Montana State University’s Honors College will present internationally renowned astrophysicist and author David Helfand in a free public lecture on climate change at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, in the Hager Auditorium at Museum of the Rockies. A book signing will follow.
Helfand has been an astrophysicist at Columbia University for more than 35 years. He is also past president of the American Astronomical Society and former president of Quest University in Canada. His latest book, “A Survival Guide to the Misinformation Age: Scientific Habits of Mind,” was released in February.
In his lecture, Helfand will present an analysis of what is known and unknown about climate change, examining physics certainties and feedback uncertainties. He will discuss the astronomical factors that have driven climate change in the past such as solar variability and orbital variations and then, more recent, human-caused changes to the earth’s atmosphere and oceans. Helfand will describe how measurements of past climate derived from tree rings and ice cores help inform models for predictions of the future and will conclude with an analysis of the current state of knowledge on the topic.
Helfand’s lecture, “Global Climate Change: What We Know and What We Don’t Know,” is sponsored by MSU’s Honors College.
