Spring Break
War on climate change
Alexia Lang
Issue date: 10/27/08 Section: News
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John M. R. Stone, researcher for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), spoke in the Truman Forum at the Plaza Library branch about the environmental situation. Stone was the co-winner with Al Gore of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for alerting the public to global warming.
During the discussion titled "Warming Up to the Environment: Challenges and Opportunities of Climate Change," Stone presented evidence for global warming, the possible future effects and preventative measures that can be taken.
Stone said a lot more work needs to be done to address the issue.
"It has yet to be addressed with effective political effort," he said. "It's an issue of moral behavior where actions today affect the future. It's an issue that won't go away."
In order to lay a historical foundation, Stone first explained, with the help of charts, the history of fluctuations in carbon levels and temperatures.
"Although the climate has changed over prehistoric times, it has changed with the motion of the sun," he said. "But by contrast, the change we have seen lately has been rather rapid."
One key piece of evidence Stone cited was the change in carbon parts in the atmosphere.
By drilling down through the ice caps at the poles, scientists are able to analyze the climate as it was thousands of years ago. This is possible because the ice crystals capture a picture of the surrounding environment which is then preserved because of the protection the subsequent layers of ice provide. This carbon copy of the environment is referred to as the ambient record, from which glacial-interglacial data can be drawn.
Over thousands of years, the carbon level in the environment remained at 200 to 280 parts-per-million. However, the carbon level has currently peaked at around 380 parts-per-million, according to Stone.
"In my mind, this is the most convincing evidence for climate change," he said. "We need to recognize there is a threat, a real threat, on which we must act. CO2 emissions continue to grow at a rate we did not expect."
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