GEC3 Public Lecture

Fixing the Sky: Historical perspectives on weather and climate control

Poster

Prof. James R. Fleming

6:00-7:30 pm, Thurs, Nov 4, 2010

Leacock 219, McGill University

855 Sherbrooke Street West

This presentation examines the tragicomic history of rainmakers, weather warriors, and climate engineers, arguing that “history matters” in pressing issues of current public policy concern and technical decision-making.

James Rodger Fleming is a Historian of Science and Technology and Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Colby College. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), elected “for pioneering studies on the history of meteorology and climate change and for the advancement of historical work within meteorological societies.” He recently held the Charles A. Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History at the Smithsonian Institution and the AAAS Roger Revelle Fellowship in Global Stewardship while a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He enjoys fishing, good jazz, good barbecue, seeing students flourish, building a community of historians of the geosciences, and connecting the history of science and technology with public policy.  He also recently published a book on the topic, “Fixing the Sky: The checkered history of weather and climate control” (http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14412-4/fixing-the-sky)

Sponsored by Global Environmental and Climate Change Centre, Earth System Science, Geography, Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences, Earth & Planetary Sciences, and McGill School of Environment

Free admission.