Sun. April 22

Do you think global warming will be the hot button issue of 2008? Logic says no. There's that pesky, unwinnable war, the increasing gap between rich and poor, an untenable health care system and, yet, as Al Gore told us in "An Inconvenient Truth," none of this other stuff matters without a world to live in. We just saw a segment on "60 Minutes" and the ice caps of Antarctica melting, the decrease of the penguin population and the likely effect greenhouse gases will have on us - even if we cut them out today. It's not a pretty picture. If we knew where the panic button was - and we had access to it - we'd be punching away. Richard S. Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT, is weighing in at the Ford Hall Forum presentation Sunday April 22. Lindzen is offering the view that irrational alarm may be clouding our judgment, in a talk called "Is Global Warning a Cause for Alarm?" By even suggesting not, in this community, you're raising a red flag. This means there should be a lively give-and-take with the audience at the Old South Meeting House. The talk is free and starts at 6:30 p.m.

310 Washington St., 617-373-5800 fordhallforum.org