Kim Stanley Robinson On Google and Climate Change

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Google Tech Talks
December, 11 2007

ABSTRACT

As part of our SciFoo Campers @Google Tech Talk series, acclaimed author Kim Stanley Robinson will share his thoughts on climate change in what promises to be an insightful and provocative hour.
The recent IPCC and UN reports on climate change make it clear that we
face an imminent environmental crisis, and that there is an urgent need
to decarbonize our civilization as rapidly as possible. Robinson will
discuss strategies for accomplishing this, focusing on social
questions, cleaner energy and transport, mission architectures,
possibilities of geo-engineering, and the important role that Google
can have in all these as world leader in information technologies. As
in his novels, Robinson will attempt to synthesize the Big Picture
while also making specific suggestions for action now.

Speaker: Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson is a Californian science fiction writer best
known for his Mars trilogy, Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars. He
has recently published the last volume of his Climate Trilogy, Forty
Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below, and Sixty Days and Counting. He is
two-time winner of both the Nebula and the Hugo Awards, and was
selected by the U.S. National Science Foundation to go to Antarctica as
part of its Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, which resulted in
his novel Antarctica, a precursor to his Climate Trilogy. He lives in
Davis, and has enjoyed a couple of previous visits to the Googleplex.

Channel: People & Blogs
Uploaded: December 14, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Author: googletechtalks

Length: 01:14:56
Rating: 4.76
Views: 7698

Tags: google techtalks techtalk engedu talk talks googletechtalks education

Video Comments:
JonThm (November 11, 2008 at 12:05 pm)
Ice at the South Pole increased by 30% this year, as the world cooled fro tthe thrid year running. Nuclear power smashed their way through the Northern passage using an ice breaker. They always could of, this is not evidence of warming!
More plants grow in the warm, and they take in CO2, so more CO2 = more life.
DIGIBOYTV (November 11, 2008 at 2:21 am)
A tax theory which is unproven, moisture is far more a contributor than Co2 which plants absorb. Canadians also discovered clouds with snow falling via LIDAR so are cars warming Mars? and melting the remaining surface ice as seen since '96? Proof before stiffling 3rd world progress which we have already benefitted from. Where is the North pole ice on Google Maps Google? LOL!
JonThm (October 22, 2008 at 4:20 pm)
'Climate change' is fatal ficiton from nuclear power: You are their stooge.
mistahchillah (October 20, 2008 at 9:42 pm)
It makes sense to re-examine what a digital democracy would look like. The wisdom of the people is only as wise as the technology used to gather that wisdom. Companies like Google who power over knowledge at the global scale have the responsibility to efficiently organize collective knowledge to where it can be redily utilized.
JonThm (September 27, 2008 at 12:13 pm)
There is only 0.00037% CO2 in the globla air: But nuclear power wants new plants of death. But the wordl has been cooling since 2005.
sydneydoc (October 8, 2008 at 9:14 am)
If you plot the past 7 years, you will see a clear cooling trend ... and of course no temp increase since 1998 ... despite what the models forecast for this period !!

Why doesn't the IPCC 2007 report show temps for the past decade ?? (Anyone who claims that it does should quote a reference page number !)
JonThm (October 9, 2008 at 6:12 pm)
According to New Scientist, the world is cooling: Explain.
DIGIBOYTV (November 11, 2008 at 2:27 am)
But when you go to North Pole the Northern passage is now year round and the Russian coast is passable all year. Go there before you trust any info! carbon tax is $ nothing more. Water vapour is up one of the largest contributors to warming. Mars polar caps are going fast as well, solar heating out of our control.
phrikety (September 22, 2008 at 10:04 pm)
the audio quality in this video is absolutely horribly google needs to stop mangling sound, it absolutely disgusting
JonThm (August 19, 2008 at 3:13 pm)
There are no academic members of teh IPCC anymore. It is there to do nuclear PR.