Professor Thompson Extra Credit

Professor Lonnie Thompson a professor at The Ohio State University conducted a lecture titled, “The Human Footprint on Earth.” This lecture focused on how rapidly the climate on earth has risen over the past hundred years and what it could mean for the future. He was born and raised in Gassaway, West Virginia and attended Marshall University receiving a Bachelor’s in Geology. After this he continued his education at The Ohio State University where he achieved a M.S. and PhD in Geological Science. After graduating he immediately started studies on the polar ice caps conducting research in multiple countries. He has received two prestigious awards in the field of science. They are The Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service for Science and Invention and The National Medal of Science Award that is know to be the highest honor as a researcher.

Thompson and his crew conduct research and receive their data by drilling for ice core samples which they fly back right here to Ohio on OSU’s campus. Through these core samples they can surmise tons of information that all leads to the fact that global warming is a concern presently. Some signs that global warming is a problem are the glaciers around the world melting rapidly (most obvious), the amount of volcanic eruptions, and rise in the sea level around the world. As far humans go the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased severely over the last 50 years by 60 ppm (parts per million). The other alarming fact the Professor Thompson threw out is that the earth’s temperature has been increasing close to one degree Celsius each year.

Where the lecture absolutely blew my mine is when Professor Thompson mentioned some often misinformed notions about when and where temperature is raising more. He and his team have supporting evidence that shows that temperature has risen more at night than during the day. It has also risen more during the winter than in the sweltering heat of summertime. Finally temperature has been steadily rising more in higher altitudes than in lower altitudes. When I thought about this I would have completely guessed the opposite in each category. According to Thompson over the last 12 years 11 of them have been the hottest years ever recorded. If this isn’t enough evidence that there is a problem I don’t know what else you need. He also mentioned that while we should be concerned with the short term affects of global warming the long term ones could be even more dangerous. Research has shown that 20% of the carbon emitted daily will affect us 20 years from now. In reality the more we produce today the worse our future is looking down the road.

The final facts that Professor Thompson made in his lecture that really struck me is that estimates are saying that with current conditions, the earth could lose all of its sea ice in the 200 years. I mean when you think about it right away you think, “Oh well, I will be dead and gone by then why do I care?” However, what’s stopping that number to shrink to 100 or even 50 years. Now who’s talking? When he showed before and after pictures of ice shelves, ice sheets, and glaciers all over the world it really sunk in which is kind of what we are trying to do with our current media project. How can something so massive just disappear in less than 50 years? Take for example, Glacier National Park in Montana. In 1992 it contained over 100 glaciers and in 2004 the glaciers had reduced to a staggering 28. How could this be? Thompson was right in saying that the ice can tell a lot not only about the past but what is to come.

Overall, I thought this lecture was extremely informational, persuading, and surprisingly entertaining. Not in the sense that it’s cool to see our planet go into shambles but how something like this can go so far without doing acting upon it. Professor Thompson showed credibility with all of his educational background and awards. He had tons of evidence and data to support his theories throughout his lecture. Along, with his data he had photos and graphs that communicated with the audience better and put it in a language that everyone could understand. I would love to look further into his research to see what else he has to say about this subject.