EXPERTS ADVISORY

Federal scientists announced today that 2015 was the planet’s warmest year since records began in 1880. Both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA determined that last year shattered the previous record, set in 2014.

The University of Michigan has several experts who can discuss the significance and implications of this record. They are:

Richard Rood, professor of climate and space sciences and engineering, can discuss the intersections of weather and climate, and climate and society. His research focuses on using climate knowledge and climate data in problem solving. Rood is a blogger at Weather Underground and teaches a class on climate change problem solving.

“Even coming off of 2014 being the hottest year, it was apparent early on that 2015 would be even hotter,” Rood said. “It has now been 31 years since there was a month cooler than the 20th-century average. This decade will be hotter than the last, which was hotter than the previous. We are living in a time of a warming planet, and the warming trend will continue in future decades. These environmental changes need to be considered in all aspects of planning and management.”

Read Rood’s article in the Conversation: Let’s call it: 30 years of above average temperatures means the climate has changed

Contact: 301-526-8572 (cell) or rbrood@umich.edu

Ben van der Pluijm, the Bruce R. Clark Collegiate Professor of Geology in the Department Earth and Environmental Sciences and former director of the U-M Global Change Program. He can discuss near-term societal resilience—related to weather, coastal lands and energy, for example—of climate change.

“Global warming continues unabated and will do so for decades,” van der Pluijm said.

Contact: 734-763-0373, 734-663-9134 or vdpluijm@umich.edu

Andrew Hoffman, education director of the Graham Sustainability Institute, is professor of natural resources and environment, and management and organizations. He can field questions about the social debate over climate change and why some people reject the scientific consensus.

“While the data shows yet another year of record temperatures, the political debate over this issue will likely remain unchanged,” Hoffman said. “Those who disbelieve the science will not be swayed by another scientific report.”

Contact: 734-763-9455, ajhoff@umich.edu

Henry Pollack, professor emeritus of earth and environmental sciences, is the author of “A World Without Ice,” a book that explores how humans are dramatically changing that critical component of the global environment. He was one of the U-M scientists who contributed to the climate reports issued by the United Nations-sponsored panel that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore. He is also a scientific adviser to Gore’s Climate Reality Project.

Contact: 734-474-3823 (cell phone), hpollack@umich.edu