This is my first posting on this Academy blog. I am Dr. Peter Roopnarine, the Curator of Geology and Paleontology here at the Academy. I am an interdisciplinary biologist and earth scientist with a variety of research interests. Originally, a lot of my work involved the study of extinctions of marine organisms over the last 35 million years, and evolutionary recovery from those extinctions. More recently I've become interested in Earth's current biodiversity crisis, the ongoing extinction of species, and what we can learn about it from extinctions in the fossil record. This has all lead to a growing interest in modern climate change and global warming.
Modern climate change is most likely the largest issue that has ever faced humans, and we need to understand it. In this blog, I'll try to explain some of the basic science of climate change, and take a critical look at the almost daily reports and comments that are flooding the media these days. Climate change is a problem caused by the collective actions of millions of people, including you and me, and it will only be solved by our collective understanding and positive choices.