Climate researcher to visit Andrews House

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World-famous explorer and paleoclimatologist Lonnie G. Thompson, Ph.D., will speak on “Past and Contemporary Climate Change: The Evidence, People, and Our Options” from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, at the Andrews House, 39 W. Winter St., Delaware.

Thompson is best known for drilling and analyzing ice cores from ice caps and mountain glaciers on all continents. Closely observing and measuring ice caps and glaciers, Thompson noticed they were steadily shrinking or retreating and even vanishing. In many instances, ice that was thousands of years old has now melted and disappeared. These variations were far outside normal weather patterns and climate variability, and served as proof that the world’s climate is indeed warming. Miles of Thompson’s ice cores are stored at the Byrd Polar Research Center on the campus of The Ohio State University.

Thompson and his wife, Ellen Mosley-Thompson, also a paleoclimatologist, served as advisors for Al Gore’s 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” Time Magazine named him as one of the “Heroes of the Environment” in 2008.

Terry Hermsen, Ph.D., from the Central Ohio Communities Project said, “As the most recent report from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes clear, the effects are already upon us. They are represented by the massive wildfires in California and Canada, droughts in the Southwest, and the devastating hurricanes in the Carolinas and Florida. Here in Ohio, weather patterns show increased and harder rains, impacting our soils and growing seasons. As farmers and gardeners know, the temperature zones have already changed. Another consequence is the inexorable march of more devastating invasive species that threaten fields and forests.”

Marianne Gabel, a local Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) leader, recently published a letter to the editor in the Columbus Dispatch in which she emphasized the need to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. She said in the letter, “Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a grassroots organization, has advocated vigorously in the United States Congress for a fee on carbon, will all revenue to be returned to households.”

The talk is co-sponsored by the Central Ohio Communities Project, the Delaware Chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) and Sustainable Delaware Ohio (SDO). The event is free and open to the public.

Lonnie G. Thompson, Ph.D., is pictured in front of the Qori Kalis Glacier in Peru. Thompson will speak Thursday at Andrews House in Delaware.
https://www.delgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2018/10/web1_2000-photo-of-Lonnie-Thompson-with-Qori-Kalis-and-Quelccaya-by-Tom-Nash.jpgLonnie G. Thompson, Ph.D., is pictured in front of the Qori Kalis Glacier in Peru. Thompson will speak Thursday at Andrews House in Delaware. Courtesy photo

Special to The Gazette

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