Mayewski discusses importance of climate change research on PRI’s ‘The World’

Paul Mayewski, director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, spoke with Public Radio International’s “The World” for the report, “Climate change research can be risky. But not doing it is even riskier.” Mayewski has led more than 50 expeditions to places including the Antarctic, Greenland, the Himalayas, the Tibetan Plateau, and the Andes, according to the report. Mayewski and his teams collect ice cores, long cylinders of ice and snow drilled out of glaciers and ice sheets that hold glimpses of the Earth’s climates in the past, the report states. The ice cores help scientists predict future climate changes. The report also mentioned UMaine climate scientist Gordon Hamilton, a professor in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences and researcher with the CCCI, who died in a field accident in October 2016 while conducting research in Antarctica for the National Science Foundation. “It was just a terribly unfortunate accident that happened to an extremely experienced person,” Mayewski said. When asked why scientists don’t use robots, satellites or drones to gather data, Mayewski said there are things that only a human hand can do, and only a human brain can understand and interpret. “It is absolutely essential for people to be out in the field,” he said. “We have been able to capture environmental records that tell us things you can’t find any other way.”