Abstracts for many of the papers to be presented at the conference are available online. I haven’t had a chance to read them all yet, but there are some interesting critiques on the failure of climate models used by the IPCC to integrate projected population figures into their variables. This would seem important, given that the world’s population is expected to expand to nine billion by 2050. I have to say, I’m hardly surprised. I spent some time working with climate models during my undergrad, and while the science was interesting, I came away wondering if the impacts of global warming can really be predicted. The earth is a complex system, and trying to replicate it with a computer seems a futile endeavor.

It will be interesting to see how this conference shapes future climate policy. At the very least, it’s nice to see the world’s upper brass moving towards a more holistic approach to the issue.