Climate crisis: What physics predicted 50 years ago is now reality

by Thomas Stocker

Tuesday 10 Jun 2025, 14:30 → 16:00 Europe/Rome

Aula Conversi (Dip. di Fisica - Edificio G. Marconi)

“Climate change is physics”, as the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics has highlighted to the broader public. Physically based models of the atmosphere and ocean have been developed since the mid-1960s. Pioneering research by S. Manabe and K. Hasselmann predicted fingerprints of climate change that are now observed: warming in the troposphere and cooling in the stratosphere, warming of the ocean, shrinking of glaciers and polar ice sheets, and sea level rise. Their theoretical insights were eventually recognized with the Nobel Prize in Physics 2021which they shared with Giorgio Parisi from Sapienza Roma. Combined with the latest climate modelling efforts and modern observations they form the physical science basis for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. The science demonstrates the fierce urgency for climate action to avoid dangerous and irreversible impacts.