The Nobel Peace Prize won by Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has a Kansas connection.
Chuck Rice, Kansas State University professor of agronomy, served with more than 100 other climate change experts from across the world to prepare the full report on mitigation.
The Nobel Prize Committee recognized the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and lay the foundations for counteracting it.
"This was a tremendous responsibility and honor," Rice said. "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports are often used to establish far-reaching policies and programs on climate change, and it's critical to make sure that the reports are accurate, thorough and completely objective."
"It is a confirmation of the quality of our professors that Chuck Rice was one of the scientists responsible for this Nobel Prize winning work," said K-State President Jon Wefald. "Chuck was one of the lead authors of a chapter in the fourth Assessment Report. He worked on the chapter on agriculture, including carbon sequestration and land use, and was the only scientist from the U.S. in that section. Chuck is one of the world's top experts on this topic."
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was created in 1988 by the United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization. Its role is to provide objective assessments of the current research worldwide on climate change.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Reports involve the collective efforts of about 2,000 science experts from around the world, Rice said. The report undergoes a rigorous two-stage international review process before it is adopted and published.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was organized into three working groups and a task force on national greenhouse gas inventories. Working Group I assessed the scientific aspects of the climate system and of climate change. Working Group II addressed the vulnerability of human and natural systems to climate change, the negative and positive consequences of climate change, and options for adapting to them. Working Group III assessed options for limiting greenhouse gas emissions and otherwise mitigating climate change, and economic issues.
"My contribution was within Working Group III," Rice explained. "This Working Group addressed the issue of how to reduce greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere."
Rice reported on how greenhouse gases can be reduced by techniques such as no-till farming, instead of tilling up the soil. Untilled soil stores carbon dioxide rather than releasing it into the air, Rice said. He said K-State researchers in forestry, agriculture and geography, along with colleagues at the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri had roles in the report, from researching to writing to reviewing.
Research over the past several years has proven that agriculture can become a key player in helping to mitigate global warming and climate change, Rice said.
"With proper management, such as no-till, organic carbon levels in soils can be increased. Increasing soil carbon levels through a process called 'soil carbon sequestration' helps reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Soil carbon sequestration is one of the most cost-effective ways available now of reducing greenhouse gases," he said.
The K-State department of agronomy received a one-year $1 million grant in December 2006 from the Robertson Foundation, New York, for outreach and research efforts into the role of agricultural soils in reducing global warming. The grant is being used to fund the ongoing efforts of the Consortium for Agricultural Soils Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases, a consortium of the nation's top researchers and educators in the areas of soil carbon and greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture, said Rice, who is national director of the consortium. The grant enabled the group's work to continue for one year while other sources of funding are explored to support the consortium beyond that time.