Nobel Peace Prize winner shares optimistic look at our energy future in Sidore Lecture

Alison Kaiser

She/Her

Staff Writer

3/9/24

Penn State Geosciences Professor Richard Alley, spoke at the Silver Center Tuesday night as a part of the Sidore lecture series titled ‘Living Curious’. His talk, “Living Curious: Time Machines, Time Bombs, and Time For Fun (A Life in Science)” explored his accomplished career in glacial geology, the consequences of our current dependency on fossil fuels, and the importance of shifting to renewable energy while we still have time to transition smoothly.

Despite covering such concerning topics, Alley balances out the information with an unbridled optimism for the future. “Everywhere on earth, the wind blows and the sun shines. We really could be energy rich” he says. 

Alley is an engaging speaker, pacing the stage with a microphone and the enthusiasm of someone who has found their calling. He first discovered his interest in geology at the age of ten on a family trip to Yellowstone National Park. He says he started out curious and feels lucky to still be doing what he wanted to as a child. Alley got a job with a glaciologist during a summer in college and was able to go to Alaska to participate in research which solidified his passion for the study. He has spent much of his career taking and analyzing ice cores from glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica to better understand the history of the climate. He reflects on those years fondly, despite showing slides of ‘freeze-dried laundry’ and a snow-filled outhouse. 

Alley was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his work with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. While testifying his findings before the Senate with the IPCC, Alley says a senator presented the argument that climate has always changed, so we shouldn’t worry about humans changing the climate. To him, this was the same as saying “People have always died, so we shouldn’t worry about murder”. He made it clear that while the climate has always changed, this is naturally slow, and the current warming we are experiencing is unprecedented in more than 2,000 years. This rapid warming is linked directly to the amount of atmospheric carbon contributed by humans through the overuse of fossil fuels. Alley explained with a smile that global climate change is a bit like a drunk person- when we leave it alone, it sits; when we force it to move, it staggers. 

His tone grows more serious, as he shows concerning graphs on the screen. If we don’t divert from fossil fuels within the next thirty years, we will be facing consequences such as heat stress, sea level rise, flooding, drought, and continued loss of biodiversity to name a few. So, what is the alternative? Rather than continued investment in fracking and oil platforms, we should be harnessing the power of earth’s natural energy: solar and wind. Renewable energy is constantly being replenished, unlike finite oil and coal. Building massive solar and wind farms in locations with consistent conditions has the ability to power the Earth five times over. Implementation of solar panels on a local scale allows people to get involved with where their energy comes from and puts the power in their hands, literally. From an economic perspective, Alley says renewables are the obvious choice: they are the cheapest forms of energy and will create many more jobs than fossil fuel extraction. 

Making the switch to renewables is also a moral obligation for the United States. The largest impacts of climate change will be seen by populations near the equator and in tropical locations that release very little Co2 comparatively, which has already begun to happen. Alley is hopeful that by producing affordable alternatives, developing nations will be able to ‘leapfrog’ fossil fuel dependency. If done correctly, our response to climate change could improve the global economy, national security, and health of all organisms on Earth. 

As a current professor, Alley emphasized the need to keep young people curious. He is passionate about fostering students interested in communicating data in an impactful way. “We need to teach science to people who do not do science,” he says, as information can only take us as far as one’s ability to articulate it.