Alum storms Penn with El Nino lecture

Ask any Penn student to explain El Ni-o and they'll likely describe it as "that storm thingy," or tell you that it "causes tornadoes." But University alumnus Michael Glantz makes understanding El Ni-o his business. Glantz, who earned a degree in Engineering from Penn in 1961, spoke Thursday on El Ni-o's impact on climate and society as part of the Alumni Lecture Series of the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. As program director for the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Glantz is an authority on the consequences of the weather phenomenon. Glantz defined El Ni-o as a seasonal phenomenon that occurs when warm currents from the western side of the Pacific Ocean move eastward, heating up the west coast waters of North and South America and causing droughts in Australia and Indonesia and rain storms in the Americas. As a social scientist, however, Glantz said he is more interested in how El Ni-o impacts society. Society has "a fascination with weather," he said. Glantz pointed out El Ni-o's ubiquitous presence in the mass media, noting its appearance as a subject of the daily comic strip "Frank and Ernest." So with all of this exposure, why do students continue to remain uninformed about El Ni-o? Students explained that the media focuses the majority of its attention on how El Ni-o relates to global warming trends. "I think people are much more interested in global warming because that's what the media focuses on," Engineering junior Brad Edelman said. "I don't know if people know the difference." In fact, the connection between global warming and El Ni-o -- if there is one -- is not yet known, Glantz explained. But one thing is certain -- while global warming is a relatively recent development, El Ni-o has been around for thousands of years. The phenomenon occurs on average every 4 1/2 years, and may last anywhere from 12 to 24 months, he said. The current El Ni-o, which began late last year, is responsible for rain storms and floods in California, Florida and Cuba. In other years, El Ni-o has caused serious droughts and merciless blizzards throughout the world. Glantz was quick to indicate El Ni-o's positive side, informing his audience that during an El Ni-o year, the East Coast and Gulf regions enjoy a sharp decrease in hurricane activity. Glantz is the author of the book Currents of Change: El Ni-o's Impact on Climate and Society. He explained that the study of El Ni-o applies to the domain of what he termed "usable science" -- the idea that scientific research should strive toward producing applicable results rather than being driven solely by scientific curiosity. Despite constant research on El Ni-o for the last 20 years, scientists are still unable to accurately predict or determine its effects. Glantz noted that El Ni-o has been blamed for everything from warm weather to the economic crisis in East Asia. "The El Ni-o mystery is not solved," he added.