Laureates fear climate message not getting through | The Australian

Palaeoclimatologist Joel Pedro was among 14 top young Australian scientists, working in fields ranging from medicine, through nanotechnology to astronomy, invited to the meeting. A PhD candidate at the University of Tasmania and the Antarctic Cooperative Research Centre, Pedro was nominated by the Australian Academy of Sciences.

He is studying Antarctic ice cores to gauge the impact on climate of changes in the energy output of the sun.

"There is some evidence that changes in solar activity triggered climatic changes in the past, perhaps including the little ice age in the northern hemisphere between the 17th and 18th centuries," Pedro says.