Researching Climate Change

A couple of weeks ago Ann and I toured the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, the oldest multidisciplinary research center at the Ohio State University. The center's original mission was to study polar and alpine regions. By 2014, the accumulating scientific evidence of the impact a warming atmosphere was having on the coldest parts of the earth led to broadening the center's mission. The center now studies climate changes throughout the world. As part of that mission, BPCRC is advising Columbus city officials about what to expect and how to address the challenges of a rapidly warming environment. The predictions, summarized on a colorful handout, are quite sobering, even to me, who worries about these things much of the time.

I don't mean to make the tour sound like a downer. We saw a video of the 2016 research expedition to the Guliya Glacier on the Tibetan Plateau to retrieve samples of some of the world's oldest ice. The ice cores will give the center's scientists a glimpse into half a million years of Tibetan climate history. Video of the Guliya expedition

The highlight of the tour was the center's Ice Core Facility, the only place in the world where ice from the world's vanishing glaciers exists. That ice is stored in freezers that have been in continuous operation since 1989, and are now at capacity with 4.5 miles of ice cores. (An expansion is underway to add new freezers and other amenities to the center.) We took a VERY brisk walk through one of the freezers; it was - 30 degrees!


It's hard to believe there are still many Americans who doubt that climate change is real. The signs are everywhere, and perhaps nowhere more apparent than in Houston and along the Texas coast this week. The BPCRC handout (right) notes that increased precipitation, especially heavy precipitation, and increased flooding, are to be expected in a warming climate. On August 7, the New York Times published the draft report by scientists from thirteen federal agencies which "concludes that Americans are feeling the effects of climate change right now. It directly contradicts claims....that the human contribution to climate change is uncertain, and that the ability to predict the effects is limited." According to the article, one of the studies cited in the report "concluded that climate change made extreme events 20 times more likely in Texas." In light of what has and is happening in Texas, that prescient warning has tragically become historic fact. NY Times: Government Report Finds Drastic Impact of Climate Change on U.S.