International expert on climate change speaks at UNL

Global warming, one of the defining issues of our day, is the focus of the University Libraries 2008 Visiting Scholar Program during a two-day event at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on April 16 and 17. David Easterling, an internationally recognized expert on climate change, will participate in two events designed to shed light on this complex and divisive topic.

Easterling, a researcher and Chief of Scientific Services at the National Climatic Data Center, was a lead author for "Climate Change 2007," the Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared with Al Gore the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel won the Prize "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

Easterling will present a lecture on "Evidence of Climate Change," at 2 p.m. April 16 in the Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. (room posted). He will also participate in a panel discussion of "Climate Change and the Great Plains" at 2 p.m. April 17 in the Nebraska Union. Joining him on the panel will be three UNL climate experts, Sheri Fritz, Willa Cather professor of geosciences and biological sciences; Michael Hayes, director of the National Drought Mitigation Center; and Kenneth Hubbard, director of the High Plains Regional Climate Center with panel moderator Bob Bolin of the University Libraries. A reception will follow.

These events are free and open to the public. They are sponsored by the University Libraries, Department of Geosciences, the High Plains Regional Climate Center, the National Drought Mitigation and the Convocations Committee. For more information, visit www.unl.edu/libr/inet/vsp2008.shtml.