Anthropogenically Forced Climate Change

Climate change is really a physics problem. But it is enormously complicated and the kinds of information (some qualitative, none really certain) that have to be integrated into the arguments is not so familiar to the physicist. The talk will consist of a survey of the empirical evidence for the climate of the last millennium leading up to the recent century's rapid warming and the potential causes of climate change followed by how climate is modeled using the laws of physics. Finally the case will be made for man's influence on the changes that have been observed. Special attention will be given to the last three decades where the measurements of forcings and responses have been sufficiently detailed.