As a geological researcher specializing in Earth’s carbon and methane cycles, Professor White has shown through his work the physical reality of climate change. A member of several ice coring projects in Greenland and Antarctica, White analyzed ice cores from these sites, which revealed that climate shifts can occur abruptly. This discovery is an important development as the world strives to understand and respond to climate change. As the director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, White actively explores new opportunities for interdisciplinary learning, encouraging students to leverage experiences in social sciences and the arts to strengthen their environmental research. He is also the founding director of the Environmental Studies Program at CU. White gave the Nye Lecture at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in 2014. His lecture, “Abrupt Change—Past, Present and Future: The Hard Reality and Silver Lining in a Sustainable Future,” laid out how climate changed abruptly in the past and what we can do to change our future for the better.
