Erich Osterberg studies how earth’s climate system and glaciers responded to natural climate changes in the past, and how they are responding to human-‐‑caused climate change today. His specialty is collecting and analyzing ice cores from remote polar regions and mountaintops to study changes in storminess, snowfall, temperature and air pollution. His research has taken him on 14 expeditions to Greenland, Antarctica, Arctic Canada, and Alaska over the last 16 years, including a 7-‐‑week snowmobile traverse across the Greenland Ice Sheet to determine how fast it is melting and raising sea level.
His publications describe recent environmental change including rising mercury and lead pollution in Alaska, increasing snowfall, warming temperatures and shrinking sea ice in Greenland, and the intensification of storms in the North Pacific. Recent work on New England climate change shows how extreme storms have increased by 50% since 1996. He is also a member of the Upper Valley Adaptation Workgroup (UVAW), seeking to help local NH and VT communities become more resilient to climate change.
Erich received his PhD from the University of Maine (2007), his MSc in Geology from the University of Otago in New Zealand as a Fulbright Scholar (2001), and his BA in Geology from Middlebury College (1999).
