The indirect results of global warming took center stage in Oklahoma Memorial Union's Meacham Auditorium Wednesday afternoon.

Kevin Trenberth, an atmospheric scientist for the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., outlined how changes in temperature are affecting the world's precipitation patterns, possibly increasing climatic extremes like droughts and floods.

"When we refer to global warming, people usually just think of temperature change," Trenberth said at the start of his lecture, "but it's one of the things that can change the availability of water."

Trenberth, a New Zealand native and former professor at the University of Illinois, spoke to open the OU School of Meteorology's four-part Climate Control lecture series. He said temperature increases directly affect the earth's water cycle because the planet requires water to cool itself.

"It's evaporation of moisture that cools the [human] body," he said. "That's what really the planet Earth does. Over land it depends on the availability of moisture and, when there isn't any, that's when we get droughts."

While global temperatures have risen, Trenberth said heavy precipitations have increased by 20 percent in the last century. Moderate rainfall has also decreased and, according to his presentation, that all comes back to global warming.

Tarra Thompson, an OU meteorology sophomore, said Trenberth's was an interesting perspective on global warming.

"I'm interested in global warming right now because it's a big problem for the future of meteorology," she said. "It's a lot about precipitation and how the water cycle affects the eco-system of the planet."

David Schultz, an OU adjunct professor and research meteorologist, said he was impressed with the evidence Trenberth provided.

"I think there's some people out there who still deny [global warming] is happening," he said after the lecture. "At some points there are political reasons for denying it, but even if we're not causing it, the climate's still changing and we have to adapt to it."

Schultz said he thinks global warming will result in significant changes within his lifetime.

"Something's going on and it's different than in the past," he said.

Because of the anticipated effects of global warming, Thompson said meteorology is a field with numerous opportunities for students interested in global matters.

"It's a new science," she said, "They used to blame [the climate] on gods and now we're putting it into numbers and equations. I'm really interested in learning more about meteorology because there are so many factors going into it."

Thompson and other OU students will have an opportunity to learn more when Princeton climate-modeling specialist Syukuro Manabe continues the discussion series Wednesday, Feb. 23, in Meacham Auditorium.
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