Ancient Chinese emperors knew that their political stability could rise and fall with natural disasters. So they kept the most detailed weather records of their times, tracking floods, droughts, crop failures and major storms.

"We've Got to be looking at what's happening and how that's affecting us on the regional basis" – Wei-Chyung Wang SUNY Albany

Now, those historical records of 1,000 years ago will play a role in a modern study of regional climate changes in the age of global warming.

“We have been working for years with the Chinese Academy of Sciences trying to get those records out,” said SUNY Albany climatologist and professor of applied sciences Wei-Chyung Wang, who has received a $1.3 million U.S. Department of Energy Grant to study the effect of greenhouse gases on the regional climate.

“The idea is, we have this data set, and we can quantify what has changed in China for the last 1,000 to 2,000 years,” he said.

Wang’s latest grant is actually a continuation of a project he started in 1989. He has received federal grants in three-year phases since then as part of his effort to perfect a model for reliable predictions of climate change on a regional scale. His funding totals

$7 million so far, including the latest DOE renewal. He will also be conducting contrasting studies of the East Asia summer monsoon season and the North-eastern U.S. winter climate as part of the current cycle.

Wang, whose fluent Chinese has helped him in his dealings with Chinese government officials on this project, says he’s as confounded as anyone else to see perennials sprouting in December in his back yard. The reason, of course, is global warming. The questions that come from such observations are, how much, and how fast?

“The global picture is one thing, but the regional one will behave differently,” Wang said. “We’ve got to be looking at what’s happening and how that’s affecting us on the regional basis.”

— Darryl McGrath