Séminaire de Steven Sherwood (CCRC, en visite au LMD)

This talk will begin with a recent study arguing that 
achievable levels of global warming may bring many regions of the Earth 
close to the limit of habitability due to summertime heat stress.  The 
thermodynamics of heat transfer from mammals are closely linked to the 
thermodynamics of thunderstorms, such that summer storm activity 
arguably acts as a thermostat limiting the worst heat stress to levels 
that are tolerable today, but may not be in centuries to come.  Some 
issues arising in connection to this affect a second climate impact, 
tropical cyclones, as both are connected to the tropical lapse rate 
which some studies suggest is changing in unexpected ways that could be 
boosting the power of hurricanes.  I will review the evidence on this 
point, which unfortunately remains inconclusive.