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As Northeastern joined more than 1,700 institutions spending part of Thursday focused on the environment, one professor wanted students to think about the future.
Specifically, about their retirement plans.
Because of global warming, by the end of this century, said associate professor Daniel Faber, there'll be no need to retire down south. "Florida will have moved to us," he said. "We will have the current climate of South Carolina."
Faber was one of several faculty members who spoke at the "Focus the Nation" forum on Jan. 31, organized by the student group Husky Energy Action Team (HEAT).
On average, Faber said, the northeastern United States has about 10 to 15 days a year when the temperature surpasses 90 degrees Fahrenheit. By 2100, he said, there will be 60 days a year at that temperature, with "14 to 28 above 100."
That will affect glacial melt, which provides drinking water to "millions and millions of people," he said.
Richard Goettle, a lecturer in finance and insurance, said global warming is "one of those really interesting public policy questions" that can be solved only "if nations cooperate."
Warming presents serious economic issues, Goettle argued. "In fact, there's some evidence that climate change will actually help the United States economically in the short run," he noted — but "there's some countries that will disappear."
Stephen Bird, a political-science lecturer at Boston University, said there has been "movement" on automobile mileage standards and on regional cooperation within the United States for environmental change. What the country needs, though, is "a Manhattan Project" on environmental technology, to "make the United States a leader in ... carbon reduction."
Daniel Douglass, a lecturer in earth and environmental science, said the United States needs a "government ... willing to engage in negotiations with other countries and undertake its fair share of responsibility in reducing global warming."