Climate Change

Higher education is setting the pace in meeting the urgent environmental challenges facing this century.

Global warming, increases in UV radiation, acid rain... the threats to the health of our planet are more imminent than previously thought. Working now to safeguard our world, campuses across New York’s Independent Sector understand that averting a catastrophe requires planning that spans centuries and includes others on a global scale. It also requires active scientific minds unbounded by single academic disciplines.

The Global Warming Dilemma

Controversy still surrounds the causes of global climate change on a political, economic, and social level, yet the scientific community has reached a strong consensus. The world is undoubtedly warming, and this change is largely the result of emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from human activities. Indeed, the scenario is alarming: a warming climate gives way to sea-level rise, stressed ecosystems, and a weather pattern as hectic and wayward as kindergarten recess.

One challenge to this theory, a Canadian study published in 2003, attributes increases in global temperatures to long-term natural climate patterns. It was debunked by scientists at Alfred University last year. Using a climate reconstruction computer code, Alfred scientists analyzed and evaluated the study. Their results support the findings of earlier research placing the onus of global temperature changes over the last century on human action.

Martin Hoffert, professor emeritus of physics at New York University, is a true veteran in the science of climate change. His 1998 paper in Nature concludes that we will need between one and three times the carbon-free energy we use now by the year 2050 in order to avoid a series of environmental catastrophes. An optimist nevertheless, Hoffert feels that boosting public funding and technological advances can offer hope. Among his current pursuits for a solution is launching solar power satellites into space where the sun’s power is about eight times stronger.

Curt Stager, a natural sciences professor at Paul Smith’s College, and his team of undergraduate researchers are studying the effect of climate change on some of the largest and deepest lakes in the world, Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika in Africa. There, they were able to devise a way to predict flooding up to a decade in advance. Closer to home, the professor and his students study the effect of human manipulations on lakes in the Adirondacks.

Marine Bio Students

Lake-effect snow storms on small lakes may be more sensitive to changes in climate, reveal studies conducted by geoscience professor Neil Laird and students at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. This sensitivity can result in large variations of the number and strength of localized storms that can produce tremendous snow squalls. Using radar and climate data, the studies seek to understand the influence of changing climate conditions on the development of small-scale weather systems.

Colgate University geography professor Adam Burnett also focuses on the impact of global warming on lake-effect snowfall. Warming lake temperatures widen the gap between lake water and air temperature, explains Burnett, resulting in ideal conditions for snowfall. This may explain the significant jump in snowfall in the Great Lakes region since the 1930s - with no comparable jump in non- Great Lakes areas.

In order to bring new understanding to climate change today, Vassar College associate professor Kirsten Menking looks at climate conditions from hundreds of thousands of years ago. Using numerical modeling, Menking’s recent work explores the relationship between abrupt climate change and lake levels in New Mexico during the last Glacial Maxium -when parts of Europe, North America, and the Western Siberian Plain were covered with ice sheets.

Closer to home, Le Moyne College established the Institute for the Study of Environmental Change to coordinate student and faculty research related to changing global systems. The Institute seeks funding for field-based research projects, promotes solutions to environmental problems, and develops outreach activities for the public to build environmental awareness in the community.

Students at C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University are also tackling the problems of global warming at a local level. The environmental science students created a report calling on leaders in Nassau and Suffolk Counties to agree to specific reductions or limits on greenhouse gas emissions. The report, entitled “A Global Warming Action Plan for Long Island,” covered a broad range of ideas - from the use of solar power to the positive environmental impact of vegetarian diets.

Acid Rain

Some of the most acidic rain in the United States falls on the pristine Adirondack region, contaminating lakes, trees, and soils. Alfred University and Colgate University scientists are investigating the effectiveness of the U.S. Clean Air Act of 1970 and its amendments that were added in 1990. “Are ecosystems recovering?,” they ask as they collect data in the Adirondacks. And, if so, “how fast is the recovery occurring?”

Charley Driscoll, one of the country’s authorities on acid rain, conducts research at Syracuse University. He uses a variety of approaches to investigate the effects of acid rain and mercury contaminations on ecosystems. Although modest gains have been made in the health of lakes due to the Clean Air Act, Driscoll’s research indicates that many lakes will not fully recover for decades. In fact, according to one of his studies, an additional 80 percent reduction in sulfur emissions from electric utilities would be required to bring sensitive waterways back to non-acidic levels within 25 years.

Syracuse University scientists have also invented robots to monitor waters in New York’s lakes. The robots use buoys with solar-powered systems and computer-controlled sensors that move vertically through the water to collect near “real-time” data. The data is then transmitted to a Web site through cellular technology, enabling researchers to better understand the dynamics of environmental systems at work.

Confronting the Problem, Reversing the Change

Pursued energetically by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) among others, fuel cells are seen as a key component of a global energy strategy.

Advanced fuel cell research at RIT crosses scientific disciplines and reaches out to New York manufacturers to form comprehensive collaborations. National Science Foundation grants totaling in the multiple millions help train doctoral students at RIT in fuel-cell science and engineering.

Acknowledging that energy security is the “space race” of this millennium, RPI opened a new $20 million Center for Future Energy Systems. The Center focuses on renewable energy and energy conservation systems, with an initial emphasis on fuel cells, smart lighting, and other emerging renewable energy systems.