Matt Hinkin, WATE Channel 6 meteorologist, will discuss The Weather of the Future; Heat Waves, Extreme Storms and Other Signs from a Climate-Changed Planet by Heidi Cullen on February 16, 12 p.m. at the East Tennessee History Center as part of the continuing Brown Bag Green Book series presented by Knox County Public Library and the City of Knoxville with support from Friends of the Library.
In this groundbreaking work, Dr. Heidi Cullen, one of the world's foremost climatologists and environmental journalists, puts a vivid face on climate change, offering a new way of seeing this phenomenon not just as an event set to happen in the distant future but as something happening right now. Arguing that we must connect the weather of today with the climate change of tomorrow, Cullen combines the latest research from scientists on the ground with state-of-the-art climate-model projections to create climate-change scenarios for seven of the most at-risk locations around the world.
"Forecasting weather is hard enough three, five, seven days in advance," Hinkin says. "What will our planet be like in 30, 40 or even 50 years from now? There could be consequences if we don't take care of our planet, according to Cullen."
From the Central Valley of California, where coming droughts will jeopardize the entire state's water supply, to Greenland, where warmer temperatures will give access to mineral wealth buried beneath ice sheets for millennia, Cullen illustrates how, if left unabated, climate change will transform every corner of the world by midcentury. What emerges is a mosaic of changing weather patterns that collectively spell out the range of risks posed by global warming—whether it's New York City, whose infrastructure is extremely vulnerable to even a relatively weak category 3 hurricane, or Bangladesh, a country so low-lying that millions of people could become climate refugees due to rising sea levels.
Hinkin has been a meteorologist with WATE Channel 6 since 1990. He has been nominated for three regional Emmys for Best Weathercast. He has won the Metro Pulse Best of Knoxville contest five times and the Knoxville News-Sentinel's Best of Knoxville Contest. Hinkin has been awarded a seal of approval from the National Weather Association and the American Meteorological Society. He received a Bachelor of Science from Kansas State University and an Atmospheric Science Degree from the University Of Kansas
The series will continue on March 23 when Stephen Smith, Executive Director of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, will talk about The Climate War Politics: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save the Earth by Eric Pooley. The public is invited to join the conversation. Copies of the books are available at Knox County Public Library. For more information, please visit the Brown Bag Green Book section of www.knoxlib.org or call Emily Ellis at 215-8723.