Mountain glaciers in the tropical areas of the world, ranging from the American Andes to the Indian Himalayas, have shown rapid climate changes that will be a great toll on mankind in the future.
Lonnie Thompson, a professor and ice core paleoclimatologist at Ohio State University, presented “Rapid Climate Changes In the Earth System: Past, Present and Future,” Wednesday in room E-130 Howe Russell.
Almost 100 students and geo-science professors attended the presentation.
Thompson and his research group have traveled around the world drilling the ice caps of mountains ranging thousands of feet in height.
Scientists have used research travels to collect environmental data from temperature changes to entrapped microorganisms in the hope that Thompson and his research team can prove to the governments of the world that global warming and other environmental changes will have a dynamic change in climate in the future.
In the mountain ice caps, Thompson and team drill for ice cores thousands of feet in the ice.
Ice preserves almost anything that gets caught in its path.
Deep in the ice cores are records of sentiments and other factors that can determine the change in climate from thousand of years ago to the present.
Thompson believes these ice cores can aide in determining the climate changes of the future.
“The ice cores are the greatest sentiment we have,” he said.
“They provide us with the best records of climate changes for several thousands of years,” said Lawrence Febo, Ph.D. geological science graduate student.
“Ice is disappearing on mountain tops all around the world. The ice caps of Mt. Kilomanjaro in 1912 were covered in ice,” Thompson said. “Presently, the ice has melted, meaning the climate in Africa has increased, and it is predicted by 2015 the ice caps will totally disappear.”
Thompson believes human nature is not focused on the future but the present. He does want the world to wait until the disaster happens, but try to do something about it now.
Thompson and many other people in the audience agreed if the world would place conservation in effect and invest in technological-based energy supplies, the world would see a dynamic decrease in global warming and possibly save money.