Ice Cores, Climate Change and Our Global Future

In this video, Penn State professor Richard Alley, one of the world’s leading climate researchers, explores some of the basic research behind climate change and explains how climate change might impact our future. He is interviewed by Patty Satalia, host of the Penn State “Conversations” interview series.

In the interview Dr. Alley explains how scientists know that Earth’s climate is changing. Dr. Alley was part of a research team that collected and evaluated a two-mile long ice core that represented the entire thickness of Antarctic ice from the surface all the way down to the granite bedrock. In that ice core scientists were able to find particles that evidenced nuclear blasts, major volcanic eruptions and other events with known accurate dates. They used these to determine the age of the ice at different depths within the core and reconstruct an Antarctic climate history.

The climate history of Antarctica was found to be in continuous change with many episodes of warming and cooling. Although most of those changes occurred slowly some of the changes were rapid and of significant magnitude – that might be equivalent to the climate of Alabama being changed to the climate of Maine in just one or two decades. Society has the best opportunity to adapt if climate changes gradually, however, a rapid change in climate would wreak havoc on people and their structures. Could we be on the edge of a rapid climate change?

The impacts of climate change include sea level rise, the spread of disease, increased tropical storms and changes in the natural and cultivated environment. These can have enormous health, economic and social impacts upon people.

Dr. Alley has worked with the National Academy of Sciences and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change. Drawing from those roles he explains how scientists build consensus on issues such as climate change, how they communicate their finding to policy makers and how policy makers might use their information.

It is not often that a single person has direct experience spanning from field research through international committees that provide input for policy makers on important science topics. That’s what makes this interview unique and instructive.