Alladi Ramakrishnan Hall

The Story of Climate Change

R. Shankar

IMSc.

This talk is an attempt to provide a perspective to view the
forthcoming Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) which will shortly
be released by the IPCC. Leaks from this report have been reported
in the media recently. The perspective is that of a physicist who
is interested in but not actively working on climate science.

We will recall the history of the discovery of climate change, a story
that spans almost 200 years, tracing out the evolution of ideas and data.
We will then attempt to summarise the current status of the field.
finally discuss ways in which physicists could possibly usefully
contribute to climate science.