Why trust science? Discussion on the IPCC report
Introduction
Scientific knowledge is nowadays more relevant than ever in taking ethical and political decisions, from COVID management to AI control, to the challenge of global warming. Still, the complexity of the studies makes them difficult to understand not only for non-scientists, but even from scientists for different fields. So, why should be we trust science? This seminar will discuss the crucial issue of climate change. The state of the art of the knowledge on the topic has been recently summarized in the Sixth Synthesis Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We will discuss it with Annalisa Cherchi and Susanna Corti (Istituto di Scienze dell’Atmosfera e del Clima, CNR).
The seminar, organized by Alberto Mazzoni, assistant professor at Sant'Anna School, will take place at The Biorobotics Institute on 22nd May (room 1, 11.00 a.m.). Live Streaming on WebEx platform
Abstract - "How do we know about climate change? What does the last IPCC report tell us?" by Annalisa Cherchi & Susanna Corti
The latest IPCC cycle just ended. The report of the working group dedicated to the state of scientific knowledge on climate physics represents another step forward in understanding how the climate is changing and what is the role of human activity. There is no longer any doubt that the global warming we are experiencing since the second half of the twentieth century is of anthropic origin. Changes observed in recent decades, including increases in heat waves, heavy rainfall and droughts, loss of Arctic sea ice, decreases in snow cover and permafrost, and rise in mean sea level, are all projected to intensify in the future. In this scientific understanding and awareness, the increase in available data, the improvement of analysis techniques and climate models are all fundamental ingredients. Climate models, in particular, represent a virtual laboratory without which understanding climate, climate change and future climate would not be possible. These are the topics we will address in this keynote by exploiting our experience and recent contribution to the drafting of the latest IPCC report.