Albion professor says climate change all too real

The 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report says it all in the first sentence.

“Human interference with the climate system is occurring, and climate change poses risks for human and natural systems.”

Then the report, compiled by more than 50 climate scientists from around the world, takes the next 32 pages to make its case.

It is a stark litany of environmental impacts that includes everything from the retreat of glaciers all over the planet to the decrease in tree density to the decline of coral reefs to an increase in wildfires to stagnant crop growth to the change in the livelihoods of indigenous people to the increase of both drought and major storms and more.

That report, and so many others like them, is evidence presented by the scientific community that climate change is not only real, but an active participant in our daily lives.

And to Thom Wilch, the department chairman of Geological Sciences at Albion College who has studied climate change for two decades, none of this is a surprise.

Asked if climate change is real, he just smiled.

“It’s real,” he said simply. “We are all participating in the greatest scientific experiment of all time. The greenhouse effect is warming up the earth. We’ve turned up the CO2 (carbon dioxide, sources of which include burning fossil fuels, and which is trapped in the atmosphere and warming the planet) and we’re seeing what happens.”

The experiment he refers to is how the human race deals with the issue in the coming years.

Wilch has seen it from the front lines as a quaternary geologist who specializes in glacial geology, physical volcanology and paleoclimate history. In other words, he studies the earth’s past to look at its future.

He also has made nine trips to Antarctica, which many scientists see as a key battlefield in climate change, and taken part in the international ANDRILL project that drilled into the earth’s core in Antarctica to study the planet’s history. He also studies the geology and environment throughout southwestern Michigan.

At Albion, he teaches everything from introduction to geology to oceans and atmospheres to glaciers and climate change.

He is soft-spoken and not especially anxious to have his photo taken, but he’s also not shy about what he thinks and, more important, what the evidence shows.

Wilch knows only too well the controversy that climate change discussion sparks in the United States. There remains a vocal group that insists the theory is ridiculous, that the earth has gone through similar changes in the past and will continue to do so and that scientists who advocate for climate change are simply using scare tactics to seek publicity and funding for their academic pursuits.

It’s a view that continues to puzzle Wilch.

“The U.S. is very unique in the world,” he said. “We’ve been slow to accept that the climate is changing. Around the world, they understand and accept the science.”

So does Wilch. Because, to him, it’s no longer a matter of opinion. After all, he’s seen the ice and the ice tells the story.

As part of the ANDRILL project as well as his other trips to Antarctica, he has studied the ice core samples taken from deep in the ice sheet. It reflects the climatological history of the earth as far back as 800,000 years and while there have indeed been fluctuations in the earth’s temperature, it has been most telling over the past 150 years, which corresponds to the Industrial Revolution.

Scientists study the amount of CO2 trapped in the ice and can understand how warm or cold the planet has been.

“If it’s 180 parts per million, that means it’s really cold and it can go to 280 when it’s really warm,” Wilch said.

Recent readings have placed the average amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at 400 parts per million, the highest reading scientists have recorded.

“There’s no controversy in that regard,” he said. “This is some of the most convincing evidence of human action on the environment.”

Colleague Tim Lincoln, the director of the school’s Center for Sustainability and the Environment and who teaches about climate change as well, says there’s a basic misconception in the discussion.

“The biggest misconception is the belief that there are two sides to every story,” he said. “They believe it’s a matter of fairness so if scientists say it is caused by humans, there’s got to be another side of it that says it isn’t. The fact of the matter is every serious scientist believes there is climate change.”

As for the recent brutal winter, both men say it’s important to differentiate between climate and weather.

“One of the real challenges is we live every day with weather,” Wilch said. “Weather changes daily but that’s different from climate (the average daily weather over an extended period of time).”

“I was cursing last winter too,” Lincoln said. “But speaking seriously, if we have that kind of weather for the next decade, maybe we’re wrong and it would be nice if we were wrong. But I really don’t think we are.”

Both men say there is time to turn the tide.

Like many other scientists, Wilch advocates the cutting of fossil fuel use, a reduction in the rate of deforestation and finding alternative sources of energy, especially wind and solar.

“There’s an incredible amount of energy available to us,” he said.

He was also heartened two weeks ago by the 300,000 people who showed up for the climate change march in New York City, giving him hope that people are starting to grasp what’s happening. As well, the United Nations held a summit on climate change.

“One of the challenges is this is a global problem,” he said. “We’re all responsible and we all have to deal with it.”

Lincoln, who admits his fervor on the topic has grown in recent years, hopes to educate his students more about what the future holds if climate change isn’t slowed.

I need to do my job better,” he said. “I need to convince students who may be somewhat skeptical that this is a real problem. I need to tell them, ‘Let’s get to work.’”

Chuck Carlson is editor of Connections. Reach him at 966-0690. Follow him on Twitter: @ChuckCarlson4

Want more information?

Dr. Thomas Wilch says there are number of websites that offer unbiased information about climate change. He recommends skepticalscience.com