University of Cincinnati: Global Warming
Global Warming Among UC Topics at Permafrost Conference - 07/03/08
Researchers from the University of Cincinnati's Department of Geography in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences are among those gathered for the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost (NICOP) in Fairbanks, Ala., hosted by the University of Alaska. The U.S. Permafrost Association and NICOP U.S. National Committee are the hosts of the conference. UC Professor Ken Hinkel, as president of the U.S. Permafrost Association, will act master of ceremonies during the closing banquet.
"The issues that we are raising are of concern not just in the high polar regions. We are receiving a lot of interest from high altitude, high latitude areas - Antarctica, the Alps, the Andes, plus Tibet, mountainous plateau regions," Hinkel explains. "People all over are facing challenges in changing climate with a heightened resurgence in both science and engineering and pressures in mineral exploration and exploitation: Canada and Russia, for example."
Hinkel, along with fellow UC Geography faculty Wendy Eisner and Richard Beck, grad student Barry Winston and former grad student Ben Jones are all presenting papers at the conference, which runs from June 29 to July 3.
"Bathymetric Mapping of Lakes in the Western Arctic Coastal Plain, Alaska" is being presented by grad student Barry Winston, Hinkel and Beck.
Hinkel is a co-author on the plenary paper delivered by Fritz Nelson entitled "Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring Investigators: Decadal results from the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) program," with co-authors Shiklomanov and Brown; this is available as a Webcast. Hinkel is also presenting "A Permafrost Observatory at Barrow, Alaska: Long-Term Observations of Active-Layer Thickness and Permafrost Temperature" in a session that he chairs.
"The proceedings are a two-volume set that is 5½ inches thick!" says Hinkel. "Wendy and I get two sets, of course, so we'll be donating one set to the college." He and fellow faculty member Wendy Eisner are husband-and-wife geographers from the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences. As a special offering this year, the proceedings from all eight previous conferences are available on CD, which Hinkel is especially pleased to offer, even to researchers who are not able to make the trek north to Alaska.
