Understanding our climate
Professor Dave Griggs
In a webinar this week, Director of the Monash Sustainability Institute (MSI) and CEO of ClimateWorks Australia, Professor Dave Griggs, as well as colleagues from the University of Tasmania and the CSIRO, addressed journalists on the subject of climate modelling.
A climate model is a mathematical representation of the way parts of the Earth’s climate system – the atmosphere, oceans, land surface, ice, the sun, etc – interact. Models are created to estimate trends, helping scientists predict how the build up of greenhouse gases, for instance, may affect global temperatures.
During the briefing, Professor Griggs gave an overview of what climate modelling is, why we use it, how widely it’s used and what it can and cannot predict. He answered some of most common questions raised about climate modelling, among them “Why do we use models when we have raw data?”, “How accurate can a model be?” and “What happens when we find out a climate model is wrong?”
Professor Griggs said modelling formed a vital part of science’s understanding of the climate.
“Climate models are the only way we have to predict future climate. and I think, to some extent, there’s a bit of confusion among the general public surrounding how climate models work, how they are used and what they can and can’t tell us,” Professor Griggs said.
“We wanted to use this briefing as a chance to give some simple – but not simplistic – answers to the questions that often get raised in discussions about climate change.”
MSI is a multi-disciplinary, cross-faculty institute that uses research, education and action to bring about solutions to the key problems that surround climate change and sustainability. It administers a number of programs and research centres, among them the Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, the Sustainable Cities Program and ClimateWorks Australia.
ClimateWorks Australia is a non-profit collaboration hosted by Monash University in partnership with The Myer Foundation dedicated to a sustainable and prosperous low carbon society. ClimateWorks develops projects that deliver substantive and lasting reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the fastest and most cost effective way.
For further information visit http://www.monash.edu.au/research/sustainability-institute/