On Monday, Feb. 23, Dr. David Bowne, associate professor of biology at Elizabethtown College, presented the first Presidential Community Enrichment Lecture of the spring 2015 semester.

In his lecture, “The Climate Change of Your Life: A Personal Approach to Understanding Climate Change,” Bowne told 120 Elizabethtown community members what he called a “meaningful and accurate story” of climate change during his grandfather’s lifetime.

Bowne’s grandfather was Richard Thomas Goldhahn, an entertainer who performed under the stage name “Dick Thomas.” Thomas was known as “the singing cowboy of the 1940s” and is remembered for his chart-topping single, “Sioux City Sue.”

For his presentation, Bowne created a “personal climate construction” that tracked the average annual temperature and precipitation in Thomas’ hometown of Philadelphia over the course of the singer’s life. Bowne scaled the global processes of climate change to a local level and timescale which he said “individuals can relate to.” According to Bowne, “global is too big.” To demonstrate climate change, Bowne traced what he called “the climatic history of a single man” to bring global climate change to a “more personal level.”

Bowne analyzed the annual temperature and precipitation in Philadelphia during the 88 years of his grandfather’s lifespan between 1915 and 2003. Although Bowne said there was initially “a lot of variation” in the temperature data points, a trend starting around 1980 marked increased magnitude and decreased variation in annual temperature.

Since 1985, there have only been three years which have been colder than the average annual temperature. “There are clear signals that temperature is changing,” Bowne said. He compared the data set collected during his grandfather’s life, and the set between 2003 and the present, and concluded that on average, Thomas’ “great-grandkids are living in a climate that is 1.53 degrees warmer than what he experienced.”

Bowne said that although temperatures are increasing in Philadelphia, due to “spatial heterogeneity,” not all areas of Earth are experiencing the same effects of global climate change. The warming effect is not uniform. “The most pronounced warming is in the higher latitudes,” Bowne said.

“Precipitation patterns have changed as well,” Bowne said. Following his analysis of annual rainfall, Bowne concluded Pennsylvania precipitation has been greater than average during the past 20 years. The increased temperature and rainfall associated with climate change can compromise agriculture, fisheries and ecosystems. “Now that the impacts are being felt, we’re finally taking notice,” Bowne said.

According to Bowne, mitigation and adaptation are two possible ways to combat the effects of global climate change. Mitigation involves reducing carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases which are contributing to the net warming associated with climate change. Planting trees can sequester carbon for about 300 years, but currently, there are no efficient long-term mitigating solutions. People can also adapt and adjust to the effects of climate change. According to Bowne, “adaptations are already occurring.” Some major cities have already begun changing zoning ordinances and building codes in response to the effects of global climate change.

Over the course of his grandfather’s life, Bowne demonstrated that global climate change is occurring at a local level. The increased temperature and rainfall associated with climate change may not be noticeable day-to-day, but when plotted over a lifetime, the trends are evident.

“As humans, we are tremendous problem solvers,” Bowen said, “We just have to recognize that there is a problem.”