Projections of the impact of climate change by 2100 will be the basis for this Friday's (Feb. 14) session of Cochrane Ideas. It will take place in King Solomon Lodge, 120 Centre Ave., starting at 7 p.m.

Jerry Osborn, professor emeritus of geoscience at the University of Calgary, will look ahead to likely conditions at the end of the 21st century, and speculate on the kind of world his current toddler grandchildren and other young people will face in their old age.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and independent researchers have made a series of projections of global and regional mean temperatures, plus sea levels, expected at that time. The IPCC has also made ancillary forecasts, some of them dire, about the economy, health, food supply, and biodiversity, depending on actions taken now by Canada and the international community.

Osborn, who has a research specialty in glacier and climate history, will show that whichever of these projections are most likely will depend on society’s energy decisions in the next several decades.

He will take into account the likelihood that current warming is anthropogenic, the degree to which large-numerical-climate-model outputs should be accepted, the right-wing and left-wing social agendas that place climate at the heart of current culture wars, current climate politics, influences from belief systems, and the inertia of social change.

He concludes that two degrees of warming is probably wishful thinking, and the world will be a very different place for young people now being born.

Any interested people are welcome to attend free of charge, although donations to cover costs are gratefully received.

The organizing committee encourages discussions on a very broad range of topics. For further information about this event or Cochrane Ideas, contact Andy Marshall at marshallca97@gmail.com, Or, visit the group’s website here.