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Wallace Smith Broecker. Photo: The News Slate
Vale, grandfather
of climate science
Scientific community loses
distinguished colleague.
T
he American geoscientist who
popularised the term ‘global
warming’, Wallace Smith Broecker,
has died, aged 87.
His death was confirmed by Columbia
University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory, his place of work for nearly
67 years.
Broecker cemented the use of the term
‘global warning’ in the scientific lexicon
with his 1975 paper ‘Climatic Change: Are
We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global
Warming?’, published in the journal Science.
In that paper, he argued that humans were
changing the climate by emitting CO 2 .
According to Colombia University, after
Broecker caught wind that he was credited
with coining the phrase, he decided to
offer $200 to any student who could find
an earlier citation for its use, leading one
postgrad to dredge up the term from a 1958
editorial in the Hammond Times of Indiana.
While helping to brief government
leaders on climate change in the 1980s,
Broecker also found time to describe
the ‘great ocean conveyor’, walking
the scientific community through the
deep-ocean currents that circulate water
between the continents.
Broecker became known in some circles
as the ‘grandfather of climate science’.
His final extended work, CO 2 : Earth’s
Climate Driver, detailed his view of the role
of CO 2 in six climate episodes from the first
two billion years of Earth’s history to the
last 100 years.
In his preface to the October 2018 issue
of Geochemical Perspectives, Broecker
described his somewhat unique approach
to his work, in particular his aversion to
using a personal computer:
“Recently someone told me that if I had
learned to type and to use a computer, I
could have accomplished ever so much
more. Perhaps, but I’m not convinced. As it
turns out, with my pencil and eraser, I can
keep up with my thinking.
“Also, my myriad of hand-plotted graphs
has allowed me not only to imbed the
information in my brain but also to pay
attention to points which appeared to be
anomalous.
“I suppose that, as a dyslexic, my brain
operates somewhat differently than most.
It certainly greatly slows my reading rate.
Because of this, I depend almost entirely on
abstracts, figures, tables and conclusions. I
make my own interpretation of the data.” ■
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