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Gregorio Borgia / AP
Wallace Broecker, a climatologist who introduced the term "global warming" into the public and scientific lexicon, died Monday. He was 87 years old.
Broecker, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia, was among the first scientists to warn about the radical changes in the planet's climate that humans could cause over a relatively short period of time.
His 1975 article "Climate change: are we on the brink of pronounced global warming?" predicted the current rise in global temperatures as a result of increasing levels of carbon dioxide – and popularized the term "global warming" to describe the phenomenon.
The geoscientist was also known to have recognized the global "treadmill", a system of deep ocean currents that circulates water between continents.
Sean Solomon, director of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Colombia, where Broecker worked, described his late colleague as a science innovator.
"It's hard to imagine … a Columbia University without [Broecker’s] The intellectual vision, his gift for distilling the important of the interesting, and his sustained passion for his science, his colleagues and his planet, "wrote Solomon in an email to his colleagues, which he shared with NPR . " One of the last giants of our field do not wander among us any more.
Broecker's work has focused on the role of the ocean in climate change and climate behavior throughout the history of the planet. The New York Times reported in 1998. As early as the 1970s, Broecker spoke openly about the need to restrict fossil fuels and the disruptive effects that a warming of just a few degrees could have on the environment.
"The climate system is an angry beast and we are pushing it with sticks," he told the Time.
He has accumulated a long list of honors and awards, including a National Science Medal, the Balzan Award, the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award and honorary doctorates from Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford, among other universities.
A spokesman for the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory told The Associated Press that Broecker had died in a New York hospital and had been ill for a few months.
Broecker was born in Chicago in 1931 and grew up in Oak Park, according to AP. He earned his BA and MA from Columbia University, as well as his PhD in geology, graduated in 1958. He joined the faculty of the university the following year.
Testifying to its impact on the ground, Broecker has been recognized by his peers as the "grandfather of climate science" and the "dean of climate scientists". But for his many friends, he was just "Wally".
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