Ioan Muntean (University of Notre Dame)Title: Plurality of Models, Optimization and Mechanisms in Climate Studies. The Role of Feedback in the New IPCC Report In order to predict and ultimately explain Earth’s climate system, especially its sensitivity to natural and human influences in the immediate and long-term future, a considerable number of computer simulations are run [...]

  Crediblity of Regional Climate Model Projections of Future Climate: Issues and ChallengesLinda Mearns (National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Regional Integrated Sciences Collective (RISC), IMAGe)Abstract: The issue of credibility of regional climate model simulations of the future has been discussed for a long time, but concern about how to properly quantify the relative credibility of [...]

Daniel Lachat (York University)Title: Wind Trends in the Far North: Model-based Climate ProjectionThe North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) data have shown increases in wind speed in Ontario of up to 60% for the past thirty years. Since measurement stations are scarce in the far-north due to challenges in accessibility and maintenance, the NARR model offers [...]

Jason Davidson (University of Waterloo)Title: Coupled Atmospheric and Hydrologic ModelingIntegrated hydrologic models require high-resolution atmospheric data sets. However, traditional modeling approaches use low-resolution met station data for an entire catchment, despite the availability of high-resolution atmospheric model data. With this in mind, we propose a new realm of water cycle modeling by coupling an integrated [...]

  Reactions to Shining a Light on Science in the DarkWendy Parker(Durham University)

 Are Climate Models Well Confirmed? And Why Would We Want to Know?Gregor Betz (Karlsruher Institute for Technology, Institute of Philosophy)  video conference Abstract: At first glance, understanding the extent to which different climate models are empirically confirmed seems to be essential both for practical as well as scientific purposes. At second glance, however, things are much [...]

  Steve Easterbrook (University of Toronto)Title: Constructive and External Validity for Climate ModelingDiscussion of validity of scientific computational models tend to treat “the model” as a unitary artifact, and ask questions about its fidelity with respect to observational data, and its predictive power with respect to future situations. For climate modeling, both of these questions are [...]

Nicolas Fillion (Simon Fraser University)   Title: The Vindication of Computer Simulations   The relatively recent increase in prominence of computer simulations in scientific inquiry has transformed both science and philosophy of science. In fact, a practical knowledge (a ‘know-how’) of scientific computation has become essential for scientists working in all disciplines involving mathematics. This [...]

Andrea Boyer (University of Western Ontario) Title: Effects of Simulated Recurrent Inclement Winter Weather on the Stress Response and Feeding Behaviour of White-throated Sparrows ( Zonotrichia albicollis ) Climate change has been linked to increasing frequency and severity of violent, unpredictable winter storms and other extreme weather events at nearly all latitudes. As climate change [...]

Brent Sinclair (University of Western Ontario) Title: Plasticity, Variability, Thresholds and Evolution: Why It’s So Hard to Model the Response of the ‘Average’ Insect to Climate Change   Models of biological systems and their responses to climate change necessarily make assumptions about the biology of the organisms whose behaviour they seek to predict. In many [...]