Global warming is causing numbers on thermometers to notch higher and highermatching the growing anxiety of meteorologists, environmentalists and others who fear a worldwide catastrophe if the mercury doesn’t move back to where it’s supposed to be.

West Virginia University will weigh in on the issue when it brings together representatives from U.S. Congress, the European Union and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday, April 20, to discuss how global warming came to beand what the world can do to reverse the trend.

Weather or Not: A Global Warming Forumwill be at 7 p.m. in the Mountainlair Blue Ballroom on the Downtown Campus. The forum comes two days before the country’s observances of Earth Day, which was founded in 1970 to create environmental awareness in an age when American cities were still dominated by major factories and industry that spewed pollutants into the atmosphere and rivers.

Scheduled to appear are:

• U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., a ranking member of the House Committee on Resources;

• Dr. Russell S. Vose, Chief of the Climate Analysis Branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration;

• Minister-Counselor Lars-Olof Hollner, who heads the Section on Transport, Energy, Environment and Nuclear Matters at the European Union;

• Dr. Richard C. Rich, Professor at the School of Public and International Affairs and Department of Political Science, Virginia Tech University ; and

• Dr. Graeme Donovan, Professor of International Development, WVU .

• Dr. Randall Wiesenmayer, a WVU professor of science education, will moderate the discussion.

The forum is sponsored by the West Virginia Interfaith Global Climate Change Campaign, an ecumenical, grassroots group studying fuel economy and clean air initiatives in the Mountain State .

WVU co-sponsors are the Office of Student Life-Multicultural Programs, the Office of International Students and Scholars, the Center for Black Culture and Department of Political Science.

The goals of the forum are to create awareness and understanding about global warming,said Cecilia Rollins, a counselor with the Center for Black Culture.We want to recognize domestic and international points of view, identify sociocultural impacts of global warming and discuss actions to address global warming.

Fast facts on global warming

An ever-thickening layer of carbon dioxide pollution mainly from cars and power plants is the culprit behind global warming. The layer traps heat in the atmosphere.

Here are some numbers and facts on the impact of global warming chronicled by the National Resources Defense Council:

Since 1980, the earth experienced 19 of its 20 hottest years on recordand of that, 2005 and 1998 were tied for the hottest, which 2002 and 2003 tying for third both years.

As ocean temperatures continue to rise from global warming, so too do the numbers of Category 4 and 5monsterhurricaneslike Katrina, which laid waste to Louisiana and Gulf Coast last September.

Killer heat waves attributed to global warming accounted for 20,000 deaths across Europe in 2003.

Global warming is also contributing the ongoing melting of ice caps and glaciers, which, at the current rate, meteorologists say, could cause all the glaciers in Glacier National Park to simply be gone by 2070.