Despite their calm demeanors, Kerry Emanuel and Ernie Moniz impart grave and pressing concerns about global warming to this Museum gathering. Emanuel admits that he was still a skeptic 20 years ago, but that detailed analysis of the earth’s climate record, and sophisticated modeling have convinced him and a vast majority of his colleagues that we’re witnessing a rapidly changing environment due to greenhouse gas emissions. The world is in the process of doubling its carbon dioxide emissions over the pre-industrial value of 280 parts per million. Experts project a 2-5 degree increase in the Earth's temperature, in our children's lifetimes. What keeps some of us awake at night and in my mind drives us to take seriously why we have to deal with energy, is surprises. Things that we're worried about that might happen, that we don't know enough to rule out. These are low probability but high impact events that anyone with children worries about," says Emanuel. One such surprise might be the rapid melting of the Greenland ice cap (which vanished once before, in the distant past, amazingly fast). If all this ice melts into the world’s oceans, says Emanuel, “you’re talking about seven meters of sea level rise: say goodbye to Cape Cod, southern Florida, a lot of Manhattan.” Emanuel, a hurricane specialist, also foresees much greater intensity of hurricanes, as the world warms up. John Durant, Director, MIT Museum, introduces this first of three Soap Box specials on a sustainable energy future for the world. He discusses the program for the evening and introduces Kerry Emanuel and Ernest Moniz.