Internationally respected climate scientist and Quaker Emma Woolliams will talk at Kingston Quaker Centre about her work.
Despite her work at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington measuring the true scale of the climate emergency facing Earth - one of her current projects involves detailing the speed with which Greenland’s ice sheet is melting - Emma describes herself as a ‘stubborn optimist’.
"The oceans are rising, acidifying and warming, the ice is melting, weather patterns are changing. It can be quite frightening but I remain a stubborn optimist. I am - like most of us - fully aware of the scale of the challenge, but I believe humanity can rise to it.” Emma cites positive tipping points such as the recent closure of the UK’s last coal-fired power station as an encouraging example.
Emma’s talk - titled The Stubborn Optimist: A Quaker Climate Scientist - will detail her work which involves understanding the observations satellites make of the Earth’s climate system to obtain reliable long-term trends of different climate variables including sea ice thickness, land surface temperatures, sea level rise and the Earth’s energy imbalance.
Emma will also explain how her Quaker faith helps in her work, giving her a sense of perspective and hope alongside her understanding of the scale of the climate emergency facing the world.
“I believe that Quaker religious practices and stories, and our testimonies to simplicity, peace, equality and truth, provide an essential perspective as society undergoes necessary transitions to build a sustainable future”, comments Emma.
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