Description

Geologist Alasdair Skelton was born when the atmosphere contained 325 parts-per-million carbon dioxide and the Earth was 0.3 degrees warmer than it should have been. Today, the atmosphere contains 427 parts-per-million carbon dioxide and human-induced warming has reached 1.4 degrees. This one degree of climate warming would have taken five million years to happen if driven by the natural geological processes that control the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere. Put another way, humans have become geological actors. Indeed, we are changing the climate upon which we (and the 8.7 million plants and animals we share the Earth with) depend on to survive, at a speed that may be unparalleled in four billion years of planetary history. In this lecture, Alasdair Skelton will begin by reflecting on what the word climate actually means, not only as a meteorological term but also, as it was defined by Aristotle, as a geographical term. He will then frame the climate crisis in the context of the vastness of geological time and, by doing so, he will portray its immediacy. He will conclude by reflecting on how awareness about the climate crisis drives not only geologists, but also other researchers working on climate, to cross the line from academia to activism.

Alasdair Skelton is Professor of Geochemistry and Petrology at Stockholm University. His published works are on petrology (the study of rocks), earthquake forecasting, climate of the past and the ongoing climate crisis. He was co-Director of the Bolin Centre for Climate Research for nine years (from 2013 to 2021). Presently, he is Chairperson of the Education Board at Stockholm University, and Chairperson of the European Civic University Hub on Climate, Environment and Energy. He is strongly committed and actively involved in educating about geology and climate at all levels from pre-school to research training both within and beyond academia. He is co-founder of Researcher’s Desk, a civil society organization engaged in climate action, which serves as a meeting place for academia and activism.