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 [...]

Adrian Currie (University of Calgary)Title: Paleo-Climate & Future-ClimateUnderstanding the climate’s deep past is essential for understanding its future, however the nature of the paleoclimatological record is problematic. My aim in this paper is to get a conceptual handle on what paleoclimatology can offer climate projections, and what challenges this faces. Climate simulations are validated if [...]

  25 October  2014   Laura Ballantyne-Brodie (New York University) Title: Earth System Ethics: A Proposal for a Systems Approach to Ethics   The news has been delivered and we now understand with near certainty that the industrial economy is at odds with the physical systems of the planet.1 Shocks such as the credit crunch, [...]

Charlotte Werndl (LSE, University of Salzburg)  Abstract: The aim of the paper is to provide a clear and thorough conceptual analysis of the main candidates for a definition of climate and climate change. Five desiderata on a definition of climate are presented: it should be empirically applicable, it should correctly classify different climates, it should not [...]

http://youtu.be/WfwgaMHmLkU Practical Philosophies of Climate Modeling Gavin Schmidt (National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS))   Abstract: I give an overview of the practice of developing and using complex climate models, as seen from experiences in a major US center for climate sci - ence and through participation in the [...]

Knowledge Infrastructures and Climate Change Science  Paul Edwards (University of Michigan, Department of History and School ofInformation) Abstract: Climate modeling developed in a series of distinct stages. In the1950s and 1960s, the earliest computer models were built as a “craft” activity by individuals or small groups. By the 1970s, modeling had become a laboratory activity, with larger [...]

 Democratizing Analytics: Scientifically and Ethically Informed Decision Support for Addressing Wicked ProblemsRobert Lempert (Pardee RAND Graduate School, Frederick S. Pardee Center for Longer Range Global Policy and the Future Human Condition)Abstract: Responding to climate change requires both quantitative analysis and ethical reasoning. Ethical reasoning is required because climate change will af - fect many people [...]

Another video from the Climate Modelling conference has been posted on the Institute's YouTube channel. Missing the Forest for the FishEric Winsberg(The University of South Florida, Philosophy Department) Abstract: In a recent series of papers, Roman Frigg, Leonard Smith, and othershave developed a general epistemological argument designed to cast doubt onthe capacity of a broad range of [...]

Should we take drastic measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions now, or should we continue our current practices and leave it to future generations to adapt to the effects of climate change? Opinions on this issue are divided. In this lecture Roman Frigg explains the terms of the debate in plain English (no knowledge of [...]