| Abstract: Our greatest challenge in the 21st century is dealing with unprecedented global-scale climate and environmental issues. Here we review the global evidence, from the highest most remote regions of our planets to our own backyards, for accelerating rates of climate change and the rising risk of abrupt climate events. How climate changes and how we adapt to it affects every aspect of our existence, such as national and global economies, agriculture, quality of life, societal stability, human and animal migration, disease vectors, availability of food and safe water, even the possibility for life itself to exist. The effects of climate change in the US and other regions will also affect our social and political systems in profound ways. For example, the accelerating retreat of glaciers and ice sheets from the tropical mountains to the polar regions will have negative effects on the economy and agriculture of many of the most populated regions of the world. Mountain regions and surrounding environs cover a quarter of the Earth’s land surface, are home to a quarter of the world’s population, and are centers of biological and cultural diversity. Mountain glaciers serve as “the water towers of the world” and are at the headwaters of many river basins that supply water to over half of humanity. Thus, the disappearance of glaciers throughout the high mountains, especially in the Andes and the Himalaya, is a great cause of concern for not only the populations downstream but also the very diversity of life on the planet. Furthermore, as the water resources of these regions decline, the results will include conflicts between nations and mass migration to countries such as the US, Canada, and northern Europe. |
 Lonnie G. Thompson is a Distinguished University Professor in the School of Earth Sciences and a Research Scientist in 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 lightweight 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 Niño 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. He has published 245 peer-reviewed publications including several in the journal Science, led 64 field programs, and secured 76 research grants as either the PI or as a Co-PI. Lonnie has been recognized with many honors and awards including the National Medal of Science, the Tyler Prize (the World Prize for Environmental Achievement), and the Dan David Prize. In addition, he is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an elected member of the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Sciences as well as a foreign member of the Chinese National Academy of Sciences. |