Binghamton residents witnessed extreme weather last month, which prompted some Binghamton University students to discuss the effects of global warming and consider their own relationships to climate change.

Sarah Lister, a senior double-majoring in biology and environmental studies, has been researching wetlands and the production of greenhouse gases. Lister’s research leads her to believe that humans are already experiencing the effects of climate change.

“While Texas is having a drought, Binghamton is having a flood, and these extremes are going to keep building off of each other,” Lister said.

Lister said she prefers the term “climate change” to “global warming,” because she is convinced humans’ effects on the environment are the root cause of many types of weather extremes.

“You’re going to find someone on a two-degree day saying, ‘And they say global warming is happening!’ But while we’re getting one extreme, somewhere else is getting the other,” Lister said.

Climate change is a politically contentious topic, despite strong consensus among climate scientists worldwide that global warming is real and propelled by human activity.

Peter Knuepfer, an associate professor and the director of the environmental studies program at BU, said that there are both natural and human causes of carbon dioxide production that contribute to climate change.

Knuepfer said he thinks people need to be “convinced of two things: number one, that there is a problem. And number two, that your choices can change the outcome.”

The federal government has also acknowledged the existence of climate change.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website states, “Climate change is a problem that is affecting people and the environment. Greater energy efficiency and new technologies hold promise for reducing greenhouse gases and solving this global challenge.”

The Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) is a campus student group that works to raise awareness of environmental issues and encourage students and community residents to take action.

SEAC President Jenna Fierstein said that her group tries to raise broader awareness and concern about global warming.

“It’s hard to raise awareness of something people hear about all the time,” said Fierstein, a senior double-majoring in biology and environmental studies. “They become desensitized to it.”

She said SEAC has worked to popularize the global climate change movement launched by American environmentalist Bill McKibben, founder of the website www.350.org. The website’s name comes from research indicating that amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere above 350 parts per million pose dangers to human society. Worldwide carbon dioxide levels are at 392 parts per million, according to the website.

Tinamarie McDermott, a senior majoring in environmental and social justice and co-founder of Binghamton Environmental, a student group that focuses on climate change and other environmental issues, said she worries about how global warming will impact life on the planet.

“The earth, in the end, is going to bounce back … but not us, the animals, the trees,” McDermott said.

Currently, BU uses both wood and coal energy sources on campus. Coal is a fossil fuel that produces greenhouse gases when it is burned.

“If the University wants to keep its green reputation, they’ve really got to up the ante,” Lister said.