Tag: Lonnie Thompson

The Ice Hunters

Follow two of the world’s leading paleoclimatologists to the top of the world and both poles!

Using ice cores they drill themselves, Marshall graduates Lonnie Thompson, from Gassaway, and Ellen Mosley-Thompson, from Charleston, study the history of climate at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University.  Lonnie was the first scientist in the world to drill ice cores on glaciers in tropical regions.  And he has spent more time above 20,000 feet than anyone in history.

Ellen Mosley-Thompson was one of the first women to lead an ice-drilling expedition to a polar region, and recently returned from an ice-drilling expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula. Lonnie has received the nation’s highest award in science — the National Medal of Science.

Climate Change, Coal, & The Thompson's Research

In Washington, Senate Democrats are pulling an all-nighter on Capitol Hill. They’re on the Senate floor, talking about global warming. They started Monday night and plan to go until this morning.      Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who’s leading the dusk-to-dawn talkathon, says climate change is “a question of our own survival.”

In Charleston last night, Lonnie and Ellen Thompson were doing the same thing at a shorter lecture.  Ellen is from Kanawha County.  Lonnie is from Braxton County. They met at Marshall University, married in 1971 and they are noted scientists who travel the world studying climate change.  Last May, they were in west central Tibet drilling into ancient glaciers to determine the age of the ice there.  They have been around the world, several times over, to drill into ice and study it. 

Credit Byrd Polar Research Center
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The Thompsons warn their audience about the carbon footprint we all are making. They stopped by our studio yesterday before the lecture.

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