Alaskan ice shelves lead to Nobel Prize

Monash University climatologist Professor Amanda Lynch is one of eight Monash scientists to share the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and environmentalist Al Gore.

Professor Amanda Lynch

Professor Lynch was a contributing author to the Panel report, which has raised community understanding of the costs of hotter and drier seasons and more erratic weather events. She is a Federation Fellow and one of the most respected climatologists in Australia.

Apart from her contribution to the IPCC, her research has taken her from the ice shelves of Alaska to the Australian Alps.

"The expert jury is in on climate change. It is affecting people's lives and livelihoods right now and we are very confident that our own activities are the cause.

"Can we fix it? Well, we can limit the damage. We can do that by reducing the amount of energy we use and by obtaining that energy from sources that don't release carbon dioxide."

Her research into electrical storms in the Australian Alps found a link between storms and subsequent flooding that is used in forecasting by the Bureau of Meteorology. In Alaska, her work alongside the Inupiat people helped protect communities against the realities of climate change.

"Local guides were telling us about the climate changes they were already seeing -- the sea ice drifting farther out to sea, the impacts on marine mammals and polar bears, and their ice cellars melting.

"We were able to contribute to the community by setting up early warning systems for storms and advise on siting a new hospital and devising an inland evacuation route."

More information

• Research at Monash
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
• School of Geosciences
• School of Geography and Environmental Science