Listen to the Beetles

After years of inaction on the issue of climate change, Jeremy Martinich '04 is pleased that President Obama and a made-over Congress are making progress. His work involves assessing the effects of climate change and projecting environmental trends decades into the future.

The challenge: translate technical information into a form more easily understood by policymakers. He uses examples that have economic impact (forests), are iconic (coral reefs), and engage the emotions (polar bears). Here's what he has to say about his job.

It's rewarding. I love my job. Every day is a new challenge, with new science and policy developments making the field dynamic. Washington, D.C., is at the center of it all, and working here is super-energizing; there's just tons of action, power, and responsibility.

Some of the smallest changes have big impacts. Take the pine bark beetles out west. You have these forest ecosystems in the Rockies that have existed for thousands of years, and there are these tiny beetles that eat the bark of various species. They can eat the trees to death. Typically, cold winter temperatures kill most beetles, but with warming temperatures we're seeing more and more beetles surviving.

As a result, a lot more trees are dying, sometimes thousands of acres at a time. Those trees are what ecologists term "keystone species"; they fulfill a number of larger ecosystem benefits and their loss has significant implications. The pine cones provide food to birds and grizzly bears, and the trees provide habitat and promote soil retention. Moreover, once the trees are dead, it creates an incredible environment for wildfires.

We're discovering an important ecological threshold here: pine bark beetles have been kept in line until the last several years, but suddenly just a tiny bit more temperature change has hugely changed the ecosystem. These "tipping points" have relevance for policy. We should try to avoid these major, irreversible changes.

On the need for a climate change policy. There's a huge communication challenge with climate change. We're talking about taking on big changes now to avoid issues that will become much more serious and expensive in the future. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is vital and will save money long-term. We need to prepare for the fact that western forests are vulnerable, that polar bears are at risk because Arctic sea ice is declining, that coral reefs are already degraded. Climate change is going to make it more difficult for these and many other species.

Making a difference, patiently. In my job it's sometimes difficult to connect what I do to specific positive environmental outcomes. But over time, my work could contribute to saving lives and the environment. That's what keeps me going.