Lecture 1: The past is the key to the future for understanding climate change: the importance of chironomids as temperature indicators
In recent years, the use of midges as quantitative indicators of past temperatures has greatly expanded.
Below is a brief summary of Dr Barbara Lang's Lecture on 'Changes in temperature and Society over the last 15,000years' (Edge Hill University):
Favourite line: Need to explore and understand the past in order to see how the system works.
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Always been natural climate vulnerability;
important to look at past to see how system works
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Chironomids: non-biting midges found in most
environments as pioneer species used as evidence
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Paleo records also used like Pollen and hunan
bone/hunting records.
Q: What lessons can we learn from the past for now?
Q: How is climate change going to affect the human population differently (winners & losers)
http://www.ecrc.ucl.ac.uk/?q=courses/chironomids-water-quality-and-climate-change
Lecture 2: Future trends in natural hazard loss
Below is a brief summary of Professor David Petley's Lecture on 'Future Trends in Natural Hazrad Loss' (Durham University)
Favourite line: Geography is the key discipline which
integrates the physical and human world.
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The next big plus 8.0 earthquake - 1million
fatality or $1 trillion dollar loss.
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Regarding unpredictable earthquakes, the future will
be the same as past, just more expensive!
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Increasing vulnerable population with a false
sense of security (low hazard perception).
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There has been a clustering of earthquakes overt
time (1950s/60s cluster; now 2005 since Sumatra).
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Next big one, Kathmandu
Q: Research why Kathmandu is so vulnerable?
