Global focus
By Brent Yarina
Staff Reporter

Green Honors Chair lecturer Andrew Goudie will focus his speech on global warming as an environmental issue and its future impact on the world’s landscape said Mike Slattery, an associate professor of geology.

Slattery said Goudie, the head of geography and environmental studies at Oxford University, will speak at 7:30 p.m. today in Sid Richardson, Lecture Hall 1. He said Goudie will be available to field questions following the speech.

He said geology graduate students are urged to attend but that geology majors and any other interested students are also invited.

“This will be a talk that is relevant to everyone at TCU, not just the university’s geology students,” Slattery said.

Goudie, the elected president-designate of the International Association of Geomorphologists, said he was invited to speak at TCU primarily to share his ideas regarding global warming. He said Texas, especially the Padre Islands, will be the most affected by global warming.

“The science adds up and I think there are some sensitive hot spots that will be affected in the future by global warming in the high plains of Texas,” Goudie said.

In the next 40 to 80 years, as the Earth’s atmosphere gets hotter and produces more energy, the soil will dry and the sea level will rise, resulting in more hurricanes, he said. Whether this process takes that long depends on how much energy is burned, Goudie said.

Slattery said Goudie has written 25 books and more than 125 articles since he received his graduate degree in geography from Cambridge University.

“Goudie is a world-renowned scholar and a distinguished physical geographer,” Slattery said. “He was our first choice to have host this lecture and we hope he enjoys his four days at TCU.”

Richard Hanson, a professor of geology, said he is excited TCU selected Goudie to speak at the Green Honors Chair lecture because he is an outstanding scholar who will “enrich” the university’s students and faculty.

“Goudie is a prominent scientist in his field and we’re very lucky to have him here,” Hanson said. He also said Goudie will be a tremendous help to the university’s students who plan to study the environment.

Kristi Argenbright, an environmental science graduate student, said she not only wants to attend the lecture to hear Goudie’s views on the risks of global warming, but also to gain further knowledge in the topic of environmental ecology.

“I hope to go to East Africa after I graduate and do conservation work,” Argenbright said. “This lecture will benefit my future because I think I’ll gain knowledge in the area of study that I want to enter.”

Brent Yarina