Climate change
Harrison examines weather patterns around the globe

Mike Harrison involves his students in climate-change research.

Some of the most severe weather in centuries has brought global warming and climate change to the forefront of the American conversation. Scientists predict global warming will raise sea levels, inundating coastal areas, changing precipitation  patterns, increasing droughts and floods, and creating public health challenges.

Climate change isn’t news to Dr. Mike Harrison, associate professor of geography and environmental studies.

“You could say I’m a weather geek,” says Harrison, a statistical hydroclimatologist who researches long-term climate trends. “I was a storm chaser in high school, so I’ve always been a weather watcher.”

In college Harrison studied computer and systems engineering before working as an Air Force satellite engineer. Engineering gave him a solid technological background, and it was a short step to a career in climatology. After six years in the Air Force, Harrison went back to school at the University of Florida to earn his doctorate. 

While there, he researched the El Niño southern oscillation, which affects rainfall in South America, and realized El Niño had effects well beyond the tropics, including Florida. 

“During 1998, I was finishing my graduate degree, and Florida was hit by massive wildfires,” he says. “There were more than 65,000 acres of fires around Daytona Beach, and I realized the direct impact fires had on people.”

Harrison witnessed the economic ripples after the fires forced Daytona Beach to cancel a major car race.

“I’m interested in how the climate impacts people’s lives,” he says. “People have to face the weather all the time.”

After receiving his degree, Harrison taught at the University of Southern Mississippi for three years before joining Richmond’s faculty in 2001 as the first resident geographer. Before Harrison’s arrival, geography courses were taught by adjuncts.

“When I came on board, the University was looking to expand environmental studies, but geography and environment fit very closely,” he says.

His students soon became involved in his research. Next spring, two of them will present research in San Francisco at a conference of the American Association of Geographers.

Francisco Hazera, ’08, an environmental studies major, has been researching water usage in South Florida.

“I’m researching whether urbanization in the region has taken water out of the Everglades and increased water supplies in other areas,” Hazera says. “This is a pressing issue, since the Everglades are extremely important to the environment and human geography.”

Harrison co-authored Hazera’s research and helped with funding applications for the conference, recommendations and advice.

“Dr. Harrison helps me out whenever I need it,” Hazera says. “I’ve had about four classes with him, and I’m still not tired of hearing about his tornado-chasing days in Texas.”

Harrison has come a long way from those days, his research expanding to include more than wildfires and climate change in the Southeast. He continues El Niño research in Central America and works on the variability of precipitation in Africa, which has an impact on Atlantic hurricane development. Finally, he says, “We’re looking at how Southeast Asians perceive climate variability and how they modify management of agriculture and the kinds of crops, timing, etc,” he says. “Very small variations can yield massive changes in terms of their income.”

In the future, Harrison would like to expand his research in Africa.

“Africa is a blank slate because the data is hard to come by,” he says. “It’s ripe for study, and I want to get students involved. Real research requires you to have a certain amount of fearlessness about you.”

His students already have manifested courage by participating in a summer study abroad program in Chile’s Tierra del Fuego and Easter Island, two of the most isolated places in the world. The program has opened communication between Richmond and universities in Chile.

“Cross-campus collaborations would help establish us in terms of visibility since we don’t have a graduate program,” he says. “We have to work extra hard to make ourselves visible.”

Harrison says that since climate change is so prevalent, Richmond needs to do more than just develop its geography programs.

“There’s an old saying, ‘think globally, act locally,’” he says. “The things we do locally have impacts well beyond where we live. The University owes it to the community and itself to act in an environmentally aware fashion.”

That includes renovating buildings with an eye toward energy efficiency, he says. Weinstein Hall is already certified by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, the nationally accepted benchmark for design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. Weinstein Hall includes carpool and hybrid parking spaces and  energy efficient windows and doors.

 But, Harrison believes the University can do more. He suggests implementing a comprehensive composting program, allowing replacement of commercial fertilizers with organic material. The University could also look at wind and solar power, which is cheaper in the long run, Harrison says.

“We are still using coal on this campus, which is not the most efficient fuel source,” Harrison says. “We can do better.”