October 12, 2007

leading scientists react to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore and the IPCC

The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared between Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in recognition of their efforts to increase awareness of man-made global warming.

Dr Colin Summerhayes, Executive Director of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), Scott Polar Research Institute, said:

“”It is good to see the award made in this way. Gore has come in for a pounding this week from a UK judge who criticised him for suggesting that there may be a substantial rise in sea level within the next 50 or so years. The judge cited the IPCC forecast that sea level would likely rise by less than a meter in the next 100 years.

“So, how good is the IPCC forecast? And was Gore right? In fact the global rise in sea level averaged 2mm/year for much of the 20th Century, but increased to 3mm/year after 1990, and has remained at a higher annual level than stated by the IPCC; that alone suggests that their forecast for 2100 is low. In making that forecast they failed to take into consideration recent data on ice sheets in Greenland, which shows that once a puddle of meltwater has formed on the surface it sucks in heat that works its way down to the bed of the ice sheet.

“Why should we care? Because there are two immediate results: one, the structural integrity of the ice sheet is weakened – it can crack more easily, encouraging large lumps to fall off into the sea; and two, the water lubricates the bottom of the ice sheet, making the ice slide seawards faster.

“Taking those processes into consideration, experts like James Hansen, Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Science in New York, forecast a rise of sea level of 5 metres by 2100. That’s five times more than the IPCC says, and quite in line with Gore’s forecast in his film An Inconvenient Truth. We should be worried. We should be stepping up research on this key question.”
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Professor Ed Hill, Director of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, said:

“”The National Oceanography Centre, Southampton is very proud to be associated with the IPCC, which has moved the issue of climate change centre stage and has helped shape policy making over the past two decades. The oceans play a central role in regulating the climate of the planet, with rising sea levels one of the most serious impacts of global warming. The award of the Nobel Peace Prize is an endorsement of this crucial work which will help keep the most important issue we face at the top of the political agenda.””

Dr Robert J. Nicholls, Professor of Coastal Engineering, University of Southampton, said:

“”The award of the Nobel Peace prize to the IPCC represents an appreciation of the efforts of many thousands of scientists over the last 20 years to explore this issue and communicate their findings. In 207, the evidence of the threat of global climate change is overwhelming. Let’s hope that the world’s governments take note.””

Professor David Powlson, Climate Change and Carbon Cycling Research Group, Rothamsted Research, said:

“”This is very good news. Climate change is such a serious issue – a greater threat than terrorism as Sir David King said – that anything that draws attention to it is welcome. It is especially welcome that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, an extremely well respected body, have made this award. It is clear from the IPCC analysis of data that urgent action is required to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Although its possible to criticize Al Gore’s film for a few inaccuracies, it gave essentially the correct message and was probably more effective at communicating information about this serious global issue than most scientists.”
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Professor Martin Taylor, Vice President of the Royal Society, said:

“”Climate change is one of the most significant issues of our times and one which has major implications for global security as well as our personal health, wealth and well being. There is already evidence that climate change is having an impact on access to adequate food and clean water in some areas of the world, potentially increasing the risk of conflict between peoples and nations. It is therefore fitting that this year’s peace prize has highlighted the considerable efforts of the IPCC and Al Gore to communicate these issues and, in so doing, encourage efforts to avoid the worst effects of climate change.”
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John Mitchell, Director of Climate Science at the Met Office, said:

“”The Met Office would like to congratulate the IPCC and Al Gore on this award. The Met Office Hadley Centre is a key contributor of climate science to IPCC, and I would personally like to congratulate those scientists of the Met Office Hadley Centre who have contributed as authors to IPCC Assessment Reports over the years.”
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Dr Peter Stott, Hadley Centre For Climate Prediction at the University of Reading, said:

“”I think it’s wonderful that the collective and collaborative effort of the World’s climate scientists has been recognised in this way and a marvellous feeling to share the honour of this award with the many thousands of colleagues from around the world who have contributed to the IPCC reports.”
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Dr Max Boykoff, James Martin Research Fellow, University of Oxford, said:

“”I congratulate Al Gore for successfully placing this more prominently in the public and policy purview.

“Gore claims that this shows that this is a moral and spiritual issue rather than a political issue, while prominent critics such as Bjorn Lomborg disagree. We must acknowledge that this is a heavily politicized issue. It is a high-stakes challenge that influences all aspects of our lives.

“On resistance to government leadership on climate change, Gore has been saying ‘Mr. Bush, tear down this wall!’ The Nobel Prize further amplifies this message.”
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Professor Bill McGuire, Director, Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre, said:

“”In the war on climate change, we need all the help we can get. Mr Gore is not a climate scientist, and his film An Inconvenient Truth is far from perfect, but together the two have played a critical role in dragging climate change to the top of the political aganda and into most people’s perception.”
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Phil Sivell, Team Leader, Climate Change, C4S – the Centre for Sustainability at TRL, said:

“”I am delighted to hear that the IPCC and Al Gore have been recognised for their very different contributions in raising awareness of man-made climate change. The work of the IPCC in bringing together in one place the latest knowledge about climate change has made the job of all of us engaged in the field easier. Al Gore’s contribution is very different but highly influential. He has eloquently and passionately argued his case in the corridors of power, where frequently the science struggles to be heard. Some may take issue with some details of what he presents, but there is no arguing with the overall thrust of his case, or the valuable contribution he has made.”
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Professor Phil Jones, Director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, said:

“”It is gratifying to see that the communal effort of so many scientists being openly recognized. It also shows the far-sightedness of the committee in recognizing that climate change has societal implications that extend beyond the immediate environmental manifestations of global warming.””

Dr Corinne Le Quere, Reader in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia,, said:

“”We work very hard to translate our knowledge into useful information. The IPCC takes a big toll on our time. It is great to see these years of hard work rewarded. I look forward to positive changes in the next few years.””

Professor Alan Thorpe, Chief Executive of the Natural Environment Research Council, said:

“”I am delighted that the IPCC has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The four science assessments on climate change it has carried out have drawn together the huge wealth of scientific evidence that human actions are changing the climate. This award is a tribute to the thousands of scientists and others whose research has produced that evidence.””

Dr Paul Williams, a research fellow in climate modelling at Reading University, said:

“”I hope this will detract from yesterday’s petty High Court ruling that An Inconvenient Truth contains scientific errors. The broad message of the film is in exact alignment with scientific consensus and Gore’s Nobel Prize is well deserved.””

Dr Dave S. Reay, School of GeoSciences at University of Edinburgh, said:

“”Had Charles David Keeling lived longer, he would surely have been in there with Gore and the IPCC. A ‘Peace’ prize for climate change science may seem incongruous to some, but one only needs to look at the ongoing crisis in Darfur to see how great a threat to peace human-induced climate change really is.””

John Baxter, IMechE (Institution of Mechanical Engineers) President, said:

“”We welcome this as an announcement that climate change is being taken seriously. The work of the IPCC in highlighting the effects of climate change is hugely important to us and the future environment we live in. We are currently scratching on the surface of less than 2% of the renewables we have in this country and while engineers and scientists are doing their bit to develop these technologies, perhaps even more importantly is raising awareness of this to the outside world – which is what these two have done.””

Dr Chris Huntingford, Climate Modeller, NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, said:

“”The IPCC panel have consulted the entire climate research community in order to generate their latest report on the amount to which humans are affecting our weather. We now know much more about where changes are occurring, and just as importantly, the report points to aspects of the climate system where there is no evidence of change. This well balanced and methodical report is free from the emotion that so often surrounds the subject – instead it provides a thorough assessment of what is a serious issue, and allows policymakers and politicians to act accordingly. Society must take note that this comprehensive report, based purely on distilling scientific understanding, extensive measurements and statistical analyses, concludes that ‘Warming of the climate system is unequivocal’.””

Dr Robert Muir-Wood, Chief Research Officer of Risk Management Solutions and a contributor to Working Group II (on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said:

“”The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC is richly deserved and recognises the rigorous process that it has undertaken to assess and document the causes and consequences of climate change. The IPCC has provided policy-makers around the world with the information needed to understand and tackle climate change. Al Gore should also be congratulated for his tremendous efforts to make policy-makers and the public more aware of the profound decisions we have to make if we are to deal effectively with climate change. I hope this award will draw more attention to the efforts that are required to adapt to and mitigate climate change. I hope this award finally lays to rest the misleading campaigns of misinformation about the scientific evidence for climate change.””

Dr Jeremy Leggett, Chief Executive Officer of Solar Century and Charterhouse Fellow in Solar Energy at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, said:

“”I can’t think of a better combination for this award – the previously unsung and much-falsely maligned legion of scientific whistleblowers, and their tireless chief advocate. Perhaps now the shrivelling band of fossil-fuel-funded contrarians and car-enthusiast media stars will finally have the good grace to shut up with the ignorance they pedal about the threat we face.””

Bob Sargent, Immediate Past President of CIWEM (Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Managers) , said:

“”The tipping point has been reached and climate change is now accepted as the most significant threat we face: Al Gore and IPPC have respectively won the hearts and minds of the world’s governments and changed public opinion. This well-deserved award shows how far we have come in the last couple of years in realising the scale of the problem. But this is just the beginning – we now have to work with similar speed to devise workable solutions.”
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Piers Forster, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, said:

“”It’s every scientists dream to win a Nobel Prize, so this is great for myself and the hundreds that worked on their reports over the years. It perhaps a little deflating though – that one man and his PowerPoint show has as much influence as the decades of dedicated work by so many scientists.””

Professor David Stainforth, Associate Professor of Climate Modelling, SoGAER, Exeter University and Visiting Research Fellow, CATS, London School of Economics, said:

“”This award is well deserved by the two recipients. In many areas of society we find ourselves drowning in different sources of information. The IPCC, in all its four assessment reports, has managed to describe and distil the vast range of complex climate research from hundreds of researchers around the globe. The challenge now is to create a future using scientific understanding to avoid the worst possible consequences of climate change while smoothly adapting to those which are inevitable.””

Professor Peter Styring, Professor of Chemical Engineering & Chemistry Professor of Public Engagement, The University of Sheffield, said:

“”It is excellent news that the issue of climate change has received the ultimate accolade of the Nobel Prize through the IPCC and Al Gore. The message to governments is clear: invest NOW for the FUTURE. We need to look at innovative ways to reduce greenhouse gas emission and those emissions that are essential we need to harness and recycle rather than hide under the carpet. The University of Sheffield is committed to addressing energy and environmental issues in a research led environment.”
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Professor Barbara A Maher, Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holder at the Lancaster Environment Centre, University of Lancaster, said:

“”This is terrific news – Al Gore and the IPCC’s dedicated climate scientists have cut through the smokescreen pumped out by vested interests to tell people straight: we’ve changed the way our climate works.””

Professor Joanna Haigh, Professor of Atmospheric Physics, Imperial College London, said:

“”I am pleased that the Nobel committee has recognised that climate change is a threat to global peace and stability. It is likely to hit the poorest parts of the world hardest and we need a concerted international effort to avert its effects.””

Prof Peter Wadhams, Professor of Ocean Physics, Cambridge University, said:

“”This is very important news for the future of the planet. It will give fresh energy to those who are striving to bring the imminent fate of the earth to the attention of its people and to get the message home that we have to reduce carbon emissions now – not in a few years’ time – if we are to avoid a massive and possibly uncontrollable climatic disaster.

“Despite its cautious and conservative nature, the IPCC has done a magnificent job in drawing together all the published evidence on climate change and its effects so that the consensus view of thousands of climate scientists can be made available to policy makers.

“If Gore had been allowed to take his rightful place as US President in 2000 the course of world history would have been changed, because his personal recognition of the serious threat of climate change would have resulted in action instead of the denial and inaction which we have had from Bush. The eight years of delay that have ensued may end up being the fatal eight years when the world could have started to reduce its carbon emissions but didn’t – and it may already be too late.””

Professor Neil Adger, Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia and Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, and a convening lead author for the adaptation chapter of the IPCC report on the impact of climate change and adaptation in April 2007, said:

“”This is absolutely fantastic news and an endorsement for the science and for the hard work that thousands of people have put in over the years. It is a unique scientific endeavour bringing together people from all over the world.”
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Professor Geoff Levermore, Head of the Built Environment Research Group at the University of Manchester, said:

“”This is good news, especially regarding the IPCC. As a Lead Author on the Fourth Assessment Report (I was on Working Group 3, mitigation) I’m surprised that many use the IPCC data and publications but do not know much about the organisation and the thorough reviewing process for its publications.””