As pols bury heads in the sand, new generations address climate
Maui . Canada . Calif o rnia .G ree c e.
Wildfires. Tornadoes. Hurricanes .D roughts. Annual 100-year floods.
Scientists say global heat has put 2023 on track to be Earth’s hotte sty ear on record. As the frequency o fw eather-related natural disasters increases and the world forecast grows more dismal thanks to climate change, many of usw onde r wh o, if anyone, can save the planet?
Who will bring emissions unde rc ontrol? Who will reduce the world’s carbo nf ootprint? Who will keep our rivers safe, o urs o ilf ertile and our air clean? Who will undo the damage humans have done to this planet?
The recent presidential debate illustrates the reticenc eo f many o f those who aspire to be in charge t oe ven acknowledge the proble m, l e tal one fix it. So ,asw eo fte n do when faced with ongoing, complex issue s,w e look to the youth to a) correct the mistakes o fth eir elders and b) make ab etter future fo r th e ir d escendants.
F o rtunat e ly, the pool o fy oung p eo pl ee ag e r t o make that difference is growing, as evidence dbya rising interest in the study of climatology, meteorology, and environmental and atmospheric sciences.
Most important, perhaps, is a growing interest in the study of climate policy, said Allison Michaelis, assistant professor of Earth, Atmosphere and Environme ntatN orthern Illinois University in DeKalb.
Michaelis said that whil ee nrollment in the study o fm eteorology, in terms o fw eathe rf orecasting, has held steady over the past several years “we are seeing a growing interest in the study of climate science, climate change and climate policy.”
All of that, she added, isg oo dn ews, particularly the growing interest in climate policy.
“It’s really important to have well-informed scientists going into the policy realm,” she said.
Tre ntF ord, Illinois state climatologist with Illinois State Water Surve yatthe University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said,
“I have noticed — both in my time asapr ofesso rat (Southern Illinois University) in Carbondale and my curre nt p osition her e—a gr owing interest in climate-related educatio nfr om students. That doe sn ot exclusively manife
stasm ore majors or courses taught in climate science ,butm ore interest in majors and classes that are relate dt oo rc over some aspect of climate and biodiversity issues, such as sustainability and renewabl ee nergy.”
Similarly, Jessie Choate ,s enior instructor and academic adviso rf o rth e De partment of Atmospheric Sciences at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said that while the majority o fth e students entering that school’s program as freshme nar e intereste d in severe weather o rsp ecifically tornadoes, many of those students “switch the irg oals through their undergraduate caree rs t oa climat ee mphasis.”
To accommodate the growing interest, Choate said, the university has started adding more climate courses and has hire dan ew climate professor. In addition, it will be searching fo ran ew faculty member in climate change as part o fan ew cluster hire within the category of “Sustainable, Just, and Resilie ntS ociety in the fac eo f Environmental and Societal Change.”
“Ib eliev eo ur students are not only awar eo fthe issues facing our climate future but are committed to working towards a solution,” she said.
Michaelis said climatology is challenging because “we’re studying things w can’t prove. It’s not like ae forecast, where you makea hypothesis of what’s going to happe nt omorrow and then, the ve ryn ext day, we ge tt o confirm whether or no tth e hypothesis verified.”
Climate study, she said, is l ooking at things that are going to happe nin 50 to 100 years.
“We won’t really know if w e’re correct until that time come st o pass,” she said .“It’s still the same scientifi c pr ocess in that
we make hypotheses and the nw e carry out experiments to verify whether or no tth ose hypothese sare right o rwr ong.
“But it’s different in the sense we don’t really use observatio nst o do that; we te nd t o use these numerical modeling systems instead, where we can go in and tweak the conditio nst o say, all right, how can this eve nt b e different ifw e make the atmosphere warmer o rifw e increase the carbo n di oxid eo rifwe increase the moisture in the atmosphere?”
At NIU , sh e said, research is being conducted o ns evere conductive storms, such as thunderstorms and super cells, hail and mesoscale conductive systems such as atmospheric rivers and snowstorms.
The university just introduce dan ew climate emphasis into its und e rgraduate curricula, Michaelis said.
“Ikn ow othe rm eteorologic and atmospheric science programs have also adde dm ore curricula on climate and additional faculty with specific climat e ex pertise,” she said.
Eve nth ough the curriculum is already packed with require dc ourses, it has the flexibility t oo ffer seminar courses with a climate focus and tie climate aspects into standard classes.
Ho wc oncerne dis Michaelis, who teaches ac ourse called “Climate Change, Science Impacts and Mitigation,” about the futur eo fth e planet? “Very,” she said.
She went into meteorolo gyf o rtw o reasons. The Superstorm o f1 993 that hit he rh ometown of Greensboro ,N orth Carolina, o nh er birthday. And, “I was (and still am) scared o fs evere weather, and wante dt o learn as much asIc ould to be better informed and prepared.”
“It’s hard sometimes being in the thick o fthe research,” she said .“It’s fun and exciting to run thes e ex periments, but the nth ere’s th eo ther side o fit : This is real life ,th ese ar e things that r e ally might happen and this affects so many people.
“So this is a really important place to be in this changing time and changing climat eo fd oing o urb e stt o put out high impact scientifi cr esearch so that we can the nc onvey and get that knowledge o utt o people who can really make policy decisions o nh o wt o hopefully fix o r mitigate what’s going on.”
It h elps knowing the university is engage d in researching solutions.
“There ’sal ot o fr eally good stuff that we’re working o nh ere,” Michaelis said .“Fro masci entist’s perspective ,w e’re doing everything we can, o ra lot that we can, within the confines that we can.
“And we really are trying t oe ducate the next generation o nn ot just the foundations o fw eather and forecasting but also applied climatology.”
While the scientists do their part, there are plenty of things regular folks can do to reduce their carbon footprint, she said, such as reducing waste and turning off lights whe ny ou leave ar oom.
“Ikn o ww e fall into trap of I’m just one person, what difference could I possibly make?” she said. “But if everybody thinks that, o fc ourse ,th e future isg oing to be bleak.”
Do what you can. And, o fc ourse ,d emand our leaders and policymakers to do the same.