Expert on global warming speaks to SDSU

In recent years, global warming has been on the lips and minds of scientists and citizens around the globe. Last Thursday, a handful of San Diego State students and faculty members obtained an insider opinion regarding the escalating atmosphere situation.

Distinguished professor emeritus at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego Richard Somerville, presented his more than 40 years of knowledge regarding climate change in Love Library to a mostly academic crowd.

Titled “Global Warming: What Do We Know and What Should We Do?” he introduced and described the main issues including possible solutions and the need for expedited education and action.

Global warming has been a serious issue in the scientific community since the late 1970s, Somerville said.

Recent events such as Hurricane Katrina and the European heat wave of 2003, and their correlation to global temperatures, as well as the release of Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” have pushed this hot button issue into the population’s consciousness.

According to Somerville, the Earth is now 0.76 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than in 1860, arctic temperatures have increased at two times the global rate, the arctic Sea ice has shrunk by an average of 2.7 percent per decade and the ocean is warming to depths of 3,000 meters, or two miles. Atmospheric changes such as these have led scientists to push for a global measure to regulate the degree of warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial temperatures. A proactive restriction on the escalating climate change that Somerville is not realistically optimistic about.

The United States contributes 25 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions worldwide, Somerville said. It was the leading contributing nation to pollution until it was recently surpassed by China.

On a more local level, the effects of the warming trends on San Diego are as potentially troublesome. “Water stress,” which can include the threat of a decreasing water supply with an increasing population, as well as an escalated environment for wildfires, were two scenarios presented by Somerville. With an increase of seven inches during the 20th century alone, sea level rise is another threat to the largely coastal San Diego communities.

Somerville has devoted the last three years of his life to climate change research conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is a nonprofit research group. He was a coordinating lead author on the IPCC report that won the panel the shared award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Somerville’s recent book, “The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change,” offers a comprehensive yet simplistic approach to the science-fueled controversy. “I don’t do doom and gloom,” he said. He chooses instead to offer reader-friendly and jargon-free education.

Somerville’s lecture offered a first-class opportunity to educate students on the increasingly pressing topic of atmospheric changes.

“The opportunity is (now) for the young generation to do something about climate change,” event organizer and Chair for the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Samuel Shen said.

“I think they are crucial,” Somerville said about the role college students play in climate change initiatives.

He urged students to get active and involved.

“We will get action on climate change when the government responds to public pressure,” Somerville said. “This election we just came out of illustrates that.”

For such a large and populated university, where students continually purport ecological and environmental sustainability and protection, the student turnout for Somerville’s climate change lecture was small.

“When all is said and done, a lot more will be said than done,” Somerville said at the closure of the lecture, a troubling statement that brings emphasis to the need for immediate acknowledgment, education and action regarding global warming.

For more information on Somerville, visit his Web site at www.richardsomerville.com. Further information regarding climate change can be accessed on the IPCC Web site at www.ipcc.ch.

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