Letter to the editor Jan. 15

Learn about the consequences of climate change
‘Chasing Ice’ at the Darkside Cinema

The U.S. Weather Service has announced that 2012 was the warmest year on record in the lower 48 states since thermometers were distributed across the country. Average temperature was greater by one full degree Fahrenheit. The impact of climate change was manifest in both extreme storms and the worst Midwestern drought in many decades.

The atmosphere is warming everywhere, not just in the United States. To see and understand the consequences in dramatic fashion, I recommend walking downtown to the Darkside Cinema (just south of the Book Bin on 4th St.) to see “Chasing Ice.” It will be at the Darkside all of this week. It is the story of the accelerating melting of northern hemisphere glaciers. If you do not yet think that global warming is real and important, this beautiful, enjoyable and disturbing movie should convince you. Because of distribution contracts, we cannot bring the movie to campus until about May.  We will get it here then, but go see it now.

Charles Miller
Emeritus professor, Oceanography