The Golden Age of Climate Research and the Unmasking of Human Innocence
If there were any single individual on our planet qualified to explain the history, evidence and future of climate change, it would be acclaimed explorer and scientist Paul Mayewski, Professor and Director at University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute.
MERI is thrilled to announce that Dr. Mayewski, a member of the MERI Scientific Advisory Board since 2008, will deliver the May 24th lecture in the 2012 Rachel Carson Lecture Series on “Journey Into Climate: The Golden Age of Climate Research and the Unmasking of Human Innocence”.
The lecture begins at 7 p.m., preceded by a reception at 6 p.m. All lectures in the series are held in the MERI Center, 55 Main St. Blue Hill and are free and open to the public.
Paul Mayewski has been on the front lines of climate research almost since the beginning of what he calls the golden age of climate change. Fifty years of technological developments have revolutionized our understanding of weather, ocean currents, sea level and the atmosphere and the speaker has been a pioneer in most of these discoveries.
The history of climate recorded in snow and ice has played a pivotal role in climate change understanding and Mayewski was an early contributor. He pioneered the use of instrumentally calibrated ice core records going back hundreds of years and made the first global reconstruction of past atmospheric conditions.
His climate change research has taken him to the far corners of the planet, leading over 50 expeditions to remote regions like the Tibetan Plateau, Tierra del Fuego, the Himalayas, Antarctica and the first multi-disciplinary over snow scientific expedition to the South Pole. With observations from these locations, Mayewski has documented the increasing contributions of human activities to climate change so that pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions are now at levels “absolutely or potentially hazardous to the environment and human health”. He argues that we are no longer innocent, but in fact major contributors to the problem and answerable to future generations. It is this knowledge that has propelled him into activism historically uncommon for scientists.
Mayewski’s scientific achievements appear in more than 300 publications including climate change books written for the general public. He will autograph copies of his latest book, also titled “Journey Into Climate: The Golden Age of Climate Research and the Unmasking of Human Innocence” during the reception prior to his lecture. More information about the book is available at www.journeyintoclimate.com.
He is a Fellow of American Society for the Advancement of Science and his honors include: the first-ever internationally awarded Medal for Excellence in Antarctic Research, the Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Medal, the Seligman Crystal from the International Glaciological Society, an honorary PhD from Stockholm University and a private audience in the Forbidden City (Beijing, China). He has developed several highly prominent national and international research programs; and numerous outreach efforts at places like the American Museum of Natural History and the Boston Museum of Science, and appeared hundreds of times on radio and TV including NOVA, BBC, PBS, ABC and several segments with CBS “60 Minutes”.
Photo Caption: Dr. Paul Mayewski
The Marine Environmental Research Center (MERI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the marine environment and human health through scientific research, education and advocacy. For information about our research and educational programs, please visit MERI online at www.meriresearch.org, e-mail info@meriresearch.org, or call 207.374.2135