Saturday, October 12, 2019 • 1–3 p.m.
Professor Gifford Miller, Geological Sciences
Interim Director, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research
The Arctic is warming two to three times faster than the rest of the Earth, a fact with complex implications that researchers are just beginning to understand. In this lecture, Professor Gifford Miller will discuss how researchers measure and evaluate contemporary global warming, and how current warming trends compare to earlier centuries. As ice caps melt and expose landscapes and plants long preserved, scientists have discovered that the past century is the warmest century in more than 50,000 years. This warming in the Arctic directly impacts people and wildlife who live in that area, and also the rest of the world’s inhabitants and ecosystems.
About the Presenter
Gifford Miller is a professor of geological sciences and interim director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. His research focuses on utilizing the record of the recent geological past, primarily in hot and cold deserts, to gain a better understanding of Earth’s climate system and the role of humans in the Earth System. A primary research interest has been understanding the climate evolution of the North Atlantic Arctic, with fieldwork on Arctic Russia, Svalbard, Iceland, Greenland and more than 40 campaigns to Baffin Island in the Eastern Canadian Arctic. To find out more, visit Miller’s website.