GENEVA — Colorado scientists were among those basking in the Nobel Peace Prize today after spending much of their professional lives trying to raise concerns about climate change.
And they hope the award will help — or prod — governments to do more to curb global warming or avert disasters on the scale of a Hurricane Katrina or the deadly effects of the 2003 heat wave that killed up to 35,000 people in Europe.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, named co-winner of this year’s prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, has been cranking out reports that have built up knowledge “about the connection between human activities and global warming,” said the Nobel prize committee.
“Mother Nature keeps helping us along because the evidence just keeps piling up,” said Kevin Trenberth, a lead author on the 1995, 2001 and 2007 reports.
Trenberth, the New Zealand-born head of the climate-analysis section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, said he hopes the prize increases the impact of the explanations he and other scientists give to audiences ranging from town-hall meetings to Congress.
Additionally, the three permanent staff members for the IPCC working in the United States are based in Boulder. They are Martin Manning, administrator Melinda M.B. Tignor and Kristen Averyt, who said many Colorado scientists have contributed to the IPCC’s work.
The three are a support unit for Susan Solomon, who served as co-chair of the IPCC’s first “working report” that concluded that recent increases in the Earth’s temperature were likely caused by greenhouse gases. Solomon is a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder.
“Here in Colorado, we have much to celebrate today because of the many Colorado scientists who have contributed to the IPCC’s work. I would like to honor all of them for their efforts over the past six years,” said U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, an Eldorado Springs Democrat.
“All the scientists that have contributed to the work of the IPCC are the Nobel laureates who have been recognized and acknowledged by the Nobel prize committee,” added Rajendra Pachauri, the Indian engineer who is chairman of the panel.
“They should feel deeply encouraged and inspired. It is their contribution which has been recognized,” said Pachauri. “I only happen to be a functionary that essentially oversees the process.”
Three scientists from Colorado State University also helped on the panel, including atmospheric professor David Randall, and Keith Paustian and Rich Conant, with the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory.
Randall was coordinating lead author on a climate-modeling chapter in the final report. Paustian and Conat were lead authors on other chapters on a carbon cycle report.
“We’re extremely happy about it,” Randall said in a statement. “I think it’s deserved by this enormous team of people.”
Denver Post staff writers Christa Marshall and Allison Sherry contributed to this report.
