Highs and lows

Concerned citizens of the Syracuse area attended "Climate Change…in Our Backyard," a presentation by meteorologist Dave Eichorn on the effects of global warming on the planet, specifically the Central New York area.

Eichorn, an award-winning meteorologist at WSYR News Channel 9, gave the presentation Saturday morning at the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology Omni Theater.

Eichorn is one of the 200 representatives recently selected to train with former Vice President Al Gore on the subject of global warming and its effects on the planet. His presentation was the culmination of their findings, which Eichorn brought back to New York in order to educate the local population on his startling conclusions.

"The goal of the climate project is to get the word out to a lot of people," Eichorn said.

According to Eichorn's data, the 10 hottest years on record were in the past 14 years, with record temperature highs reaching more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the northern hemisphere. While hurricane intensity has risen in proportion to the rise in ocean temperature, major storms also increased in both duration and intensity significantly since the 1970s.

While it may not seem like New Yorkers are in danger of being hit by tropical storms and hurricanes, Eichorn predicts dangerous weather trends are going to hit here in Syracuse.

"Heat is distributed by air currents in the atmosphere," Eichorn said. "And over the last 100 years Syracuse temperature has risen by 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit."

While 1.5 degrees may not sound like much, Eichorn explained that even with a slight escalation in temperatures, the jet stream air current descends southward and causes the severe lake-effect snow expected to hit Syracuse dramatically in the upcoming weeks.

"A forecast map from (Saturday) showed the jet stream residing over upstate New York," Eichorn said. "We end up with a deeper atmosphere, which will cause one stretch of very cold weather upstate."

In addition to predicting the upcoming cold front that will continue to challenge the Syracuse area with sub-zero temperatures and snowfall, Eichorn also explained how the continuation of dangerous carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere will affect the planet as a whole. With sea levels expected to rise anywhere from six inches to two feet over the next 200 years, millions of coastal inhabitants could potentially be displaced in urban areas that will be submerged by oceans.

Eichorn also addressed one of the most common misconceptions regarding the timeframe in which global warming will affect Earth.

"These changes are going to occur by the time my son is my age," Eichorn said. "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, consisting of 154 nations across the world with top scientists and climatologists are not debating this fact. The biggest debate is the extent to which this is going to affect the world, meaning the degree of intensity, not the fact that the world is going to change."

Although many people rest easy by assuming they can have no influence on the deteriorating atmosphere, Eichorn argued it is that attitude that allowed the United States to remain the global front-runner in toxic carbon emissions.

To this day, the United States is only one of two nations yet to sign the Kyoto Protocol, which is the international treaty on climate change that assigns mandatory targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to signatory nations. Syracuse is now on the long list of U.S. cities supporting its ratification.

"Before this presentation, I didn't really buy into the fact that there was a lot of global warming going on that we were causing," said James Christenson, a Syracuse resident. "I have switched my views and realized that there are some