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The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) – A scientist who had sounded the alarm about climate change and popularized the term "global warming" has died. Wallace Smith Broecker was 87 years old.
Long-time professor and researcher at Columbia University died Monday in a hospital in New York City, according to a spokesman for the university's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
Kevin Krajick said Broecker was sick in recent months.
Broecker generalized the use of the term "global warming" in a 1975 article that correctly predicted that rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would result in pronounced warming.
He then became the first person to recognize what he called the oceanic treadmill, a global network of currents that affected everything from air temperature to rain diets.
"Wally was unique, brilliant and combative," said Professor Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University.
"He was not fooled by the cooling of the 1970s. He clearly saw unprecedented warming manifest and clearly expressed his point of view, even when few people were willing to listen. "
In the oceanic conveyor belt, the cold, salty water of the North Atlantic flows in the manner of a diver who leads the ocean current from North America to Europe.
The warm surface waters supported by this current help maintain the mild European climate.Speech
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