One of the reviewers of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change’s major international analysis of the impact of human activities on Earth’s
weather climate and global warming will be available to speak on the major findings
of this report.
Katharine Hayhoe, a research associate professor in the Department of Geosciences
at Texas Tech University, was not only one of the reviewers of the massive climate
change study, but also her climate change research is cited in the study.
Hayhoe grabbed headlines at the beginning of October 2006 after her research found
that the Northeast can expect hotter summers and shorter winters over the coming century,
turning into what the South feels like today, if the nation continues to rely on fossil
fuels for energy.
She led a team of 14 scientists for the year-long Northeastern climate change study,
and results will appear in the upcoming March issue of the journal, Climate Dynamics.
The research focused on nine states that ranged from Maine to New Jersey and across
to Pennsylvania. The project was organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
At the end of October 2006, Hayhoe again garnered headlines with a global climate
change study that used the IPCC’s latest climate models. Her research found that the
summer heat waves, prolonged droughts and heavy rainfall events that have occurred
across much of the U.S. and Europe over the past few years are a preview of what we
can expect in the future thanks to climate change.
This research was a product of collaborations with three other researchers from the
National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. and the Australian Bureau
of Meteorology. It appeared in the December issue of the journal Climatic Change.
Both of these studies found that decreasing dependence on fossil fuels would result
in less temperature change and smaller impacts from global warming during the coming
century.
CONTACT: Katharine Hayhoe, research associate professor, Department of Geosciences,
Texas Tech University, (806) 742-0015, (806) 392-1900, or katharine.hayhoe@ttu.edu.