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Maine Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe announced Friday that the University of Maine has U.S. Senate approval for $1.6 million to finance a new national research program.
The program is designed to focus on the potential of an abrupt climate change over the next decade and beyond. The Climate Change Institute, located in the Edward Bryand Global Science Center, will lead the program, which will include the University of New Hampshire, the University of Washington, Penn State and the Lamont-Doherty Laboratory at Columbia University.
Climate Change Institute Director Paul Mayewski is not a beginner at this type of project. In 1992, he led the “Greenland Ice Sheet Project,” which established that significant changes in the past, such as average temperatures, ocean currents and storm frequency, can take place within a decade.
Mayewski will work with professor George Denton to develop the program.
“We are very enthusiastic about the opportunities for research that we will be able to undertake,” Mayewski said. He and Denton hope to “dramatically expand research into the significance of climate change” through the program, he said. The team plans to provide insight into the causes and impacts of abrupt climate change necessary to predict future climate changes.
Climate changes control the frequency and strength of storms, floods, droughts, and other life-changing weather events. They affect sea levels, precipitation and all ecosystems.
