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The Ice Chronicles
10/29/2002
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is the Weather Notebook's weekly segment on
global climate change.
Paul Mayewski is one of the world's leading authorities in ice core research.
Ten years ago, he led an international research team in Greenland funded by
the National Science Foundation. He and his colleagues dug nearly 2 miles
deep into the ice sheet to retrieve ice cores which are yielding important
solid information about the climate from 100,000 years ago to the present
day. He and co-author Frank White have documented the project in the book, "The Ice
Chronicles." Today, he shares his thoughts about climate change, his research and current
conditions.
PM: Today, we have the ability, probably a capability that is more robust than any other
laboratory on Earth for studying ice cores, to reconstruct in great detail, both with time and
with measurement, what the past environment was like. It means that we can use that to
understand how climate has changed over tens, hundreds, and hundreds of thousands of years and
we can use it to understand how the chemistry of the atmosphere has changed and then we can
use that as a tool for predicting future changes is atmospheric circulation and future changes
in temperature.
PM: The most important part of the book is really to put out the information so that people
can realize that as we go into the future that decisions need to be made about what sort of
quality of life we want.
Paul Mayewski, co-director of the Institute for Quaternary and Climate
Studies at the University of Maine and co-author of "The Ice Chronicles," an
account of his climate research in Greenland. This series on global climate
change is underwritten by the New England Science Center Collaborative and
the Roy A. Hunt Foundation. Thanks today to correspondent Jessica Lockhart
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