Why Are We Here?
Life on Earth has persisted for ~4 billion years (Bell et al., 2015), through meteor showers, massive outpourings of volcanic material and extreme droughts and flooding - but why? The Earth must have a set of processes (which scientists and engineers call 'feedbacks') to self-regulate climate and maintain a hospitable environment for life to survive, thrive and multiply. During this masterclass, you will delve into Earth's history and use our geochemical toolkit to interrogate the geological record, allowing you to assess whether or not the Earth is capable of self-climate moderation, and, if so, what could that mean for the future as CO2 levels rise to unprecedented heights.
Host: William is a PhD research student in Isotope Geochemistry, Earth-Ocean-Atmosphere systems, at the University of Cambridge. He currently demonstrate classes to first and fourth year Cambridge Natural Science students. William’s teaching varies from the fundamentals of Earth Sciences, to delivering cutting-edge research that he and his colleagues have produced to students in their master’s year.
Duration: Suggest 1-2 hours depending on the level of detail desired.
