By Ronica Stromberg
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute featured four School of Natural Resources people as experts at its 2025 fall symposium in the Nebraska East Union Sept. 27.
With the theme "Global and Regional Water Issues: Challenges and Solutions," the symposium drew 116 attendees to hear from eight speakers about water issues in Nebraska and worldwide.
Deborah Bathke, state climatologist and research associate professor in the School of Natural Resources, spoke about the state climate change report, "Understanding and Assessing Climate Change: Preparing for Nebraska's Future," released September 24, 2025. She said she wanted to communicate through her presentation that climate change isn't just a worry for the future.
"It's happening now," she said. "We can detect that and see that in Nebraska, and we mostly see that through the changes in extremes. So, that whiplash from dry to wet that we've seen, and we also see it in changes in seasonal shifts in the climate."
Her office, the Nebraska State Climate Office, tracks temperature records back to 1895 and has observed rising temperatures and reduced snow cover in the state.
"Nebraska has, overall, become warmer," she said. "Precipitation is maybe a little bit wetter, but you see bigger things at the seasonal level than you do at the annual level."
Read more about the symposium at https://snr.unl.edu/aboutus/what/newstory.aspx?fid=1290