Bert Bolin, 82, a Swedish climate scientist and co-founder of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning U.N. panel on climate change, died Saturday in Stockholm.
As early as the 1950s, Bolin produced research about the circulation of carbon in nature that remains relevant to the debate on climate change. He played a key role in communicating the dangers of climate change and served as first chairman of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change from 1988 to 1998.
The panel won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with former Vice President Al Gore for helping alert the world to the threat of global warming.
Visiting Sweden in December after accepting the Nobel Prize in Norway, Gore said: “Bert, you set up the framework for the IPCC and without your contributions, we would not have come to where we are today. Thank you for starting the process.”
Bolin completed his Ph.D. at Stockholm University in 1956 and was a professor of meteorology there between 1961 and 1990. He had also served as the scientific director of the European Space Agency.
His last book, “A History of the Science and Politics of Climate Change: The Role of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,” was published in November.
Princess Galyani Vadhana, 84, the older sister of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, died Wed nes day, the royal palace announced.
The princess was noted for her interest in the arts, especially theater and classical music, a taste cultivated when she was educated in Switzerland.
Galyani spoke five languages and loved to travel, writing of her journeys in books. She was the oldest child of Prince Mahidol, a son of King Chulalongkorn, and his commoner wife, Sangwal.
Galyani married Col. Aram Ratanakul Serireungriddhi, a royal aide but a commoner, in 1944, which meant she had to give up the royal title she was awarded in 1935. The couple had a daughter but were divorced in 1949. The royal title was restored by Bhumibol in 1950, after the divorce. She married again in 1969 to Prince Varananda Dhavaj, a professional pilot, who died in 1990.
