The Institute of Technology is in a strong position to help tackle many of the most vexing scientific questions about climate change
by Richard Broderick
Scientific evidence increasingly shows that human
enterprises—especially burning fossil fuels such as
coal, oil, and natural gas—are altering the Earth’s climate.
Scientists have voiced concerns for years about
an alarming decline in the size of the Arctic ice cap,
which functions as a giant air conditioner for the
planet’s climate system as it reflects sunlight into
space. The U.S. Geological Survey recently released
a detailed map of the Antarctic coastline and found
dwindling and even disappearing ice shelves.
Though, among researchers, there is wide-ranging
opinion over how quickly Earth’s atmosphere is heating
up, and a broad range of theories of exactly how
that warming is going to affect the biosphere, there
is almost no credible debate in the scientific community
over one sobering fact: the hour is late.
“Climate change is not only a global problem. It
is intertwined with land and water use, urbanization,
deforestation, the emergence of new diseases,
and more,” said Jon Foley, director of the University
of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment. “It’s not
just a question of overall average temperature rising,
but a fundamental reorganization of the whole climate
system.”
The implications are almost incalculable. By comparison,
Foley said, “Look at what is happening in
the markets right now because people were messing
around with some obscure financial instruments.
The current situation pales in comparison to what
might happen if, for example, several of the world’s
major breadbaskets were to experience a drought simultaneously.”
 The Institute on the Environment was formed
two years ago to serve as a multidisciplinary bridge
across the University—an “incubator” in Foley’s
words—designed to bring together “core physical science
research” around environmental issues as well
as thinking about the specific policy and legal implications
of environmental impacts. In January, the Institute
entered into a partnership with Climate Central,
a new non-governmental organization (NGO)
that already has partnerships with Princeton and
Stanford. “Its goal is to take the best of the scientific
and policy development worlds and bring their findings
to policymakers using the lens of science itself,”
Foley said. “It’s the first NGO I know of started by and
for science.”
One of the biggest challenges policymakers face
is that there is still so much to be learned about the
dauntingly complex causes of climate change and the
equally daunting complexity of exactly how climate
change will affect all of the Earth’s myriad ecosystems.
The Institute of Technology is in a strong position
to help tackle many of the most vexing scientific
questions about climate change, ultimately providing
policymakers with a sound basis for critical regulatory
and resource decisions.
“The interface we have with IT brings tremendous
depth in the physical sciences,” Foley observes. “The
University of Minnesota is especially strong in several
disciplines directly related to critical environmental
factors, including areas that involve the causes of
climate change.”
The following profiles of three Institute of Technology
researchers provide a snapshot of the work being
conducted on the Earth’s changing global climate.
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