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LSC Prof's Agree: Climate Change is Here

By Eric Blaisdell

On September 16, 2011

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After more than a century of polluting the atmosphere, it is time to make some radical changes.

The meteorology and science departments at Lyndon State College have a message for the rest of the world: We are in trouble if we do not take climate change more seriously.

"The climate is very definitely changing and has been now for a long time, 150 years," said Bruce Berryman, and adjunct professor in the Atmospheric Sciences Department. "The rate of change is accelerating and in the last decade or two it is changing even faster than it was in the previous 100 years. It is due in large part to human activity."

Berryman credits China, as well as the United States, for the recent increase in Carbon Dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas.

"As little as five years ago they were number two in production of CO2, the United States was number one and we produced twice as much as China," he said. "And now in just those few short years, China is emitting more than we are and it is not because we cut back. We are still emitting more and more every year, they just caught up with us."

This increase in greenhouse gases is bringing the point of no return closer and closer, but even still the deadline is anyone's guess.

"These tipping points are always out there," Berryman said. "There are a lot of those tipping points that are known in nature. With almost all of them you don't know what the value is that you have to go past. The only way you find out is once you go past it."

But there is no need to risk it when there is something to be done now.

"On the one hand, we don't know," he said. "But on the other hand because of the possible negative effects of global warming there are those that are saying ‘let's not take a chance, why do something foolish and screw up the planet.'"

Benjamin Luce, Assistant Professor of Physics, Sustanibility Studies at LSC, takes a harder line.

"We are basically destroying the planet very rapidly with a combination of human induced climate change plus toxic pollutants and loss of habitat," he said. "I've spent many years looking at the data and climate models and I'm completely convinced that we are already undergoing a really serious disaster."

The changes that have been made and legislation that has been passed to reduce carbon emissions only scratch the surface.

"It's been counterproductive, we have to fix the energy sources, it is the only thing that is going to make a difference," said Luce. "We need to pass legislation that will outlaw the emission of carbon dioxide and phase it out as fast as possible."

Berryman agrees.

"They are doing it much too slowly," he said. "We have cars that are much more efficient than (what we have) right now and there is no reason why we couldn't mass produce them. There is no reason to take the long slow approach."

Instead of fossil fuels, Luce points to renewable resources that are readily available.

"Solar is by far the largest renewable resource, hundreds of times larger than anything else," he said. "It is the most widespread. It's the easiest to use and the cost of solar power is coming down very rapidly."

Widespread change on a global scale is an uphill battle, but it can start at home.

"Here in the Northeast Kingdom it is extremely difficult to not use a car," said Berryman. "It is practically impossible. Something like RCT is good, but it is not like having a taxi cab on every street corner. You can't do much with your car, but people are having fewer cars, smaller cars, and having more fuel efficient cars. People are tightening up their houses all the time so they use less heating oil."

Those who do not believe the climate is changing or that the earth should be getting warmer have not looked at all the facts.

"The evidence is overwhelming, with meteorological evidence, oceanographic evidence and biological evidence," said Berryman. "It is all changing now in the same direction. We don't need any more data, it is really abundantly clear that it is changing and changing a lot."

Vermonters are feeling it too. "Just in the time that I have been in Vermont, the past 30 years, in the first 20 years we got down to minus 35 every single winter," he said. "And now in the last 10 years we've never gotten down to minus 35," said Berryman.