On Thursday December 4, 2008.in the Dicke Forum, Phi Beta Delta, The Honor Society for International Scholars sponsored a presentation titled " Global Climate Change: A Paleoclimate Perspective from the World's Highest Mountains" by Lonnie G. Thompson, Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and Research Scientist at the Byrd Polar Research Center at The Ohio State University.
Professor Thompson is one of the world's foremost authorities on paleoclimatology and glaciology. He has led more than 50 expeditions during the last 30 years, conducting ice-core drilling programs in the world's polar regions as well as in tropical and subtropical ice fields.
Thompson is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and Research Scientist at the Byrd Polar Research Center at The Ohio State University. His research has propelled the field of ice core paleoclimatology out of the Polar Regions to the highest tropical and subtropical ice fields. He and the OSU team have developed light-weight solar powered drilling equipment for acquisition of histories from ice fields in the tropical South American Andes, the Himalayas, and on Kilimanjaro. These paleoclimate histories have advanced our understanding of the coupled nature of the Earth's climate system. Special emphasis has been placed on the El Niqo and monsoon systems that dominate the climate of the tropical Pacific and affect global-scale oceanic and atmospheric circulation patterns. His observations of glacier retreat over the last three decades confirm that glaciers around the world are melting and provide clear evidence that the warming of the last 50 years is now outside the range of climate variability for several millennia, if not longer.
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