Geologist To Warn Of Global Warming Consequences

by Judy Long

Dr. Greg Retallack, a geologist from University of Oregon, will discuss similarities between the climate of the age of dinosaurs and our own warming global environment at 3:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 28, in room E231 of the Baylor Sciences Building on the Baylor University campus. The lecture, titled "Carbon Dioxide and Climate Over the Past 300 Million Years," will explain global warming spikes recorded in the clays of Utah and adjacent states.
Retallack uses fossil soils and estimations of past atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from fossil leaves as an archive of past global disasters. In his lecture, he will explain why these global warming spikes are a warning for our future.
Born in Tasmania, Retallack grew up in Sydney, Australia, and attended the University of New England in Armidale, Australia, where he was awarded the University Medal for his honor's thesis. He received his doctorate from the same institution. He has taught at University of Oregon since 1981.
His awards include the Strevens Prize of the Australian Petroleum Exploration Association, the Stillwell Medal of the Geological Society of Australia and the Antarctic Medal of the National Science Foundation. He has served as the Miller Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Illinois, Haas Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Kansas and Oualleen Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Texas. He also has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, Geology, Palaios and Palaeogeography, Palaeclimatolog and Palaeoecology. He currently serves as the book review editor for Priscum.
Retallack was appointed a fellow of the Geological Society of America in 1981 and the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2001. He has published eight books and 155 peer-reviewed publications, including five in Science and one in Nature.
For more information, contact Dr. Lee Nordt at (254) 710-2195.