UC Experts Weigh In on Climate Change in Campus Exhibit, Lecture

Climate change is more than a political hot topic.

It’s a scientific reality that researchers around the world have spent decades studying. 

Join three experts at the University of Cincinnati for a wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary discussion of the topic during the September Cincinnati Museum Center Insights Lecture, beginning at 7 p.m. on Sept. 12, in Tangeman University Center’s MainStreet Cinema. Click here to register for the free event.

The evening’s talk — Uncertain Future: Physical, Biological, and Societal Impacts of Global Climate Change — coincides with the installation of Climate Change and Us exhibit on the main level of Tangeman.

Climate Change and Us focuses on how and why has Earth’s climate changed over the last 65 million years, how climate is changing today and what we can expect in the future. It was developed by the Cincinnati Museum Center in partnership with researchers from the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences.

The exhibit is the first of four signature CMC exhibits to be installed at UC as part of CMC’s Curate My Community initiative, which brings a selection of museum collections to the public during Union Terminal’s historic two-year restoration. 

Other exhibits to be installed on campus soon include:

• Ipuh: Our Vanishing Species: Ipuh, the rare Sumatran rhino preserved in this exhibit, made headlines in 2001 when he fathered a male offspring, the first successful captive breeding of his species in 112 years, at the Cincinnati Zoo. Explore the important lessons we can learn from modern-day extinction through this collection of artifacts, which includes passenger pigeons, bats, frogs and even a sea turtle 
• Cincinnati Under the Sea: Over 400 million years ago, Cincinnati was underwater in a tropical sea. That era is brought back to life in a special exhibit focusing on the fossil remains of animals that thrived in the watery environment.
• Big Bone Lick: A Place of Discovery: Big Bone Lick in Northern Kentucky, the birthplace of American paleontology, attracted many to study its rich fossils. The likes of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin marveled at Big Bone Lick’s tusks and bones of mastodons and other now-extinct massive creatures known collectively as the Pleistocene Megafauna, highlighted in this exhibit.

“We’re excited to bring these exhibits to the University of Cincinnati so that we can share the work of their faculty and of Cincinnati Museum Center with the entire UC family and greater community,” said Elizabeth Pierce, president and CEO of Cincinnati Museum Center. “The lecture is a great way to activate the Climate Change and Us exhibit and to speak with some of the professors who were instrumental in putting together an exhibit that could impact our future.”

Efforts to place exhibits around UC’s Uptown Campus have been spearheaded by the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, whose professors helped shape the original Climate Change and Us exhibit that was first displayed at CMC.

“This lecture not only highlights important work across disciplines in our college, it brings attention to an important partnership we are forging with Cincinnati Museum Center,” said Ken Petren, dean of the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences. “Locating exhibits around our campus allows us to reach out to and interact with the community in new and exciting ways. It’s also a great opportunity to showcase the problem-solving, real-world work being done by our excellent research faculty and students.”

Lecture Details

Title: Uncertain Future: Physical, Biological, and Societal Impacts of Global Climate Change 

Featured speakers: 

Dr. Tom Lowell, Geology: The Physical Basis for Past and Future Climate Change

SUMMARY: Disconnects between what we know about climate change in the past, how we see climate change today and what we predict for the future must be reconciled in order to increase understanding and improve effective planning.

LONGER DESCRIPTION: The physics behind the global climate system has been well known for quite some time. However, when these simple physics interact across two fluid bodies (the atmosphere and oceans), a land mass, and the respective living organisms in all of the above, the exact interactions are harder to predict. Looking toward the past we use imperfect geological records to estimate the patterns and causes of changes in the energy among these systems. Although details are still emerging, there are three key lessons 1) CO2 is not the only control on temperature changes, 2) in the near past earth warming proceeded faster than cooling, and 3) the rates of change appear to be rapid. Looking toward the future we employ models with an incomplete physical description of the world to predict future climate. The best current estimate suggest 1) CO2 to be the primary driver, and 2) the temperature changes are proportional to the rate of CO2 addition. Although we have a better understanding of the present than either the past or future, the disconnect between the views of the past and future needed to be rectified for any effective planning purposes.

Dr. Brooke Crowley, Geology and Anthropology: “The Biological Repercussions of Climate Change”

SUMMARY: Climate change impacts more than the weather. Animals and plants evolve and decline based on the environment, and those changes have ramifications that stretch across species, including humans.

LONGER DESCRIPTION: Since its birth, our planet has experienced a variable climate, and the fossil record demonstrates that multitudes of species have repeatedly evolved, thrived, and then disappeared in response to this dynamic climate. With current and projected climate change, the distribution and abundance of species will change, which may have profound impacts on our own species.

Dr. Adrian Parr, Political Science and School of Architecture and Interior Design: “Birth of a New Earth”

SUMMARY: Imagination holds the key to how we answer our Earth's biggest questions relating to climate change: how do we ameliorate the damage as well as related widespread suffering and harm brought on by socioeconomic disparities?

LONGER DESCRIPTION: We know that the world’s environment has been and continues to be seriously harmed. What we don’t know is the full impact of this crisis because it all depends on what we do about it from here on out. The biggest constraint we face vis-à-vis our own future is the hard-nosed reality that the human species is killing itself. Consequently, the current generation not only faces a remarkable opportunity to make a real difference in the world, we also carry a heavy responsibility to look beyond the current socioeconomic paradigm that produces widespread suffering and harm. Indeed, the success of the former relies upon a commitment to the latter. The question that now presents itself: How do we tackle this? In large part the answer lies with imagination.

About Cincinnati Museum Center

Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC) at Union Terminal is a nationally recognized institution and national historic landmark. Dedicated to sparking community dialogue, insight and inspiration, CMC was awarded the 2009 National Medal for Museum and Library Service from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and received accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums in 2012. CMC is one of a select few museums in the nation with both of these honors, making it a unique asset and a vital community resource. Union Terminal has been voted the nation's 45th most important building by the American Institute of Architects. Organizations within CMC include the Cincinnati History Museum, Duke Energy Children's Museum, Museum of Natural History & Science, Robert D. Lindner Family OMNIMAX® Theater and Cincinnati History Library & Archives. Recognized by Forbes Traveler Magazine as the 17th most visited museum in the country, CMC welcomes more than one million visitors annually. For more information, visit www.cincymuseum.org.