Emeritus Keith Brander, DTU Aqua will give a talk on his career in science within climate and fisheries and in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Abstract
I was asked to talk about working for the IPCC. Everyone who does so has their own personal perspective and background in science, so rather than attempting a grand overview of the way in which the IPCC process has evolved, this will be a mainly personal account. It will trace some of the science that has arisen from considering global climate issues.
The story begins the Cod and Climate Change (CCC) programme which brought scientists from many disciplines together to investigate the effects of physical ocean variability on the dynamics of cod (Gadus morhua) throughout the North Atlantic. When the programme began in the late 1980's the focus was mainly on interannual to decadal climate variability, but the timescale lengthened to match the growing interest in anthropogenic climate change. Some of the issues that have arisen since then are: how fast is ocean climate changing? Is the evidence good enough to detect changes in oceanic biota and to attribute them to climate? Can we project future changes with sufficient reliability to act on? Why are changes in terrestrial food production easier to predict than changes in aquatic food production?
I will finish by speculating on the future role of the IPCC.