11th January 2005: The greenhouse effect, climate change and property prices in South and West Oxford

The European summer heat-wave of 2003 is estimated to have killed over 20,000 people, with associated agricultural losses and forest fires costing over $10 billion. Recent results from the Met Office and University of Oxford indicate that at least half the risk of such a heat-wave is likely to have been due to past human influence on climate.

Controversially, this kind of externally driven increase in risk may exceed the threshold at which victims of the heat-wave might be able to sue emitters of greenhouse gases for compensation, but there are formidable legal and scientific hurdles still to be overcome. In particular, to quantify risks in a changing climate requires running large numbers of different climate models, to which the public can contribute through the climateprediction.net initiative.

Bringing out the moral, ethical and practical issues of climate change and how it will individually affect us, Dr. Allen gives the third in a series of climate change Cafes spread over the last 18 months.

See: here for the article, this link for a News and Views article on the impacts of the heatwave, the Nature website for a Commentary article on the legal implications and www.climateprediction.net for an opportunity to help take this research forward.

Come along and join us at 7pm in Blackwells Main Bookshop, Broad Street, Oxford.
No ticket, no booking, no scientific background required.