Dr. Martha Shulski is a Professor of Applied Climate Science in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. She serves as State Climatologist and is Director of the Nebraska State Climate Office. Dr. Shulski’s work focuses on environmental monitoring through the Nebraska Mesonet, stakeholder engagement, and applied research. Her 100-level class is an introduction to climate change, covering the science, the symptoms and the solutions. She has been faculty at UNL since 2009 and has 20 years of applied climate experience, taking her from remote Alaska villages to the windswept Nebraska Sandhills. She was co-author on the 2018 U.S. National Climate Assessment and you can find her regular column on weather in NebraskaLand magazine.
Dr. Shulski is called upon to serve as a translator of complex climate information, most often the implications of climate change. The recent release of the Sixth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change outlines without a doubt that humans are the cause, and we must act now to mitigate the most serious climate change impacts. The rate of future temperature rise will be unprecedented in our history. The frequency and magnitude of extremes such as heavy rain, drought and heat will be magnified compared to our current climate. All sectors must plan in terms of solutions and mitigate their impact on our common home. Our climate future is up to us and the decisions we choose now.