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Contacts: Diane Greenberg, (631) 344-2347 or Mona S. Rowe, (631) 344-5056 Brookhaven Lab Scientist to Speak on 'The Greenhouse Effect and Your Family's Contribution to It,' at Brookhaven Lab, April 17April 2, 2007 UPTON, NY - Stephen Schwartz, a scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, will give a talk titled "The Greenhouse Effect and Your Family's Contribution to It" at the Laboratory's Berkner Hall on Tuesday, April 17, at noon. The lecture is one of several activities in April sponsored by the Laboratory's Environmental Services and Waste Management Division to commemorate Earth Day, April 22. The free lecture is open to the public, and no reservations are required. All visitors to the Laboratory age 16 and over must bring a photo ID.  Stephen Schwartz The greenhouse effect refers to the increase in Earth's surface temperature that results from gases in the atmosphere, such as water vapor and carbon dioxide, which are transparent to visible radiation from the sun, absorbing infrared energy emitted at Earth's surface and re-emitting it. Some of this energy goes back into space, but some of it is again absorbed at the surface. The greenhouse effect is responsible for the temperate climate of the planet. But, recently, the release of greenhouse gases has greatly increased because of human activities; this has led to global warming, which could profoundly affect life on Earth. Human population quadrupled and energy consumption increased sixteenfold over the last century. The nine warmest years globally have occurred in the 1990s and 2000s, and global surface temperature is higher today than it has been for at least a millennium. Most scientists agree that the burning of fossil fuels for heat and electricity, as well as the burning of gasoline in vehicles, has led to an excess of carbon dioxide emissions that has contributed to global warming. Once this excess carbon dioxide is created, it stays in the atmosphere for decades - maybe a century. Schwartz will discuss the science of global warming, as well as give some statistics about it. On a practical level, he will describe how an average family contributes to global warming and provide suggestions on how they can decrease their energy consumption to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. He will also briefly describe some of the research that is being conducted at Brookhaven Lab to better understand this phenomenon. Stephen Schwartz received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Harvard University, in 1963, and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1968. After postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge, England, Schwartz came to Long Island to join the Chemistry Department at Stony Brook University. He joined Brookhaven Lab in 1975. His current research interest centers on the influence of energy-related emissions on climate, with a focus on the role of atmospheric aerosols. A Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union, Schwartz received the 2003 Haagen-Smit Award for an "outstanding paper" published in the journal Atmospheric Environment. In 2006, he received the BNL Science and Technology Award for distinguished contributions to the Laboratory's science and technology mission. Schwartz is one of some 300 scientists worldwide to be designated a "highly cited researcher" in geophysics by Thomson-ISI (formerly the Institute for Scientific Information).
Number: 07-35 | BNL Media & Communications Office |
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