By rdnewsNOW Staff

Oct. 24, 2022

Red Deer Public Library hosting climate change lecture by Dr. Russell Schnell

Oct 13, 2022 | 3:58 PM

The Red Deer Public Library will be hosting this month, a talk by a senior scientist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on the topic of climate change.

Dr. Russell C. Schnell will speak at the event on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 at 2:00 p.m.. No admission will be charged.

According to Dr. Schnell, the composition of the atmosphere is changing due to the burning of fossil fuels, manufacturing and agricultural practices.

Schnell says these are warming the atmosphere and destroying the stratospheric ozone layer. Officials say NOAA monitors the composition of the atmosphere from 100s of locations around the Earth. CO2, described as the most important greenhouse gas, was said to be 419 ppm at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, in May 2021, a 100 ppm increase since 1955.

Methane, described as the second most important greenhouse gas, began increasing again in 2007, adds Schnell. He says the likely causes are emissions from tropical wetlands and leaks from gas and oil fields. He says Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are the main gases that cause ozone destruction in the stratosphere and produce the “Antarctic Ozone Hole”. The production of CFCs is said to be banned under the Montreal Protocol and CFCs have decreased greatly in the past 20 years. However, Schnell says a recent CFC violation of the Montreal Protocol has been traced to illicit production in China.

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Event organizers say Schnell grew up in Castor, Alberta that he still considers his “home”. He attended universities in Alberta, Newfoundland, Hawaii, Wales and Wyoming and holds degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Climatology and Atmospheric Science. He discovered biological ice nuclei, the most effective initiators of natural precipitation, while working in the Alberta Hail Project, at Penhold, AB. These ice nuclei are now said to be used in ski hill snowmaking.

Organizers say Schnell also established that Arctic Haze is air pollution from Eastern Europe. Schnell has published 135 scientific on ice nuclei, carbon dioxide, black carbon, ozone, global air pollution and the changing atmosphere.

Dr. Schnell has lived, travelled or conducted research in 92 countries and on every continent. For seven years, he was director of the Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, where the global increase in carbon dioxide, was established. He was a contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. The University of Alberta awarded Dr. Schnell an Honorary Dr. of Science degree in 2015.