By Lynnae Marty Hentzen
Show #333: Weather Series #1 – Dr. William Gutowski – Aired August 5, 2022
After a 3 month hiatus, this is our first show back as we begin a series on weather and the impacts of climate change in our everyday lives.
Who better to kick things off than our favorite weather guru: Dr. William Gutowski, a leading scientist studying weather events around the world and collaboratively modeling future events.
He is a professor of meteorology in the Department of Geological & Atmospheric Science at Iowa State University. Dr. Gutowski received his BS from Yale in Astronomy & Physics and his Ph.D. from MIT in meteorology. He was also a lead author on the 2021 Report for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
As we continue to witness fiercer and more frequent weather events around the globe, we decided it would be beneficial to do a series focused on the reality of climate change on our changing weather patterns, which affect all aspects of our lives.
As stated in the 2021 IPPC Report, “Human influence has warmed the climate at a rate that is unprecedented in at least the last 2000 years.”
As daunting as this report is, Dr. Gutowski, one of the 15 lead authors of a chapter in the latest IPCC report, shares his continued hope for our future in an article from the Ames Tribune. As he states, “I don’t want to discount the creativity that people have in making things work.” His optimism continues to inspire me and I always enjoy our conversations on the show.
Today we discuss new approaches to engage individuals, organizations, and communities in participating in real solutions to mitigate our climate crisis.
Key Takeaways:
- A new interdisciplinary Climate Science major has been approved at ISU.
- Students want the climate change issue openly discussed.
- There seems to be a growing awareness by the public.
- The challenge is to work with the broader community in a way that allows people to feel empowered.
- We also need to address the equity of solutions among different nation-states; some have benefitted greatly from the burning of fossil fuels, and others have suffered because of it.
- It is easier and faster to work at the local level on viable solutions because politics don’t typically interfere as much; however, ultimately we need state, national, and global efforts as well.
- We discussed the article Dr. Gutowski recently published with Linda Shenk – Mind the gaps! Climate scientists should heed lessons in collaborative storytelling from William Shakespeare.
- In their most recent report, the IPCC stated in the strongest terms that the science is very well settled and it is unequivocal that humans are causing the climate to change.
- There is a BBC docu-series on the fossil fuel industry and how it is fueling uncertainty and doubt about climate change.
- The development of renewable, sustainable sources of energy has been substantial and they are a viable solution.
- The hope is that we understand what is going on and we also understand what we need to be doing. It will take time but we can do this.
- Hope is present when around the younger generation!
“We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity.
We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves
On a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet.”
~ Stephen Hawking
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need,
But not every man’s greed.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
Thank you for listening to today’s discussion.
Let’s continue the conversation and learn from each other.