Oceanography, Rice University

assistant professor. In 1975, John joined the faculty at Rice University, where he is now the Maurice Ewing Professor of Oceanography.  He served as chairman of the department from 1992

through 1998. John was 2004 president of the Society of Sedimentary Research.

John has conducted research on various aspects of Antarctic marine geology since his first visit there as a student in 1970. He has participated in 24 scientific expeditions to Antarctica. The culmination of this research was published in a book “Antarctic Marine Geology” by Cambridge University Press. Anderson’s other research has focused on the Quaternary Evolution of northern Gulf of Mexico Basin and on the response of coastal environments to global change. He has authored and co-authored over 150 refereed publications and edited volumes on glacial marine sedimentation and the paleoclimatic significance of glacial marine sediments. The results of his research in the Gulf of Mexico over the past ten years were published in SEPM Special Publication No. 79, “Quaternary Evolution of the Gulf of Mexico Margin.” Results of his coastal work were recently published in the book “Formation and Future of the Upper Gulf Coast” by Texas A&M Press in 2007. John received the 1992 GCAGS Outstanding Educator Award and the 1996 University Graduate Teaching Award. He has received three Best Poster Session Awards, two from AAPG and one from GCAGS. He has served as associate editor for Geology, AGUAntarctic Research Series, AAPG, and Sedimentology Marine Geology and is a member of AGU, GSA (Fellow), AAPG, and SEPM. He has served on the AAS-Polar Research Board and on the 1997 NSF Oversight Panel for Polar Programs. His service to SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Research) includes two tours and co-chairman of the annual AAPG/SEPM meeting, as a member of several committees, leader of several field trips, and as Councilor for Research. He currently is President of SEPM and was the 2003 Haas-Pratt Distinguished Lecturer for the American Association of Petroleum Ecologists.

where he holds the Jackson Chair in Earth System Science, began a career in geology as an

undergraduate at Florida State University. His interest in geology and oceanography resulted in a master’s degree (1976) and a doctorate (1980) in oceanography from the University

of Miami. His career turned to climate studies in 1976 with a Cray Supercomputing Fellowship from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). In 1985, he returned to the University of Miami as associate professor. Barron went to Pennsylvania State University in 1986 to direct the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ newly formed Earth System Science Center (ESSC). Under Barron’s leadership, the growth of ESSC resulted in the establishment of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ Environment Institute. Barron became the director of this new Institute in 1998.  In 2002, he was named dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State.  In 2006, he joined The University of Texas at Austin as dean of the recently formed Jackson School of Geosciences. Barron’s research interests are in the areas of climatology, numerical modeling, and Earth history. He served as chair of the Climate Research

Committee of the National Research Council (NRC) from 1990 to 1996. In 1997, he was named co-chair of the Board on Atmospheric Sciences (BASC) of the NRC, and from 1999 to 2003 he

chaired the BASC. In addition, he has also served as chair of the USGCRP Forum on Climate Modeling, the Allocation Panel for the Interagency Climate Simulation Laboratory, the U.S. National Committee for PAGES and the NSF Earth System History Panel. Barron is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2002, he was named a fellow of the National Institute for Environmental Science at Cambridge University.  In 2003, he received the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal.

in Washington, D.C. Mike graduated from Princeton University in 1964, and received his Ph.D. in

Applied Science from the University of California Davis/Livermore in 1968. His doctoral research involved use of an early climate model that he had constructed to assess the Arctic’s

possible role in driving glacial cycling. From 1968-1993, Mike conducted research on climate change and air pollution with the University of California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

(LLNL), evaluating, for example, the climatic effects of volcanic eruptions, greenhouse gases and nuclear war. From 1993-2002, Mike served as senior global change scientist with the interagency

Office of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), including as the first executive director of the Office from 1993-1997 and then as executive director of the USGCRP’s National Assessment Coordination Office from 1997-2001. During this assignment, Mike also helped coordinate the US Government review of the Second and Third Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Since joining the Climate Institute in 2002, Mike’s activities have included participation in the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (2002-2004, serving as review editor for the North America chapter of the Fourth Assessment Report of IPCC (2005-2007), election as president (2003-07) of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS), and service on the executive committees of the International

Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) and the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR). He was also a coordinating lead author on the recent report (“Confronting Climate Change: Avoiding the Unmanageable and Managing the Unavoidable”) issued by an international scientific expert group asked to suggest measures for mitigating and adapting to global climate change that was organized by Sigma Xi at the request of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. Dr. MacCracken is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a member of the American Meteorological Society, the Oceanography Society, and the American Geophysical Union, among other organizations. His affidavit

relating to global climate change and impacts on particular regions was recently cited favorably by Justice Stevens in his opinion in the recent decision in Massachusetts et al. versus EPA.

(FSU) and an Isotope Geochemist in the National High Magnetic Field Lab in Tallahassee Florida.

He is a Chemical Oceanography, Environmental Chemist, and Paleoceanographer.

His interests span the breadth of Global Biogeochemical Dynamics, a field that endeavors to understand the links between current and past environmental changes. His research groups unravel past changes in ocean and atmosphere chemistry driven by both natural and man-made processes. His students work on projects such as stalagmite recorders (cave dripstone deposits)

of southeastern rainfall and climate over the past several thousand years; isotope and trace element recorders of ocean chemistry changes embedded in microfossil shells from marine sediments over the past tens of millions of years; release of toxic trace elements by industrial processes such as coal-fired power plants to southeastern airsheds, rivers, streams over the past three decades; sea level changes affecting salt exchange through the Straits of Bab El Mendab in the Red Sea during the past 20,000 years. Froelich received his B.S. in Chemistry from Duke University in 1970 and his Ph.D. in Oceanography in 1979 from The Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island. Before arriving at FSU, he was Director of the Oceans and Climates Division of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (Columbia University) where

he was also Associate Director of the Institute and a Doherty Scholar. He was Director and Professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has participated in and led 33 oceanic expeditions on research vessels over the past 35 years and has authored or co-authored over 190 refereed and non-refereed publications.

The Francis Eppes Chairs are named for President Thomas Jefferson’s grandson, one of the founders of FSU’s predecessor, the Seminary West of the Suwannee. Eppes was mayor of Tallahassee during the pre-statehood era, helped establish the Florida Institute in 1854, and brought his grandfather’s ideals to the Seminary Board of Trustees where he served for eleven years, the last eight as President of the Board.