Des Moines Register
10-13-07
3 professors from ISU aid climate panel
By LISA ROSSI
REGISTER AMES BUREAU
Ames, Ia. — Iowa State University has three contributors to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shares this year's Nobel
Peace Prize with Al Gore.
Ray Arritt, a professor of agronomy; Bill Gutowski, a professor of
geological and atmospheric sciences; and Gene Takle, a professor of
geological and atmospheric sciences, have contributed as authors and
reviewers for the panel's 2001 and 2007 assessments of climate change.
The United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological
Organization established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in
1988. The panel comprises scientists and researchers across the world who
assess the scientific, technical and socioeconomic information on climate
change.
"It's kind of neat: I have, like, .002 percent of a Nobel prize now - shared with
about 2,000 other people," Arritt said Friday.
The three researchers have worked together on climate studies for 15 years and
are now studying regional climate change. They are examining Iowa climate data
from 1975 to 2000 that has shown that annual precipitation has increased by
about an inch in Iowa in that period and that more of the precipitation is falling
during extreme weather events. They also said that Iowa winters have become
less cold and Iowa summers more humid in that time.
Arritt said the panel did not conduct original research; instead, its members
looked at research that's already been done and worked to figure out what
questions needed to be answered on climate issues.
He said the current scientific consensus is that the world is warming and that
most of that is because of human activity.
He said he and his ISU colleagues were on a team of people who looked at
research that has been published in peer-reviewed journals.
He also said his and Gutowski's research on the local effects of climate change
was included on one of the report's volumes.
"One of the things that I'm really interested in working on is how large-scale
climate and its variability has local effects," he said.
Gutowski said he and his colleagues interacted with scientists and researchers
around the world through work on the panel.
"I'm saying that to emphasize this really is a global process," he said. "It's why we
need so many hundreds of scientists to develop as best we can a good
understanding what is happening to climate."
Gutowski said people should pay more attention to the issue of climate change.
"As a scientist, I try to do my best to provide the best knowledge," he said. "How
we respond will have to be worked out in the political arena."
Reporter Lisa Rossi can be reached at (515) 232-2383 or lrossi@dmreg.com