Our Interview with an Expert, Dr. Mary Haskins

On February 11^th, 2014 our group had the opportunity of speaking with a professional in the field of climate change and prediction, Dr. Mary Haskins, Ph.D. Dr. Haskins graduated with her B.S.E. as well as her M.S. degree, both in Biology, from Truman State University, and she obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Haskins has traveled the world to destinations such as Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Cameroon Africa, Canada, Belize, Norway, Sweden, and 44 of the United States (to name a few). An interesting fact about Dr. Haskins is that she has taken two classes on parasites from the Centers for Disease Control (one in Mexico, and the other in their headquarters in Atlanta, GA) and she also volunteers her time working with a local dog rescue organization.  

Before our group began conducting the specifics of our interview we outlined precisely what the purpose of running a grid aims to achieve. Dr. Haskins mentioned that although she had previously heard of grid computing, she had no personal experience with it. Interested in the overall potential of our project, Dr. Haskins grew eager to offer her assistance.

As we launched the interview we asked Dr. Haskins what experience she had in climate predication and change to this point in her career. She responded, “I usually teach it in Ecology,” elaborating that she often addresses climate change in her other courses including Environmental Science as well as in multiple graduate courses offered over the summer months to teachers. Dr. Haskins also added a short personal story in which she observed a touch of what climate change is capable of doing. She told us that in the summer of 2010 she traveled to Cameroon, Africa for a family wedding. During her trip she observed the architecture of one of the hotels in which she visited, noting that one of the pools constructed by the hotel owners was completely under water. “As the ocean level went up it overran the pool,” stated Dr. Haskins, forcing them to build a second pool.  Unfortunately, for an unknown reason, the second pool was constructed neighboring the first pool. “Not very far in the distant future the pool they just built is going to be overrun with saltwater,” Dr. Haskins thought to herself. “It’s interesting to me, I think a lot of people in the United States don’t believe in climate change. If you go to a developing country I think a majority of the people buy into it, because they’re living it.” Dr. Haskins further stated, “in the United States you get to cushion yourself with a furnace in the winter, air conditioning in the summer, and air conditioning in your car. Most people aren’t that connected to the land.” A great point Dr. Haskins included was “if you don’t live it on a day-to-day basis, then you aren’t seeing it in the same way.”

In recent years, Dr. Haskins has noticed that the preferred vernacular has changed from global warming to climate change. This is accurate, she stated, because “warming is driving the change.” It is important not to confuse weather and climate. “Climate is the big picture, you really have to have decades or centuries of data to record that. What we all experience is weather.” We caught her off-guard when we asked if she had any knowledge of any interesting or surprising accounts of previous climate prediction. After a short pause Dr. Haskins stated “I do have a good friend of mine who was a member of the IPCC,” or Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organization that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for their efforts on building a greater knowledge of man-made climate change. Aside from that, Dr. Haskins could not think of anything else to add.

We asked Dr. Haskins why she felt society (generally speaking) doesn't buy in to the principle of climate change. She went on to say that she believes “people don’t want to think about the real implications,” and if people can’t see that it is directly affecting them their mindset is “why should I worry about it?” She added, “farmers, on the other hand, have to pay attention because they are driven by precipitation and temperatures. They’re living it.”

Our interview then began to focus on evolution. When asked why a student studying climate change should know about its influence on evolution and evolutionary trends, Dr. Haskins responded by stating, “if animals have adapted to one way of life, and then the climate changes, they will have to evolve or else die off.” A different reason why we should study its influence on evolution is that “we get lots of ideas and sort of reverse engineer ideas we learn from animals” we observe in our environment. Another reason why we should know about climate change is because “as things warm up you may see more organisms that are parasitic that are restricted to tropical countries moving north,” Dr. Haskins stated. “We could see a real shift in the number of parasites and be dealing with medical issues we haven’t had to deal with before.”

In our closing question we asked Dr. Haskins if she knew of any misconceptions that exist about climate prediction and she responded by saying, “I think the biggest misconception is that if you look at the weather pattern you can figure out the climate, because people think that weather and climate are the same thing.” She added that she also believes there is a misconception that “we can control or fix whatever an issue is,” people do not realize we are “at the mercy of” nature.

Interviewing Dr. Haskins was highly insightful and it offered an in-depth examination of the incredible impact climate change possesses. Our group was surprised to learn that the vernacular has changed throughout recent years from global warming to climate change according to Dr. Haskins. Also, we found it very interesting that we could see a shift in the number of parasites plaguing the United States and a shift in our strategy to battle disease if a warming trend were to occur. A sincere “Thank You” goes out to Dr. Haskins for sharing her time and expertise with our group.