After stretching their legs upon arriving in Glasgow, our team of seven student journalists busied themselves before attending the conference of parties. On the afternoon of Monday 8th November, they met with Old Leightonian and world-renowned Glaciologist, Peter Nienow.
Professor Pete’s research explores how glaciers and ice sheets behave, to understand how they will contribute to sea level rise and water resources in our warming world.
He has carried out fieldwork in Greenland, the Canadian High Artic and Alps, and in 2018 he received the Queen’s rare Polar Medal in recognition of his research. This work has helped calibrate the European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 satellite which is currently measuring the changing elevation of the world’s ice masses.
From the confines of Peter’s house in Edinburgh, the group discussed their outlook on the future of our planet: “I think there’s no question that individual choice makes a difference but we need a collective will, and it’s got to not just be a national will but a global will. That’s an incredibly hard thing to change.” Peter shared.
“Peter was the only person the students met that was more pessimistic about our situation. This is because he is seeing changes to ice caps at 1% temperature increase, so a limit of 1.5% isn’t going to help glacial melt. It’s depressing for him to teach this to students and he has to face this reality every day. He was very generous with this time and candid about the direct impact of carbon emissions on glaciation – the graph is just climbing…” commented Head of Geography, Oliver Staines.
Coming full circle, on the Park, Penny Wallington, Alumni Relations Manager, spoke about the influence of the glaciologist’s education on his profession, “Peter is an enormously engaging chap, inspired by his former Head of Geography here, called Brian Knapp.”
Peter’s interview will shortly be available to watch as part of the group’s documentary, now in post-production stage, which hopes to relay the outcomes and actions following COP26.
Take the next step by selecting an option below, or if you want to drop us a quick message, you can do so with the form.
Δ