New Zealand Scientists Part of Nobel Award

New Zealand Scientists Part of Nobel Award

This year's Nobel Peace Prize goes to the IPCC and Al Gore. The Royal Society of New Zealand would like to congratulate the many New Zealand researchers who have contributed to the work of the IPCC. The prize was awarded "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change".

Our researchers have been involved from the start of the IPCC process, and there's quite a few of them, which indicates that our influence is disproportionate to our size. The complete list runs to:

Susanne Becken, Landcare, Lincoln
Greg Bodeker, NIWA, Omakau
Christopher Cocklin, James Cook University, Australia
Matt Dunn, NIWA, Wellington
Blair Fitzharris, University of Otago,
Justin Ford-Robertson, Catalyst R&D, Rotorua
Simon Hales, University of Otago,
Glen Harris, Met Office, UK
John Hay, University of Waikato,
Rod Henderson, NIWA,
Gavin Kenny, Earthwise Consulting,
Darren King, NIWA, Auckland
Tord Kjellstrom, University of Auckland,
Keith Lassey, NIWA, Wellington
David Lowe, NIWA, Wellington
Andrew Manning, University of East Anglia, UK
Martin Manning, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA
Brett Mullan, NIWA, Wellington
Kath O'Shaughnessy, NIWA, Wellington
Guy Penny, NIWA, Auckland
Ronald Prinn, MIT, USA
Peter Read, Massey University,
Jim Renwick, NIWA, Wellington
Jim Salinger, NIWA, Auckland
Ralph Sims, IEA, France
Richard Warrick, University of Waikato,
Alistair Woodward, University of Auckland,
David Wratt, NIWA, Wellington

Many others have also contributed as reviewers in the IPCCs open process.

Only three New Zealanders have won Nobel Prizes for science before, Alan MacDiarmid, Maurice Wilkins, and Ernest Rutherford. Our IPCC members are our first winners of the prize for peace. We can be proud that our researchers are doing work that is not just at a world-class standard, but is vital to the security of humanity.

The importance and pace of climate research is only increasing. Just because the IPCC has a Nobel Prize doesn't mean their words are gospel - the recent and increasing amount of evidence about accelerating melting of ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica leads many researchers to suggest that the IPCC predictions were too cautious when their report said that half a metre sea level rise was all that we could expect. The research work continues and will guide us all on what we need to do to avoid the worst of climate change.

ENDS

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