By Ari’ Browley
Ever find yourself wondering why it’s 90 degrees in September, or why we haven’t seen a White Christmas in years? The unusual weather patterns are not just a coincidence. Climate change is here, and the future of our environment is becoming more unpredictable as the years pass by.
The Collegiate asked Tari Mattox, a geologist and long-time professor at Grand Rapids Community College, the pressing question. Should we be concerned about climate change?
“Oh, absolutely,” Mattox said. “…One thing that people need to understand is the difference between climate and weather. So, climate is weather measured over the long term, over decades and centuries…And so sometimes people say, ‘Oh, it was a really cold winter, so there goes climate change,’ and it’s like, no, you need a consistent trend before we talk about climate actually changing.”
And the recurring trends scientists have been recording are raising alarm bells.
“What we have seen in the 20th and into the 21st century is a consistent change to warmer and warmer temperatures. The last 11 years have been the 11 warmest years on record…And the last three years have been the three warmest years on record. So this trend of breaking records, that’s not normal. That is not a stable climate,” Mattox said. “So, it is definitely something to be concerned about, plus the implications when you think about the fact that our planet is very finely tuned. And so even what seems like small shifts in temperature have pretty significant impacts.”
Mattox is no stranger to understanding Earth and climate change. The geologist has studied Earth’s history through fossils and rock records.
For Mattox, her interest in the field came unexpectedly.
“I was always interested in science. I started college thinking I’d be a computer science major. I realized I didn’t want to spend that much time in front of a screen, although now I do,” Mattox said. “I was in college when I realized geology was actually a field and they spent a lot of time outside.”
Mattox’s Hawaiian heritage and appreciation for volcanoes fueled her love for the study.
“My grandfather’s native Hawaiian, and I’m originally from Hawaii. So, we have kind of a strong link to volcanoes, an affinity for it,” Mattox said. “And so I also realized, ‘oh, you can be a volcanologist. You can be somebody who studies volcanoes with a geology degree.’ So that is what got me going into geology.”
Michigan is not immune to the effects of climate change. In upcoming years, Michiganders could specifically see “…higher than average temperature, some more summer days over 90 degrees, we will probably see increased rainfall, more intense rainfall episodes, more intense storms,” Mattox said.
Worries about climate change aren’t just about the weather. We could also see a direct effect on our nature and waterways.
“The decline of certain types of trees that are more…better adjusted to colder climates. More algal blooms in our waterways, because as it warms, that is a more common thing to do. And then also what begins to happen is the trees that are adapted to this climate can start to die off, and you can get more invasive species coming in and increased pestilence (widespread diseases),” Mattox said.
On Wednesday, Aug. 26, Nepal and Tibet faced deadly flash floods and landslides thought to be caused by a glacial collapse or an earthquake.
“They are still trying to really piece it together,” Mattox said.
Like many others, Mattox was shocked by the force of the tragedy.
“My thoughts when I saw it was that it looked CGI,” Mattox said. “I have never seen anything that big move through a valley that fast. There was just like…it was staggering.
It was really, really scary to watch and heartbreaking to see.”
According to CNN, more than 1,350 people are dead and 5,000 are still missing across Nepal, Tibet, and China. Although it’s still early days, the disaster has opened more discussions about climate change and global warming. But can we blame climate change for this disaster? Mattox says not entirely.
“You can never blame climate change for a single event,” Mattox said. “But what you can say is that with climate change, events like this will become more common…In this case, this is the first time that I have heard about an event like this.”
Although Michigan does not need to worry about a disaster of this magnitude, Michiganders are not completely in the clear.
“…With Michigan, what we are going to have to deal with are storms, most likely, flooding events, maybe more intense flooding events,” Mattox said. “Often what you get with climate changes is extreme droughts and floods, you know, where it’s not like uneven keel. So, we can probably expect to have more frequent and stronger storms.”
The world’s increasing population is also a factor in determining how climate change will affect us.
“…We are adding a billion people every… 10, 15 years,” Mattox said. “I guess, what I’m trying to say is the impact of these events is getting worse too, not just because they are increasing in frequency and intensity, but because we have more people simply to be impacted.”
In these times, people question what they can do to improve the situation, believing their actions will have little impact. However, Mattox emphasizes that there’s still room for students to take action.
“Two things, the most important things they can do, vote, and look where they spend their money,” Mattox said. “Voting is one of the most important things that any student can do. Vote for politicians that wanna make real change. Vote for people that take climate change seriously…What companies do we support? Do we support companies that are interested in sustainability and limiting their use of fossil fuels? Think about where they buy.”
While Mattox encourages students to take these steps, she recognizes that bigger corporations and companies need to play a bigger role in addressing climate change.
“We can make incremental changes in our lifetimes and in our lives, but it is very small compared to the amount, for example, data centers, (can do),” Mattox said. “I also vote for people who don’t support these big data centers that are sucking up massive amounts of energy. Even some of them will say, ‘Oh, we’re not going to take your energy, but we’ll provide our own,’ But what kind of energy is that? It’s probably fossil fuels.”
Mattox also has hope that future innovations could bring forth new solutions.
“The only thing I would say is technology is a powerful hedge, and so there’s always the chance that there is something that we can think of, a way that we could intervene,” Mattox said. “One of the things that we think about is, okay, there’s different, there’s a two-pronged approach. How can we slow climate change? And then how can we live with climate change?”
Mattox has hope that a new generation will bear more concern and care for our environment, and social media could be helping with that.
“…I think one of the things I think about this generation is that because of social media, but also because of the issues we’re facing today, you know more about these things. You know more about the wider world than any generation before you,” Mattox said. “They (younger generations) really do care about the environment in a way that previous generations… It’s not that they didn’t care, it just wasn’t in the forefront of their minds, where for your generation, I think it really is, and that’s a very hopeful thing to me, you know? And I’m very sorry we messed it up for you.”
On Wednesday, Sept. 2, a United Nations press release revealed that “Global temperature rise is set to cross 1.5℃, likely within the next few years, pushing climate risks and impacts to increasingly dangerous heights, but it’s still possible to bring temperatures down and achieve global goals in the Paris Agreement, according to a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report .”
Whether it’s through unnaturally warm temperatures or extremely abnormal disasters, the world will watch as our Earth’s condition grows more unsteady. For Mattox, the solution starts with more civic engagement.
“Vote, vote, vote,” Mattox reminded GRCC students.
More information about climate change is provided by the UN here.
