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University of Rhode Island climate expert going to Washington

Email|Link|Comments (4) Posted by bdaley July 19, 2009 08:07 AM

Kate Moran, an oceans and climate change expert from the University of Rhode Island has been appointed as senior policy analyst to President Barack Obama.

Moran starts the two-year stint this week and will advise the administration on policy issues relating to global warming and oceans. Moran is also an expert on the Arctic, where she led an international research expedition to collect sediment records that revealed a 55 million year history of climate change. The effort required keeping ice breakers at bay while a third ship remained in one spot for days drilling under the ocean into the sea floor. She also led the first research expedition to find the source of the earthquake that caused the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Moran teaches undergraduate courses in ocean engineering and graduate level courses in marine geotechnics, coastal measurements, and numerical modeling in ocean sciences. She earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, a master’s degree in ocean engineering at URI, and a Ph.D. in civil engineering at Dalhousie University.

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4 comments so far...

“55 million year history of climate change.” Was the variable alteration of historical worldly climate human-technologically-induced or did it happen naturally?

Posted by Mike T. July 20, 09 05:23 PM

I would like to know the answer to Mike's question as well.

Posted by Steve K July 20, 09 09:54 PM

Yes, climate change is natural. That's why we are no longer living in an ice age. But the evidence for human-induced climate change, which is what we are experiencing on top of natural patterns of climate change, is overwhelming and has been accepted by the scientific community as a whole for a number of years. I am still perplexed as to how in the world people still doubt this or are unaware that the consensus is clear on human-induced climate change. It is no longer a question folks!

Posted by Leanna H., Graduate School of Oceanography July 24, 09 12:30 PM

Leanna, your premise, "the evidence for human-induced climate change, which is what we are experiencing on top of natural patterns of climate change, is overwhelming and has been accepted by the scientific community as a whole for a number of years" would not be accepted, and is indeed being challenged, by any number of scientists holding credentials equal to, or perhaps even greater than, those of Dr. Moran. The consensus is not clear. I am perplexed by people who consider themselves scientists who refuse to consider divergent points of view. This attitude is antithetical to intellectual inquiry. Too many academics have confused a liberal education with a liberalism education. Apparently you know some of them.

the latter group.

Posted by Arnie August 4, 09 02:15 PM