Climate change symposium warms up geology celebration

Global warming and sustainable development, two of the most pressing environmental issues of our day, will be the topic of a public symposium Friday, May 7, as the Department of Geology and Geophysics celebrates 150 years of Wisconsin earth science.

The afternoon symposium, to be held in Room AB20 Weeks Hall, 1215 W. Dayton St., will feature three authorities on issues of climate change and sustainable development: Richard Alley, a Penn State professor of geosciences and a leading climate change detective whose work deciphering ice cores from the Antarctic and Greenland has rewritten our understanding of rapid climate change; John Wise, a charter member of the Environmental Protection Agency and director of the agency’s Office of Strategic Planning in San Francisco; and George Nicolaides, vice president of the BP-Amoco’s Oil Technology Group and a director of technology resources for the company’s world-wide refining system.

The climate symposium begins at 2 p.m. and is free and open to the public. The symposium is being held in recognition of 150 years of geological science at UW–Madison.