Science Cafe: Finding the floodgates - assessing the risk posed by a new climate to an old industry

Date/Time
29/04/2015
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

This April’s Science Cafe talk will be by Christopher O’Brien, Tata Steel UK, who will be assessing the risk posed by a new climate to an old industry.

While legislation, regulation and emissions trading continue to haltingly bring about the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the frequency and violence of weather extremes can no longer be ignored. Some weather extremes have already been linked to climate change, others cannot, and still more will not be studied. While cause and effect may take longer to establish, similarities between observed extreme weather and the weather projected by modelling cannot be easily dismissed. Models suggest that at least for the UK, storms will likely become stronger, tides and waves higher, summers warmer and winters wetter. UK Government and business quite rightly dedicate a lot of resource to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but even if the world stopped burning fossil carbon today, an increasingly energetic climate and rising sea levels would continue to threaten industry and infrastructure for decades to come.

This talk aims to answer some of the questions being raised by regulators and businesses in the UK, namely how might the climate change, and to what extent will it impact on risk? It will introduce some key tools developed by the UK Government as well as describing uncertainty and modelling assumptions and their relevance to flood risk assessment at the Port Talbot Steelworks in South Wales.

The Swansea Science Café offers opportunities for anyone to find out more about new, exciting and topical areas of science. Designed to be informal and entertaining, entry is free and talks start at 7:30 pm at the Dylan Thomas Centre. http://www.swansea.ac.uk/science/swanseasciencecafe/

Science Cafe: Finding the floodgates – assessing the risk posed by a new climate to an old industry