Well, here I am at the end of the first day of the ASLO 2009 meeting, after skiving off most of yesterday walking around Nice in the sunshine, across the market, through the old town, up the hill to the site of the old castle (tip for parents: one of the most scenic playgrounds up there that I’ve seen!). I also met a very interesting lady from Iceland who runs a very cool research project in an Icelandic Fjord: I will write more about that another time.
The plenary talks this morning were very interesting. Joellen L. Russel from the University of Arizona explained how the winds that drive the Antarctic Circumpolar Current – the big current that runs all around the Antarctic continent – are increasing, and how this may affect the upwelling processes around the Antarctic. Right now, nutrient-rich deep water surfaces around the Antarctic, leading to the massive phytoplankton blooms that sustain the big Krill populations, which in turn sustain penguins, seals, and whales. If this should change, the effects would be dramatic.
During question time, Dr. Russell summarized her concerns and ‘hunches’ about what’s going to happen with the Southern Ocean in a changing climate:
“There are still so many things we don’t know. Personally, I would like to hire all grad students, there is so much to do, and we need to measure, measure, measure. … We have this tiny moment right now where we have the tiger by its tail. We need more modelers to talk to observationalists, and more observationalists to talk to modelers. We have this narrow window of time to find out how things work – for example, we don’t know what the role of the biological pump is going to be in sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. Are we going to be aided and abetted, or will systems start to break down?…People are now asking for climate forecasts on a regional scale. They want to know what they should expect for the weather in their town or region. If we are going to even attempt that, we need to answer these bigger questions now. I live in Arizona, and am the only climate modeler in the entire state. We’re in the middle of an 8-year drought, and I am getting phone calls from people asking me what we can expect in terms of rain fall next year. I can only say that I cannot answer that question. I want to add: did you tell your member of Congress to make sure our work gets funded?”
Dr. Russell is one of the 14 scientists behind the brief supporting the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision faulting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for their inaction on carbon dioxide emissions and climate change – here is the New York Times article to jog your memories.
The talk is now up on the ASLO website (start at about 3:10).
I’m afraid that all I saw was ‘Nice’ and ‘sunshine’ … January in Cromer does that to a man.
That’s ok, it was only Sunday – yesterday was cold and pouring rain again. I haven’t dared look out of the hotel window this morning yet… it seems to look clear…
Good links, Steffi, thanks. But when you say “Brief”, you sure don’t mean “succinct”… and people say scientists have problems communicating with the public?
The new US president is also trying to hand more power to individual states for the regulation of fuel efficiency in cars
This seems like a good idea everywhere, except perhaps
MotownMichigan. Recall the ancient Chinese proverb about voting, turkeys and Christmas.Mike, I have no idea what proverb you are talking about.. please help!