Cliff Mass, Atmospheric Science Expert, Returns to Orcas, July 23rd

— from Kathleen Lunde —

The Orcas Island Public Library presents Dr. Cliff Mass, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University Of Washington, speaking on Wednesday, July 23 at 5:30pm at the Orcas Center’s Main Stage. Dr. Mass’s topics will be “Global Warming, The Media, and Coal Trains”.

“Global warming is a serious problem that required immediate attention, but there are two serious problems:
(1) The media and politicians are not giving an accurate description of the current and future impacts of increasing greenhouse gases and
(2) mankind is not doing enough to mitigate the future warming.

This talk will discuss these issues, examine how they influence each other, and provide a factual basis for dealing with this environmental threat.” The topic of coal trains is very timely to us in the San Juans, and we welcome the opportunity to have this discussion.

Dr. Mass received his B.S. in Physics in 1974 from Cornell University, where he worked on Earth and Martian atmospheric modeling with the late Carl Sagan. After receiving his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences in 1978 from the University of Washington, he was an assistant professor at the University of Maryland from 1978 to 1981, and subsequently moved to the University of Washington where he is currently a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences.

Professor Mass’ specialties are weather prediction, numerical modeling, the influence of topography on weather systems, the structure and evolution of weather systems, and the weather of the western U.S. He is currently the lead scientist for the Northwest modeling consortium, a group of local, state, and Federal agencies building a cutting-edge weather prediction capacity for the region. He is the author of “The Weather of the Pacific Northwest” and over 85 refereed papers, has served as editor for several professional journals, and is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society.

Please join us for an interesting and timely program, as well as a question and answer session with the leading climatologist in our area.