Expert challenges climate change

What would normally be a once-in-20-years heat wave could occur every other year – just one of the affects global climate change will have on the future environment, said Brian J. Soden, a climate expert and professor, in his talk Wednesday night.

Soden gave his speech “The Reality of Global Warming: Cold Facts on a Hot Topic” in the Maurer School of Law, on the science behind the controversial topic of climate change.

Soden said he wanted to stay away from talking about government policies to fix climate change, but instead focused on the science to back up climate change, and the science to determine whether or not it is caused by human activity.

He was one of the more than 600 lead authors on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007. Soden said he considers this publication as the best source for information on pure scientific facts on global warming. However much like his talk, there is no talk of possible policies to solve the problem, just the facts.

“It’s easier for people who are not scientists in the field to get confused,” Soden said, “because if you look at the media coverage of something like global warming there is always seemingly contradictory information coming out.”

Jesse Kharbanda, executive director of the Hoosier Environmental Council, the main sponsor of the talk stressed the importance of Indiana’s youth to help combat climate change in the state.

“The best thing that college students can do is to write a letter to the district offices of Senators Lugar and Bayh and ask them to support stronger legislation,” Kharbanda said.

Some of the crowd did not think the talk went far enough. Exchange student Elizabeth Belz wished there was more mention on the policy of climate change, not just graphs and statistics.

“I can’t see the point of addressing the problem without a solution,” Belz said.

Soden presented all the evidence, and also stated that what we do now does not affect our climate. Climate change will be a “trans-generational” issue, he said.

He added that it is not fair to our children, to poorer countries, to other species; and the damage done is irreversible.