More than 75 climatology researchers from five academic colleges work at Ohio State, with research spanning a broad range of themes: natural and agricultural sciences, engineering, public health, economics and humanities. The university also houses the State Climate Office of Ohio, which maintains the state’s climatic archives and collects all current state climatic data. Internationally renowned climate scientists Lonnie Thompson and Ellen Mosley-Thompson at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center have traveled the globe retrieving ice cores that contain a diary of past climate conditions, providing clear evidence of climate change and analyses vital to accurately forecast future climate change worldwide.
Recent findings from Ohio State faculty members shed light on:
* collective action to gird against climate catastrophes
* successful communication about environmental issues
* partnering with businesses on climate change adaptation
* biodiversity changes
* effects on water quality
Learn more about climate change!
What do ice cores teach us about climate change?
How is Ohio’s climate shifting?
What’s the connection between soil and climate change?
How could energy storage reduce emissions?
How will climate change affect the Great Lakes?
How do we respond to rising sea levels?
Read “Give Earth a Chance: Earth Day and the Politics of Modern Environmentalism” in Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, an Ohio State University and Miami University publication. Nicholas Breyfogle, Ohio State associate professor of history, is an editor of Origins.
Earth Day Thoughts from Environmental Faculty Directors and Chairs
I remember being part of planning Earth Day 1990 in St. Louis, Missouri. I helped with the organization, including the planting of 10,000 trees along the banks of the Mississippi by many, many volunteers who came out that weekend. Over 50,000 people showed up in Forest Park at the main festivities to celebrate over the two days. It was a great feeling of people coming together and being joined in a common cause. It felt powerful. I hope that we can join together on this Earth Day and feel some of that same energy and togetherness. We know that our steps today, as individuals, organizations and businesses, determine whether the path we find ourselves on in the future is sustainable. The good news is, we have the technologies, the accumulated capital, we know the policies — we have all the levers in hand to make the choices we need to make. And we have the science — the knowledge of the earth, environmental and human systems — that is needed to inform the policies and choices we make. Ohio State scientists and scholars are playing a leading role in sustainability research, including developing climate change assessments and policy; documenting the impacts on ecosystems; pioneering integrated models of natural and human systems; helping us to better understand behavioral science and decision making; innovating engineering for environmental health and resource efficiency; articulating how and why social justice and equity matter for all. Ohio State is an amazing place, filled with committed scholars, students, staff — who don’t just want to study the problem, they want to do something about it as well.
Elena Irwin, faculty director, Sustainability Institute, and Distinguished Professor of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences in Economics & Sustainability
The School of Earth Sciences is committed to educating students about climate change so that they are able to make informed decisions about societal issues and personal behaviors. We have many faculty who are focused on research in sustainability and climate change, in partnerships with the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center and Sustainability Institute, and this is also woven through our teaching mission. Our school offers everything from a general education, interdisciplinary climate change course (joint with the Ohio State Departments of History and Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology) for undergraduates to an advanced graduate course in paleoclimatology, taught by Professor Lonnie Thompson and simulcast to students around the world (associated with the Third Pole Environment Program at Ohio State). We study glaciers in the Arctic, coral reefs in the Pacific, water resource/water quality and public health-related issues in Ohio and around the world, energy resources, natural hazards and the past history of our planet going back billions of years. We celebrate our planet and the interconnected Earth systems now and into the future.
Matthew R. Saltzman, director and professor, School of Earth Sciences
I remember 1970. I remember the polluted rivers, dead fish, algal overgrowth, trash everywhere, polluted air, acid mine drainage, etc., in eastern Pennsylvania. It is why I pursued environmental chemistry/science. I try to make this point with our students — who have never seen city sewage with toilet paper flowing into their rivers or several feet of dead fish washed up on the banks of Lake Michigan (like in 1966). Improvements have been made, but now the pollution is invisible (parts per billion levels of chemicals in water, etc.) or coming at us on a time lag logarithmic scale (like climate or COVID-19). Few understand exponential growth — COVID-19 is proof of that — and climate change is similar but worse.
Examples of climate change-related research among faculty in ESGP include increased susceptibility of trees to pathogenic attack under condition of climate change (Pierluigi (Enrico) Bonello, plant pathology); the role of fire in oak-hickory forests and how it can be used in restorative and sustainable management (Roger A. Williams, environment and natural resources); dispersion of atmospheric pollutants from agricultural facilities and fracking sites (Gil Bohrer, civil, environmental and geodetic engineering); predictive models laying out possible oceans scenarios for marine biodiversity as climate changes (Matt Sullivan, microbiology and civil, environmental and geodetic engineering); how participants in the Transition Movement for climate change resilience imagine the future (Anna J. Willow, anthropology); climate change law (Cinnamon P. Carlarne, law); soil environmental chemistry (myself); and multilevel environmental governance (Matthew Hamilton, environment and natural resources).
Nicholas Basta, professor, soil and environmental science, and director, Environmental Science Graduate Program, School of Environment and Natural Resources
This semester, our Department of Geography blog presents topical and cutting-edge research on social and environmental change. We explore some of the front lines of climate change (from South American glaciers to midwestern agriculture), engaging with the politics of environmental data: how scientific knowledge about pollution reflects the efforts and interests of multiple institutions, firms and government bodies; our policies to redesign our economies and cities in anticipation of looming environmental crises; how conservation policy can work against the needs of communities and wildlife in practice; and many other salient issues. Moreover, as geographers, we find common ground in prioritizing social and environmental justice in confronting existential threats wrought by climate change – it is clearer now than ever that societal and environmental challenges are inextricably linked. Faculty, graduate students and visitors to Ohio State geography are providing weekly posts on their research. Our goal is that we uncover some broader insights as a community.
Darla Munroe, professor and chair, Department of Geography