Transition Town Exmouth: “Climate Change – from Global to Local”: report

The session a fortnight ago in Exmouth on climate change was a big success.
Futures Forum: Transition Town Exmouth: “Climate Change – from Global to Local”: 30th September
Below is a report from TTE's chair:

The Climate Change lecture from Professor Challenor went well with a good turnout; upwards of 80 people attended. thanks to those of you who came, some of them have been newly added to our mailing lists as a result. Thanks to Sam Forder for organising the lecture.

I suspect some people found the science too obscure but that in itself is a valuable lesson; we were introduced to something called the North Atlantic Drift, which is part of the thermohaline circulation (THC)! He covered the science of Climate Change well and used graphs to good effect showing that the increase in world temperatures can only be seen when periods of at least ten years are examined; within that time scale, some years may be cooler but most have been warmer.

What I found most intriguing was when Professor Challenor allowed himself to be let astray from the science. He evaded a couple of questions but his 'social science' insights did break out in others. I hope to be able to post a precis of his lecture on the Website in due course. 

Thanks to the college for the use of the Telfer Centre but an irritating noise drew my attention to their energy-saving policy or lack of. I switched off their drinks cooler to stop the noise but do they really leave that on 24/7 just to cool down Coca-cola? A timer that switches on at 6 in the morning would surely be better; the stuff doesn't go off! Could anyone with influence there draw it to Management's attention.

Transition Town Exmouth | Dealing With Climate Change and Peak Oil
Professor Peter Challenor - CEMPS - - Mathematics, University of Exeter
www.climathnet.org/media/universityofexeter/emps/climathnet/2013_02_20_CliMathNetBrochure.pdf

See also: Shutdown of thermohaline circulation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
AR4 WGII Chapter 12: Europe - 12.6.2 Thermohaline circulation changes in the North Atlantic: possible impacts for Europe
Access : The role of the thermohaline circulation in abrupt climate change : Nature
.
.
.