Author: Ethan Sontarp ’24
In my climate science class, GEO 202: Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate, we frequently talk about the ways human activity is affecting the planet, with increased carbon emissions, rising temperatures, and shifting atmospheric/oceanic dynamics. It always interests me to understand the positions of those so close to climate research on living a sustainable lifestyle and the current state of their research. This week I interviewed my professor, Graeme MacGilchrist, who is an oceanographer and climate scientist doing his post-doctorate at Princeton in the Department of Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences. We discussed his relationship with sustainability and its intersection with his scientific research, specifically surrounding the ocean’s response to climate change.
Image Credit: Graeme MacGilchrist
What does sustainability mean to you? How do you engage with sustainability outside of your scientific work?
If you want to talk about sustainability you need to address the internalized concept of how we live our lives [and contribute to a] society that is thinking about sustainability as a core function in everything that it does. The thing that’s the most worrisome is that the effects of climate change are going to be so unequal. It’s hard to convince somebody who is in a very comfortable situation, […] so you have to tap into something deeper in people which is really about compassion and empathy. Climate justice and climate equity are inseparable from the sustainability effort. I try to be a good community citizen in the sense […] of all the classic ways of trying to limit my broad environmental impact [by] cycling and walking much more than driving.
Could you give a brief overview of your current research? What makes it interesting to you?
I really think about the ocean’s role in the global carbon cycle; the amount of carbon that’s in the atmosphere has a significant impact on the […] absorption and retention of energy by the ocean. The ocean is playing this critical role in determining how much carbon stays in the atmosphere as a massive storage unit of carbon. I try to understand through modeling how ocean circulation is playing a role in determining the uptake and storage and movement of carbon, both in terms of future change […] as well as past changes. The reason I like that is that it involves every science that you can imagine.
Image Credit: Graeme MacGilchrist
With what you have seen through your research, what are the effects of greenhouse gas emissions and global temperature rise on the oceans? I did some work early on in my career on ocean acidification, so as we put carbon into the atmosphere it makes the ocean less alkaline, and the impact is felt by calcifying organisms which a lot of the base of the food chain of the ocean is made up of. In terms of the ocean, we’re really moving into the unknown in regard to the ecosystem functioning and the impact in a broad way.
Where do you see the climate in the next few centuries?
I feel like we’re at this particularly fraught moment, where we could go either way. There are some really positive indications the corner is being turned here. I think a lot of genuine conversations are occurring about carbon mutual features, […] climate change, and emissions.
Have you seen the effects of improper waste disposal in person, such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? How does that make you feel?
I have not seen the Pacific Garbage Patch and funnily enough, there’s a misconception about it. It’s not all plastic bags sitting on the surface of the ocean. It’s mostly small particles of plastic that have made their way there […] and high concentrations of plastics on the surface of the ocean. I worked on a project very briefly tracking plastic waste from an island called Aldabra in the Indian Ocean […] using ocean currents to do some back trajectories to determine where these particles came from.
Are there any sustainability or climate science resources you know of that you would suggest for readers? There’s a book by […] Alastair McIntosh called Riders on the Storm. I actually ended up being like a science advisor for it. He puts together basically the spiritual keys for addressing the climate crisis.
Image Credit: Alastair McIntosh via alastairmcintosh.com