Environmental professionals prepare CMU for a lifetime of dealing with climate change
Environmental professionals on the Earth Week Keynote Panel, left to right, Brent Lofgren, Stephanie Gandulla and Peter Sinclair, answer questions on April 18, 2018, in Pearce Hall.
A Friend of the Planet Award recipient and other environmental professionals discussed climate change in an April 18 Earth Week Keynote Panel.
The panel, hosted by the Student Environmental Alliance (SEA) at Central Michigan University, was held in Pearce Hall and attracted more than 80 students and community members.
The panel's purpose was to teach the CMU and Mount Pleasant communities about climate change, how to communicate its effects to others and the impact it's currently making on Michigan.
Speaker Stephanie Gandulla, an archaeologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said the atmosphere is like a “heat-trapping blanket.”
She said as the national conversation on climate change becomes more of a debate and less of a discussion, it is important to take advantage of the use of metaphors and explanatory chains.
“You want to make sure your communication is targeting and appealing to your audience’s values,” she said. “I think we all come to realize that the greenhouse gas (analogy) is not a successful metaphor.”
She said communication on the topic must be approachable, while also linked to the scientific value behind it.
In addition to value, Gandulla said it is important for someone to address their own values prior to engaging in conversation on climate change.
"I consider myself a believer in climate change and an environmental stewart,” she said. "I studied science and archeology, (but) I (entered the field) with a whole bunch of other rogue values.”
Gandulla said the chief values for those educating on climate change are “protection and responsible management.”
Protection refers to keeping people and places away from harm. Responsible management means pursuing the best interests for current species and people, along with the world’s future generations, she said.
Brent Lofgren, a researcher from the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, said an issue with the projection of climate change is it is looked at from an observatory platform.
Observations are what can be seen in the news media, Lofgren said. These refer to the practice of averaging out temperatures throughout the world and country to prove the existence of climate change.
“The physics really have to enter into the story, and unfortunately it is a little less easy to get (that) across to people,” he said.
Lofgren said a frequent issue with the topic is that people may expect every natural phenomenon to be an outcome of climate change, which leads to criticism very quickly.
He said although Michigan has faced an unusually colder April, that warmth is still expanding and heat waves will be arriving at a more frequent rate.
Peter Sinclair, a Midland videographer and recipient of the 2017 Friend of the Planet Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network award, said climate change is already affecting everyone, even in the Midwest.
“You talk about things like melting arctic ice and sea level rise, and people here in the Midwest think, ‘Well, that really has nothing to do with me. I don’t know why I should be concerned about that,’” he said.
He said Michigan is already receiving a more massive amount of precipitation.
“There is something like an extra Lake Superior sloshing around in the atmosphere,” Sinclair said. “We have very expensive infrastructure that is built essentially for a different climate. We are starting to see it begin to break down.”
Sinclair said although climate change is real, it won’t result in the ultimate end of mankind.
“We’re not getting off that easy," he said. "We’re going to have to deal with and live with and solve this problem. It’s going to be hard, it’s going to be long, it’s going to be expensive and it’s going to be a factor for all of your lives and your children’s lives as well.”
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