“Honestly, to a first approximation, this rock really is a black body.”

I gave a talk entitled “Long Choices: On Climate Change and Carbon Dioxide” yesterday afternoon at the Unitarian Universalist Area Church, First Parish, Sherborn, MA. My darling wife, Claire, snapped a number of, uh, entertaining photos. This is one I’ll share.

It was a lot of stuff to cover in 70 minutes, and there were some good questions. I hope that in some way I got the audience to do what Professor Ray Pierrehumbert dedicates his book with, to Professor Arnold E. Ross, namely,

… who taught us to think deeply of simple things.

I can’t imagine any phrase which better sums up what Science, ancient and modern, is all about, and what its students appreciate.

Anyway, great hopes for the talk, that it will be heard again, at other locations.

Postscript, 16th January 2014: A link to the slides of the talk, and a link to a written answer to all the questions submitted (on index cards) are now available below:

• Link to the slides of the talk
• Link to the Q&A

Postscript. 16:28 EDT, 13^th September 2014

DrPhysicsA has a triplet of excellent YouTube videos regarding “blackbody radiation”, key to understanding global warming, at the links:

1. Blackbody radiation and the UV Catastrophe – Part 1 of 3
2. Blackbody radiation and the UV Catastrophe – Part 2 of 3
3. Blackbody radiation and the UV Catastrophe – Part 3 of 3