Climate Change
The Arctic climate is changing rapidly, and this change will have profound effects on the Arctic landscape, its people and wildlife. Perhaps most importantly, Arctic Ocean sea ice is melting, and changing its nature, from a thicker multi-year ice pack, to an ice cover that is characterized mostly by first-year ice, that is thinner, and much smaller in areal extent in summer. Here scientists and Arctic dwellers talk about climate change in the Arctic.
Featured Characters
Dr. Steve Amstrup
Polar Bear expert, Research Wildlife Biologist, US Geological Survey, Anchorage, AK
Dr. Steven C. Amstrup, Polar Bear Scientist, talks about the state of polar bear research and relates that to climate change and how polar nations are working together to share information. Dr. Amstrup is a Research Wildlife Biologist with the United States Geological Survey at the Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, AK. He led the international team of researchers which prepared 9 reports that became the basis for the recent decision, by the Secretary of Interior, to list polar bears as a threatened species.
Polar Bears & Climate Change
Alaska’s foremost polar bear expert talks about the effect of the retreating ice on bears
Polar Bears and the Future
Research Wildlife Biologist, Alaska Science Center, USGS, Anchorage, Alaska. Dr. Amstrup talks about Polar Bear science and managing bears as the pole warms up and the ice retreats.
Studying Polar Bears
Dr. Amstrup takes some time out in his office on the campus of the University of Alaska in Anchorage to talk about how polar bear research has moved from questions of hunting bears to climate change.
Polar Bears & Global Warming
The single biggest threat to polar bears is decline to their habitat that’s likely to occur because of Global Warming
Dr. George Divoky
Seabird Biologist studying in Arctic Alaska since 1970.
Dr George Divoky has been studying seabirds in arctic Alaska since 1970 and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He is the founder of Friends of Cooper Island, a nonprofit scientific/education organization that maintains the long-term study of seabirds on Cooper Island and preserves and distributes Cooper Island data for use by current and future researchers studying climate change and other Arctic phenomena. Divoky also has an active outreach program speaking to conservation organizations and school groups.
Studying the Black Guillemots of Cooper Island has largely been a solitary venture for George. While the discovery and initial years of the study were part of governmental research related to oil development in northern Alaska, for the past two decades the work has been conducted with occasional grants and personal dedication.
Divoky’s research on Cooper Island was featured in a January 6, 2002 cover story in the New York Times Magazine entitled “George Divoky’s Planet,” written by Darcy Frey.
Meet Arctic Seabird Biologist George Divoky
Divoky conducts annual observations of Black Guillemots breeding on Cooper Island in the Arctic Ocean, 20 miles east of Point Barrow, Alaska. He stays on the wind-swept island every summer for the full breeding season of 100 days. His long-term study has allowed him to make startling observations about climate change.
Date of Egg Laying changes in response to Climate Change
Working on Coopers Island all summer for more than 3 decades, Divoky talks about the tolerance of the Guillemots, about the energy he gets from the Midnight Sun, and how decades of research on these Arctic seabirds has led to surprising findings about global warming.
Polar Bears invade Coopers Island as the summer ice pack retreats looking for food.
George talks about how he prepares for a summer on the island, connecting with local Inupiats and scientists, who have become his friends. He also talks about how hard it is for the Guillemots to feed their young with the pack ice so far away
Dr. Matt Huber
Associate Professor, Purdue University’s Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and co-founder of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center
Matthew Huber is an Associate Professor in Purdue University’s Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department and co-founding member of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center. He has been Associate Editor of Paleoceanography and G-Cubed, and co-Chair of the Paleoclimate Working Group of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate System Modeling initiative. Huber attempts to solve fundamental climate questions, such as: When global warming occurs, how much is the warming amplified near the poles? What are the impacts of climate change on the hydrological cycle and severe weather events? What sets the equilibrium equator-to-pole temperature gradient and how is this key parameter related to global mean temperature? Are there mechanisms that generate increased heat transport in warm time intervals? What are the negative feedbacks in the climate system that prevent a positive feedback loop, i.e. a ‘runaway greenhouse effect?’
Attempting to answer these fundamental climate questions has led Huber from the present to the deep past (Eocene–50 million years ago) and back again. Huber’s work covers many subjects and methodologies including: climate modelling , paleobiogeographic reconstructions, Lagrangian tracer modelling, compound-specific isotope record synthesis, and satellite observation investigation. One of his most exciting research opportunities was collaborating with other scientists who collected deep sea cores from the Arctic Ocean on Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Cruise 302. The paleoclimate proxy records indicated Florida-like temperatures in the Arctic 55 million years ago, whereas the climate models produced only tepid temperatures.
Matt's bleak view of our future: Thunderstorms over the open Arctic Ocean.
Here Matt describes the energy policy of humans–“If it’s not running away, and if you can’t eat it, THEN BURN IT!” Our propensity for burning things means serious warming in our future!
Meet Dr. Matt Huber Paleoclimate Modeler
Matt tests models of future climate by looking at periods of global warming in the past.Here he talks about a period in the earth’s history 55 and 35 million years ago when it was really warm and there were high concentrations of greenhouse gasses.
What is going to happen over the next few hundred years?
We’re committed to a path of substantial global warming, and it’s going to be a much warmer planet. Matt says, “Think about really hot and muggy days ahead. Hot, muggy nights”. Can we do anything to stop it? Listen to what Matt has to say.
Dr. Don Perovich
Research Geophysicist
Dr. Steven C. Amstrup, Polar Bear Scientist, talks about the state of polar bear research and relates that to climate change and how polar nations are working together to share information. Dr. Amstrup is a Research Wildlife Biologist with the United States Geological Survey at the Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, AK. He led the international team of researchers which prepared 9 reports that became the basis for the recent decision, by the Secretary of Interior, to list polar bears as a threatened species.
Do we know when the Arctic will be ice-free in September?
And how is the reduction of sea ice affecting human behavior? Don addresses the big issues of climate change in the Arctic.
Meet Research Geophysicist Don Perovich
“Imagine what it would be like to walk on a frozen ocean, a vast beautiful wasteland…” Don talks of tipping points, “ice albedo feedback,” and the roll of clouds in the loss of sea ice.
What is the Arctic? What defines it?
Don says, “It’s the perennial presence of ice….” Here Don talks about his love of the Arctic, the place and the people he works with.
Dr. Paul Shepson
Analytical/Atmospheric Chemistry, Purdue University
Dr. Paul Shepson, Head of the Chemistry Deptartment, Purdue University holds a split appointment between the Departments of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and Chemistry. He is currently Head of the Department of Chemistry, and was the founding Director of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center (PCCRC). Professor Shepson’s research group is interested in numerous problems in the field of atmospheric and analytical chemistry, applied to atmospheric measurement problems. His group focuses on issues related to exchange of gases between the surface and the atmosphere in two very different environments – the Arctic, and mid-latitude forests. His research approaches involve building platforms from which to study the atmosphere, including tethered balloons and aircraft, including the Airborne Laboratory for Atmospheric Research.
Ozone Buoy 101
Atmospheric chemist Paul Shepson talks about the Ozone Buoy, or O’Buoy.
Fixing" climate change with technology
Dr. Paul Shepson and Dr. Jan Bottenheim talk about the problems of simply using technology as an easy “fix” for climate change
Experimental Plane in the Arctic
Dr. Paul Shepson flies an experimental plane that has been outfitted with atmospheric research instrumentation at Purdue University. The plane was flown from West Lafayette, Indiana by Dr. Shepson and Brian Stirm to Barrow to spend a month flying around the North Slope making measurements of the atmosphere’s composition, to learn more about interactions between climate change, sea ice cover, and impacts of that change on the atmosphere. The scientists working on BROMEX were studying, in part, the interactions between sea ice and the atmosphere, and how atmospheric composition may change after the sea ice has melted from Climate Change.
Dr. Mattew Sturm
Research Physical Scientist conducing wide-ranging geophysical studies on snow in high latittudes, Fairbanks, AK
Dr. Sturm is responsible for conducting wide-ranging geophysical studies on snow in high latitudes. His work has taken him from the Antarctic to the Arctic, and he has been the leader of more than 30 expeditions in winter in pursuit of his science. He is based at the Alaska Office in Fairbanks, but collaborates with a wide range of scientists both at CRREL and elsewhere. His most recent work focuses on the role of snow cover on climate, with particular attention to snow ecology, and climate change resulting from snow-vegetation interactions.
Why Study the Arctic
Matthew Sturm talks about the importance of studying the Arctic and how it is connected to the rest of the world
Love of the Arctic
Matthew Sturm, ice and snow expert from Fairbanks, Alaska, talks about his love of the Arctic
Long Traverses in the Arctic for Science
Matthew Sturm, ice and snow expert from Fairbanks, Alaska, talks about his long scientific trips across the Arctic on snowmachines.
The Real Arctic
Matthew Sturm talks about the contradictions, the complexities of the Arctic
Dr. Jan Willem Bottenheim
Atmospheric Chemistry, Environment Canada
Dr. Bottenheim’s research interests are in the area of atmospheric gas phase chemistry. One area of particular interest to Jan is the chemistry of the Arctic boundary layer air. Several years ago Jan and colleague Len Barrie discovered that during the Arctic spring ozone in the surface boundary layer air can be almost totally absent. This lower tropospheric ozone hole has been one of the topics Jan has studied in detail in collaboration with several colleagues from all over the world; lately this has led to the discovery of surprisingly active photochemistry of the snow pack.
Jan was the lead scientist for several large field studies in recent years such as the OASIS-CANADA, Polar Sunrise Experiment 1992, PACIFIC93, ATLANTIC96 and ALERT2000, and the results of these studies have been published in special issues of key scientific journals such as the Journal of Geophysical Research and Atmospheric Environment.
Born in the Netherlands, Jan received his education from the University of Amsterdam, and after post doctoral work in Japan and the US came to Canada in 1975. After a stint in Alberta he came to Toronto in 1980 where he has been employed by Environment Canada since that time.
Fixing" climate change with technology
Dr. Paul Shepson and Dr. Jan Bottenheim talk about the problems of simply using technology as an easy “fix” for climate change