Act Globally, Adapt Locally: UW Scholar Discusses Options for Dealing with Global Warming in Lawrence University Environmental Studies Lecture Series

APPLETON, WIS. -- One of the world's leading scholars on influences of climate change on inland waters discusses the importance of mitigation and adaptation in dealing with the effects of global warming on water resources in Lawrence University's environmental studies lecture series "The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes."

University of Wisconsin limnologist John Magnuson presents "Converting Scientific Uncertainty into Sound Policy for Great Lake Water Management" Thursday, Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. in Youngchild Hall, Room 121 on the Lawrence campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Magnuson served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and will share highlights from the panel's most recent report. With most studies predicting continued increases in greenhouse gases, Magnuson points to mitigation of those emissions and adaptation to climate change as keys to prudent aquatic resources management for the foreseeable future. Anticipating a relatively long time horizon before nations collectively take corrective steps to significantly reduce greenhouse gases, Magnuson says an appropriate course of action will be to "act globally but adapt locally."

Magnuson, who spent nearly 30 years on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin before retiring in 2001, is the former director of the UW's Center for Limnology. He has served as program director for the National Science Foundation's Ecology Program and was a member of the Science Advisory Boards of the International Joint Commission on Water Quality and the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission. He remains principal investigator of the NFS's North Temperate Lakes Long-Term Ecological Research Site based in Wisconsin.

"The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes" series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on topics that broaden the understanding of the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.