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Study on past climate shifts offers guidance to address global warming

A new study on past rapid climate change may offer lessons on how to address future global warming. 

The study was led by UNC Greensboro biology professor Gwen Robbins Schug. The goal was to determine how today’s policymakers can best plan for an increasingly volatile climate.

Researchers took an anthropological approach, studying global populations dating back 5,000 years. Robbins Schug says one objective was to correct misconceptions that inform much of today’s thinking on human evolution, such as the belief that climate change inevitably leads to environmental migration, violence, and societal collapse.

The study did show that climate shifts most often led to disease and violence in urban societies that lacked the flexibility to respond to environmental challenges, while rural, smaller-scale communities proved to be more resilient.

Robbins Schug says the research helps to unpack the complexity of what she calls “the phenomenon of resilience.”

"It really requires a deep understanding of the historical, social, and cultural context, in order to make predictions about what effective strategies are going to be for dealing with our future," says Robbins Schug.

The study, released this week, utilized a team of 25 authors representing 21 universities.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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