Love Library to host traveling climate exhibition

Visitors can take a journey through climate change with the traveling exhibition “Real People, Real Climate, Real Changes,” March 14 through May 13 on the second floor of Love Library North.

The family friendly, interactive exhibition will demonstrate how the climate is changing and how those changes are affecting people’s lives around the world. Admission to the exhibition and two related events is free.

The exhibition, developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research’s Center for Science Education will demonstrate, with scientific evidence and stories from various impacted communities, how the climate is changing and impacting real people — from Midwest farmers to coastal residents. The exhibition also offers solutions that others have implemented and invites visitors to get ideas on how to take action to help address climate change.

Clinton Rowe, professor and chair of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, jumped at the opportunity to bring the exhibition to Nebraska.

“In my scientific opinion, the evidence for human-induced climate change is overwhelming and irrefutable, and any way we can communicate that to the public is valuable,” he said.

Rowe said that the staff at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a pre-eminent, government-supported organization that studies the environment, are well-trained at communicating these complex issues in engaging and accessible ways to various audiences.

“I think people really want to know about what is going to happen, and the exhibit has laid out the scientific thinking in a way that is engaging,” he said.

Two free events will be held in conjunction with the exhibition:

• At 7 p.m. March 23, Ross Dixon, assistant professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences at Nebraska, will give an NCAR Explorer Series talk titled “What Can Computer Models Tell Us About Earth’s Future Climate?” in Love Library’s auditorium (Love Library South, Room 102). The lecture will be recorded and made available on the Explorer Series webpage. To register, click here. A reception and viewing of the exhibition will take place at 6 p.m.

• From 3 to 5 p.m. May 2 in the Adele Hall Learning Commons, the public can help organize climate data into Tempestries — woven visualizations of temperature change using yarn.

The exhibition and events are sponsored by the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and University Libraries. They are funded by the National Science Foundation.

For more information about the exhibition, click here or email ncar-traveling-exhibit@ucar.edu.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a major facility sponsored by the National Science Foundation and managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.