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Meteorologists and climatologists often have a tough job explaining climate change to the public. Now, a new person is leading Nebraska’s Climate Office. Nebraska Public Media’s Dale Johnson sat down with the state’s new climatologist to find out what she hopes to accomplish in her new role.
Dale Johnson: Deb Bathke has been Nebraska's state climatologist for about two months. She's been interim climatologist since November, when Martha Durr resigned after eight years, in part because she became frustrated by pushback from a stubborn vocal minority who really didn't want to hear her talk about climate warming solutions. So let's start there, Deb. In a world where climate change is a common conversation is talk about climate warming solutions and appropriate role of a climatologist?
Deb Bathke: Climate change is one of the most pressing issues that we and future generations will face. So to me, personally, yes, I think that is one of our primary roles as state climatologists. To me, it's an extremely important part of the job.
Johnson: Is that a role you're comfortable taking on?
Bathke: Yes, I'm comfortable taking that on. I have been in a state climatologist position before, in New Mexico. I also authored the 2014 state climate change report, so I have received pushback when that came out.
Johnson: I ask about your comfort level, Deb, because Martha was not alone in frustration on talking about climate change. A chief meteorologist at a Des Moines television station quit after a couple of years. There were threats being made against him when he connected the dots between weather and climate change, to what extent were you aware of Martha's frustrations?
Bathke: I was a little bit aware of Martha's frustrations. I know that in general, there are frustrations across the field and across the discipline of state climatologists, because she was not the only one to experience those frustrations, and through our network of state climatologists, we have discussions about this. Climate change is a really big problem that affects and will affect all aspects of our lives. Initially, when people started talking about climate change, they pictured polar bears on, you know, melting ice sheets and things like that. But it's so much more than that. We think of it as the increased heat waves that we've seen in the west. We can think of it as the invasion of West Nile Virus, as it becomes warmer, up into Nebraska, or the increased smoke that we get from Canadian wildfires and wildfires out west.
Johnson: Even the proliferation of ticks.
Bathke: Even the proliferation of ticks. Or more mosquitoes, as Nebraska becomes wetter. So it's all of these different things that we think about, and that is so much more than me as a climatologist has the expertise to talk about. So my approach in the short time that I have been in the position is to draw upon the expertise of the whole university. I mean, I'm the state climatologist, but there are dozens of other faculty who are working on and studying climate change and studying those effects, and I've created a network of those who are working you had mentioned in an email about the state Climate Change report, And we're regularly talking about these issues to help us to have not any single person be the voice of climate change for the state, but to really create one voice from the university that represents the expertise that we have and that we're fortunate to have here in the state.
Johnson: It stops at your door, push back from the public. Are you prepared for that?
Bathke: It does stop at my door, but I do know that I have support across the university and with other faculty.
Johnson: Deb Bathke, Nebraska's new state climatologist. I read where your first priority as Nebraska's climatologist is to complete a legislative report that assesses the impacts of climate change, and I'm curious if your report will address solutions to climate change.
Bathke: Yes, so one of the first things that I picked up was taking over the state climate change report that was authorized by LB1255 that UNL’s Institute of Ag and Natural Resources would complete a state Climate Change report, and part of that is that IANR would contract with a third party consulting group or consulting firm to specifically make policy recommendations and to discuss adaptation options for the state.
Johnson: And the report is due Dec. 1. You mentioned you're a state climatologist. You have previous experience in New Mexico, the Assistant State Climatologist there. You have a PhD in atmospheric sciences. You worked in the National Drought Mitigation Center, so you're probably familiar with the growing trend of having climate researchers or climate scientists involved in urban planning conversations, green space instead of concrete space. Is there room in the Nebraska State Climate Office for those conversations?
Bathke: I think there's always room for the conversations. Given that our state is highly dependent on its natural resources, I fully suspect that there will be some emphasis on those nature-based solutions, such as more green space and things like that.
Johnson: Thank you very much for taking time to come in. Deb Bathke, Nebraska's new state climatologist. I'm Dale Johnson. Nebraska Public Media News.