Presentation on Climate Change and Global Warming

Don't miss this informative presentation on the most important and contentious environmental issue of the last 100 years: Earth's warming climate and its root causes. Richard Turco (Rich) will review the latest evidence that Global Warming is unambiguously associated with human activities, and in particular, massive worldwide consumption of fossil fuels. He will then discuss the likely path forward, in light of continuing emissions of greenhouse gases, and growing concerns about serious effects projected for later this century, such as rising sea levels, ocean acidification, excess heat, droughts, and widespread biological disruptions. The most direct and effective solution to Global Warming is rapid reductions in fossil fuel usage with substitution of "clean" alternative energy sources but may not be possible on a sufficiently short time-scale to avoid extensive environmental and societal harm. But there may be a new hope for civilization; and perhaps even an end to the nagging Climate Wars.

Rich and his wife Linda have been residents of Bear Valley Springs since 2007. He is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of California Los Angeles, having retired in 2011. Rich served as Chair of UCLA's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, and as the Founding Director of UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. Rich was elected President of the Atmospheric Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and sat on a panel that drafted the AGU's first policy statement on Global Warming that pointed to human intervention in the climate system. Rich's honors include a Macarthur Foundation Fellowship, Fellowship in the AGU, the Leo Szilard Award for Physics in the Public Interest from the American Physical Society, and the Peace Garden Award from the University of North Dakota for his work on the "Nuclear Winter" theory.

Rich will take questions at the end of the presentation.

This event will be held at Oak Tree Country Club, 29500 N. Lower Valley Road, in Bear Valley Springs, on June 18, 2016 at 3 p.m. and will be free to the greater Tehachapi community by reservation. Hors d'oeuvres will be served, and wine and soft drinks will be available. Please note

that reservations are required. Call Linda at (661) 821-1505 to reserve your seat, or to be added to the gate pass list.