CORVALLIS - Some of the nation's leading experts on the causes, effects and ways to deal with climate change will be featured in a winter seminar series at Oregon State University.

The series, "Global Climate Change: Detection, Attribution, Impacts, Adaptation, Mitigation and Litigation," is free and open to the public. The presentations are designed for a general, non-scientific audience.

Most of the talks will be on Tuesdays at 4 p.m. in Cordley Hall Room 1109, except for the last three presentations, which are on different days of the week and have a location yet to be announced. Updated information can be found online at http://www.geo.oregonstate.edu/events/SeminarSeries/Seminar_Current.htm.

The series is sponsored by the Department of Geosciences at OSU.

The speakers and their topics include:

Jan. 13: Ben Santer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, "How Do We Know that Human Activities Have Influenced Global Climate?"

Jan. 20: David Battisti, University of Washington, "Global Warming and Global Food Production."

Jan. 27: Dan Schrag, Harvard University, "Confronting the Climate-Energy Challenge."

Feb. 3: Heather Holsinger, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, "U.S. Climate Policy: A Brave New World?"

Feb. 10: Bette Otto-Bleisner, National Center for Atmospheric Research, "Polar Warmth, Ice Sheet Stability and Sea-Level Rise: Past Perspectives."

Feb. 17: Roger Pielke Jr., University of Colorado, "Uncomfortable Knowledge about Climate Policy."

Feb. 27: Eric Rignot, NASA and University of California/Irvine, "Satellite Studies of the Contribution to Sea Level Rise from Greenland and Antarctica Ice Dynamics."

March 2: Steve Susman, Susman Godfrey LLP, "Climate Change Litigation: The Courthouse Effect."

March 11: Brian Fagan, University of California/Santa Barbara, "The Great Warming, or the Story of the Silent Elephant in the Room."