Talk: Global Warming in the Bighorn Basin 56 Million Years Ago

Dr. Scott Wing, Research Geologist and Curator of Paleobotany for the National Museum of Natural History, presents the July Lunchtime Expedition, Global Warming in the Bighorn Basin 56 Million Years Ago. The talk takes place in the Center’s Coe Auditorium, with a virtual option available at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-XoD4Gh9TMKiHDatR3b6Xw.

We live in a time marked by rapid increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the resulting global warming and other climatic changes. These changes in climate will last thousands of years into the future and will have long-lasting effects on plants, animals and ecosystems. Our predictions of the future are improving, but we still know dangerously little about changes to come.

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM, was an episode that occurred 56 million years ago during which a rapid increase in carbon dioxide resulted in large climatic and ecological changes. The best place in the world to study the PETM is right here in the Bighorn Basin. This presentation discusses the question: What does close study of this long-ago episode of global change tell us about what might happen in the future?