Medill Reports: Glaciers are like global thermometers

Lowell, a professor in UC's McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, addressed the Comer Climate Conference in Wisconsin about his work studying glaciers around the world.

He told Medill Reports Chicago the global retreat of the world's glaciers from climate change will lead to observable sea level rise.

"I'm interested in past climate changes and their interactions with glaciers," Lowell said.

"Glaciers are fun things to play on and fun things to visit. But they're also a sensitive indicator of climate," he said. "Glaciers are very sensitive to change so they're the canary in the coalmine."

Lowell has taken his students on field trips to places like Alaska and Iceland to study glaciers.

"I did an exercise in Iceland where we looked at glaciers and then students were told to look for where the glacier was the year they were born," he said. "Then I'd have them walk to see how the glacier changed in their lifetime."