Understanding the Global-to-Regional Climate Driven by Atmospheric CO₂

Join us for an illustrated talk by John P. Jasper Ph.D., Molecular Isotope Technologies, Niantic, Conn., that spans the last 500 million years for perspective, with a focus into the last century for preliminarily considering the health of the southeastern Connecticut coastal environments.

WHEN: Sunday, August 3, 2025
TIME: 4 p.m.
PLACE: In person at the Museum and virtual via zoom

With geochemical experience in natural sciences spanning the last forty-five years, Dr. John Jasper will present a summary natural history of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂, the primary driving force of global climate) and a prospectus of these levels based on the major contributions to the contemporary atmospheric CO₂ budget. With the general perception that eelgrass abundance is inversely proportional to water temperature, these relatively recent records focus interest and discussion into the history and fate of eelgrass in this region.

Dr. Jasper (Ph.D., 1988, M.I.T./Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst.) founded in 1999 and is the Chief Scientific Officer of Molecular Isotope Technologies ℠ LLC (MIT LLC), a company that specializes in pharmaceutical product and process (“Nature’s Fingerprint®” and “Isotopic Pedigree®”) authentication. By training, he is an analytical organic and stable isotope chemist who uses bulk and compound-specific approaches to determine the sources of organic matter via their natural-isotopic “fingerprints,” particularly in pharmaceutical materials.

John P. Jasper Ph.D., aboard WHOI’s R/V Atlantis overlooking the gyrocompass at the Fiftieth MIT/WHOI Reunion.

PHOTO CREDIT: Long eelgrass blades-leaves floating on the surface of the water at low tide, by Emily Bodell