I remember as if it were yesterday, lying in my dorm room, unable to sleep. A college freshman, I had just finished reading The Population Bomb, a best-selling book filled with scientific and anecdotal data that predicted by the end of the 20th century an inevitable human disaster created by the world's overpopulation. More than three decades later, technologies unimagined when the book was written have more than doubled world food production. Contrary to the book's predictions, countries such as India are actually net exporters of food. While regional famine certainly exists and the issue of providing an expanding world population with adequate food supplies remains a serious challenge, few observers anticipate, at least any time soon, the kind of apocalypse envisioned in The Population Bomb.
When we experience the decibel level associated with climate change, we cannot help but wonder if we are witnessing a contemporary variation of a similar discussion or an imminent scientific issue of global magnitude. Multiple lines of evidence have convinced a large majority of the scientific community that a steady stream of greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution has produced a pattern of sustained global warming. This consensus has not, however, translated into agreement about the precise impact of global warming or how society should respond. Some call for immediate and dramatic actions at both the personal and political levels to mitigate climate change. Others are more cautious, pointing out that an array of new technologies may soon expand options for both mitigation and adaptation.
Against this backdrop, Oak Ridge National Laboratory is taking a leading role in helping seek answers to a host of unresolved questions in the climate debate. We undertake this challenge mindful of the need to produce scientific data untainted by any ideological or political agenda. Our goal is simply to provide a neutral scientific context in which policymakers can reach an informed decision.
This issue of the ORNL Review is dedicated to the multidisciplinary suite of climate change research taking place in Oak Ridge. One group of researchers is focused upon determining the causes and impacts of climate change. A second is looking at ways, both large and small, by which we can potentially mitigate climate change. The third, and perhaps most unique group assumes the inevitability of climate change and thus is examining how humans can best adapt to a warmer future.
Together, ORNL's climate research addresses many of the questions contained in a debate that is certain to continue for the foreseeable future. As has been the case throughout the last 65 years, the Laboratory is dedicated to marshaling our resources to find solutions to one of the biggest scientific challenges of our time. How one views this research, and the extent to which it is accepted by the public and the scientific community, may ultimately be, quite literally, a matter of degrees.
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