UW-Madison faculty contributed to global warming reports that led to Gore’s Nobel

University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty made significant contributions in developing the reports on the implications of global warming that led today (Oct. 12) to the awarding of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Thousands of scientists from around the world contributed to the IPCC reports, which evaluated the phenomenon of climate change and its implications for human society and the natural world.

In a statement today, Ole Danbolt Mjos, chair of the Nobel committee, said, “Through the scientific reports it has issued over the past two decades, the IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming. Thousands of scientists and officials from over 100 countries have collaborated to achieve greater certainty as to the scale of the warming.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was established in 1988 to study climate change information. The group doesn’t do independent research but instead reviews scientific literature from around the world.

UW-Madison faculty involved include:

• Jonathan Patz, a professor in the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE) in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and a lead author of the North American chapter of the 2007 IPCC report. He was also a lead author on previous IPCC reports in 2001 and 1995, as well as a past co-chair for the Health Expert Panel of the U.S. National Assessment on Climate Change.
• John Magnuson, a professor emeritus of zoology, director emeritus of the Center for Limnology and a lead author of chapters in the 1995 and 2001 IPCC reports. His contributions focused on the impacts of climate change on freshwater ecosystems.