Dr. Anderson moved to Ninilchik at the time of COVID several years ago but it wasn’t his first time to Alaska. He started our conversation on how he did come to Cook Inlet for the first time.
So back in 1990, I had the opportunity to work out at Augustine volcano, and spent just an amazing 10 days out there doing field work. And I remember looking out from Augustine, we actually camped up on the summit for several days, and I was looking at, you know, all this land and very few people living in it, and for as far as I can see, it was just wilderness. And I was always kind of captivated by that.
After that first research/ work trip, he visited the state several times as graduation presents when his daughters finished their undergraduate degrees. Both times, they ended up participating in fishing charters out of Ninilchik.
Anderson provided KBBI with a brief overview of his academic background and where he is at with employment within the University now. “I grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and, you know, I wanted to be a doctor or a dentist, something to do with science. So I went to college, and I started in the pre med program, and realized after a while I really didn't like people who were sick and who were in pain and they weren't very fun to be around, but the geologists were all really fun to be around. And then when I started taking some geology classes, I really connected with it. Ended up going to grad school, and loved volcanoes, love volcanology, so I got my master's and PhD in volcanology, and that's how I ended up working at Augustine. But because I do work on volcanoes, and especially lava flows that interact with the atmosphere, I have to know something about the atmosphere that the lava flows are erupting into, and that kind of expanded my research world into looking at lava flows on other planets. So I'm funded by NASA to look at lava flows on Mars, Venus and the moon. So I started learning about atmospheres and other planets so that I could better understand the lava flows and why they look the way they do on other places. So I have this kind of mix of love of volcanoes, love of atmospheres, and that's eventually how I got started looking at climate change…I'm employed by the University of Northern Colorado, getting near the end of my career, so I'm on a three year phased retirement, so I'll be done teaching in a couple of years, but I'll probably continue to do my research. The world's just an amazing place and I've been lucky to see so much of it through work.”
He also provided a brief overview of what Tuesday’s presentation will include. “I'm going to talk about how we use rocks to really enlighten us about what's going on with our climate. You know, I know it's a politically charged topic, but we're just going to look at what the rocks tell us about how the earth has been in the past. People love to think, “Oh, if I could go back to the age of dinosaurs, if I go back to this point in time…The fact is, they couldn't, because we couldn't breathe the air back then The things that happened in the past, the rock formations in the past, have affected the climate in a big way. And that's, I think, part of the story that doesn't get talked about enough. And my background is kind of unique. I'm a geology professor. I know climate change is real. I know humans are affecting it, but my family owns an oil company, so I understand, you know, how fossil fuels create jobs. But, I also understand the damage that it's doing to the atmosphere and that we have a limited amount of time to change the way we approach energy before things could get much worse than they already are.”
Dr. Anderson is also an instructor for the national Semester at Sea program and this fall will be touring on a four month trip from Bangkok, Thailand to Germany with 600 students. And, as I told him, that will be material for a future story.
Again, the Kachemak Bay Campus presentation will be on Tuesday July 22nd from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
