SIGNS OF THE TIMES FORUM Jesus said ‘you know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times’ – Matthew 16.3 In 2015 Mosman Uniting Church launched a series of public forums, led by authorities in their chosen fields. All residents of the lower North Shore and others were welcome to attend and participate, whether Christian or not. Topic: Is climate change real? What are its consequences? What can we do about it? Environment and climate scientists are especially well-placed to bring information and answers. Is Christianity and the Church part of the problem, or part of the solution Christians face the question. ‘If there is creator God, how has the creation become an environmental mess?’ Forum speakers and discussion leaders: Rev. Dr. Clive Pearson is a leading Australian eco-theologian. He specializes in cross-cultural, ecological and public theologies, and how they interact with systematic theology. He is at the forefront of Christian reflection on ecological issues including climate change. Dr. Alex Sen Gupta is a leading climate scientist , from the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. He studies the climate of the southern hemisphere, especially how it is affected by changes in the oceans. He will bring the most up-to-date modeling to report on what is happening to the climate. Nick Grosfeld is a UNSW climate change science student and Youth Ambassador for TEAR. He is investigating the effect on rainfall in Australia of phenomena such as El Niño. TEAR Australia is a Christian advocacy organization for social justice. Nick is passionate about science promoting more equal distribution of resources and power. The moderator of the forum is Dr. David Garrett, historian and broadcaster, from Mosman Uniting Church. Subsequent Signs of the Times Forum events Christianity and Islam Do Families have a Future? FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Rev Dr Clive Pearson Clive studied at the University of Otago in Dunedin, Aotearoa-New Zealand; he received his PhD from the University of Cambridge. Clive’s primary academic interests are in cross-cultural, diasporic, ecological and public theologies. For more than 15 years, he has been exploring the conversation between these kind of theologies and a systematic theology. Clive is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Public Theology, Cross- Culture: A Journal of Theology and Ministerial Practice, and Political Theology. He is a member of the executive of the Global Network of Public Theology, and is one of the editors of the Equinox (London) series on Cross- Cultural Theologies. Nick Grosfield Nick completed a Bachelor of Science at the University of Melbourne, with a major in Atmosphere and Ocean science. He is currently taking an honors year at CCRC, investigating how the cutoff low-pressure systems that deliver rain to South East Australia might be related to the remote climate drivers, such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Nick is also part of a young adults group at TEAR Australia, a Christian advocacy organisation for social justice, and is passionate about living in such a way that promotes a more equal distribution of resources and power. Dr Alex Sen Gupta He is a research scientist and lecturer at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. Alex is looking at a number of different aspects of the southern hemisphere climate, both its mean state and variability. Developing an offline model (based on MOM1) which includes passive, age and CFC tracers to look at ventilation pathways and timescales for deep and bottom waters. This method allows unprecedented multi- century integrations at eddy-permitting resolutions. Currently, he is extending this work to look at intermediate waters. As an offshoot of this he also developed a lagrangian model that has been used to investigate the dispersal ability of a species of jellyfish and to determine if their dispersals are mainly natural or anthropogenic. More recently he has been doing model runs and analyzing the extensive model datasets of the NCAR CCSM coupled climate model. The long datasets have allowed various statistical techniques to be applied to extra- tropical southern hemisphere variability. In particular he is looking at the Southern Annular Mode(SAM) and its effect on the ocean and ice systems. He is currently looking at possible feedbacks from the ocean and ice systems back onto the SAM.