DATE: April 09, 2009
CONTACT:
Sandra Lee Sanderson, 864-656-4202
SCLIPP@clemson.edu
WRITER:
Peter Kent, 864-656-4355
pkent@clemson.edu
Clemson hosts global warming talk pro and con
CLEMSON — What will happen to us as climate change continues to occur? Some say changes will be minimal; others say significant. Clemson University area residents have the unique opportunity to hear from two leading experts who have decidedly different views.
Scientists John R. Christy and Michael C. MacCracken are the speakers for the program, “Climate Change Discussion” at 7:30 p.m. April 16. The talk will be held in the Self Auditorium of the Strom Thurmond Institute on campus and is free to the public. The program is co-sponsored by the Jerry E. and Harriett Calvert Dempsey Endowment, the Clemson University Environmental Institute, the environmental engineering and Earth sciences department and the Strom Thurmond Institute. For more information, call Sandra Sanderson at 864-656-4202.
John Christy is director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. His testimony before Congress makes it clear that he is skeptical that climate change will be swift and sweeping. Speaking to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 25 Christy said, “Let me say I’m one of the few in this science who actually builds climate datasets from scratch. In several published papers I and others have shown that we have found two serious problems, somewhat related, that strongly suggest the warming of the past century is overstated.”
Michael MacCracken disagrees. MacCracken is chief scientist for climate change programs with the Climate Institute in Washington, D.C. He is co-editor of the 2008 book, “Sudden and Disruptive Climate Change: Exploring the Real Risks and How We Can Avoid Them,” which makes a case that, “while changes in emissions and atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases are generally projected to be slow and smooth, there are increasing indications that the intensity and impacts of climate change on the environment and society could, at least on a regional basis, be abrupt and bumpy. Surprising and nonlinear responses are likely to result as warming exceeds certain thresholds, inducing relatively rapid changes in, for example, the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, atmospheric wind and precipitation patterns, coastal inundation, the occurrence of wildfire, and the ranges of plant and animal species.”
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