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George Divoky, research associate at the Institute of Arctic Biology at University of Alaska-Fairbanks, will give the 2007 John and Muriel Landis lecture “Watching the Arctic Melt Away – three decades of change from a warming globe” 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 29 in Lafayette’s Williams Center for the Arts room 108.
Divoky’s presentation will focus on understanding climate change and its impacts on Arctic ecosystems. He will provide well-documented evidence of climate change while also offering insight into his daily battle to survive near the Arctic Ocean.
The lecture is part of the “On Ice” exhibit, in the Williams Center for the Arts gallery, Morris W. Williams Center for the Arts, Hamilton and High streets, running through Feb. 11. The exhibition features artwork made of actual, melting, cold, and maintenance intensive ice, as well as ice as the subject of artwork, poetry, or scientific study. For more information, call the gallery at (610) 330-5361 or visit the website.
There will be a reception following the lecture in room 108 cosponsored by Lafayette Environmental Awareness and Protection.
Divoky, an ornithologist, has been studying the Black Guillemot – a relative of the puffin – for over 30 years on Cooper Island, Alaska. For three months out of the year, he lives and works out of a compound of tents in challenging conditions on the island while studying Black Guillemots, which feed at the sea-ice edge north of Barrow, Alaska.
Keeping careful records of information such as climate data and population statistics, Divoky has observed the effects of global warming on the Arctic habitat as ice has melted extensively and earlier each year, forcing the Black Guillemot’s food sources further north. He has measured the resulting decline in bird population in addition to changes in the ecology of that region.
These observations, as well as his struggles to survive in a rapidly changing environment, provide compelling evidence of the rates of warming and melting at high latitudes. Divoky argues that while atmospheric temperatures are increasing globally, the results of the increase are most evident in regions dominated by snow and ice. The melting of ice in the Arctic has had major affects not only on its plant and animal life but on human inhabitants as well.
Divoky has been praised for his landmark study of the Black Guillemot and his passion for his work. His lectures are noted for his sense of humor and understanding of the important role of science in the global dialogue. His work was featured in a New York Times magazine cover story in 2002, which led to an appearance on The David Letterman Show.
Established by Trustee Emeritus John Landis ’39, the Landis Lecture Series focuses on issues of technology and international cooperation. Previous Landis lecturers include author Isaac Asimov; New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas L. Friedman, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and recipient of the National Book Award; television journalist and former Texas state district judge Catherine Crier; B. Gentry Lee, space-systems engineer and science fiction novelist; Alden Meyer, director of government relations for the Union of Concerned Scientists; and Peter H. Gleick, co-founder and president of Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security.
The Williams Center gallery is funded in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.