Few topics today exceed that of global warming for presenting both factual and political disagreement over whether or not our earth is warming and if it is, why – natural vs. human activities, its impacts, and the best way to address it. A quick look at the NASA website (science.nasa.gov) contains the following rather stark assessment: “There is unequivocal evidence that the earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Human activity is the principal cause.”
Joining Lexington Rotarians this week to dig deeper into this existential topic is Donald “Don” Colliver, Ph.D., P.E. In a presentation entitled Does the Earth Have a Fever? – The Science of Climate Change, Don will be explaining if the earth is warming, the scientific basis of why it’s happening, and what we can do.
He is Professor Emeritus of the Biosystems Engineering Department at the University of Kentucky where he also served as BAE Director of Graduate Studies and Director of the Kentucky Industrial Assessment Center. He was awarded a doctorate from Purdue University and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Don has been involved in the energy usage and efficiency of buildings and the impact of climate for over forty-five years – teaching and conducting research in areas of indoor environmental control, green buildings, solar system design, and energy auditing. By evaluating thirty plus years of hourly weather data for over 1440 international locations he developed the analysis technique to determine the first worldwide humidity design climatic conditions that are now used in national building codes.
Don formerly served as the Society President of ASHRAE (fka The American Society of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Refrigerating Engineers) – a professional engineering organization with over 55,000 members in 132 countries. As a result of his initiatives, leadership and authorship, ASHRAE launched the Advanced Energy Design Guides. Over 3/4 million copies of these books have been acquired. Subsequent to his service as ASHRAE President he served as Co-Chair of the National Engineers Week.
In November 2019 he designed and installed a ground-mounted solar photovoltaic system for his house. Before he moved last year it had a maximum monthly electric bill of $21.
He currently serves as an ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer and has lectured on climate change, energy efficient building design, and building decarbonization in more than twenty countries – including lecturing in four continents in the last year.
Please give Don a “warm” – see what we did there – Rotary welcome!
