On February 11th, 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.
