By Nick Anderson, Scroll Writer

This winter's weather has been undeniably strange. Until January 13 there was still no snow, or even cool temperatures for that matter. Record highs stretching into the 60's greeted students as they turned from Christmas break. Just a Fluke or is something else going on? With he explosion of greenhouse gases expelled .n recent times, scientists are beginning to wonder if the world isn't undergoing a fundamental change in climate. Yesterday students got an introduction to that change, the phenomenon of global warming.

Deerfield graduate and professor of meteorology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Dr. Kerry Emanuel '73 came to the school to speak on the issue. The Environmental Club sponsored the visit as the second in a series of speakers brought in to highlight and educate Deerfield on specific environmental problems.

Ingrid Haeckel, a president of the club, said "Many people disagree with the idea that humans are partly responsible for the warming of the planet, but there is no arguing that surface temperatures have steadily been rising." Taking advantage of Professor Emanuel's Deerfield connection, the club hoped that his visit would begin to educate and enlighten the Academy on the issue.

To help the school understand the complicated science of global warming, Professor Emanuel began by explaining different climate systems, what they are and how they work. He then went on to explain how weather and climate are currently changing and their historic patterns. He focused his explanation on the water vapor cloud, one of the major greenhouse gases, and its effect on Earth's climate systems. He highlighted both his own studies on tropical cyclones and other studies conducted which dealt specifically with global warming.

While predicting the future of anything, especially climate, is an uncertain science, he felt that a change has and will occur in weather patterns. Recently doomsday theories have been brought to the public's attention, by the media, predicting major climate and sea level changes that could destroy our way of life. He felt that, while possible, such theories are unlikely and extreme. A median outlook on climate, he said, is much more realistic. Professor Emanuel stated that changes in the future regarding climate would be noticeable. Such changes would need to be addressed by the world community, although they would not be the end to civilization as we know it. He felt that how humans will respond to these problems and variances would be interesting to observe in the future.