DOCSLIB.ORG

Roger Revelle Commemorative Lecture Contemplating Action: Storing Carbon Dioxide in the Ocean Peter G

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Roger Revelle Commemorative Lecture Contemplating Action: Storing Carbon Dioxide in the Ocean Peter G REGULAR ISSUE Roger Revelle Commemorative Lecture Contemplating Action: Storing Carbon Dioxide in the Ocean Peter G. Brewer Monterey Bay Aqzlarium Research Institute (MBARI) Moss Landing, California USA Introduction by D. James Baker Today's talk is focused on the practical applica- tion of ocean science to a major problem. Therefore I appreciate the opportunity to say a few words I would like to speak to the other side of Roger about Roger Revelle and to introduce Peter Brewer. Revelle--his interest in the practical aspects of The title of my short introduction today is "Flying science applied to the developing world. In 1978, he Beans, Jack and the Beanstalk, Botanical Whales, published an important, but much lesser known and Coral Reefs." And it is all completely relevant to work, on underexploited tropical plants in the the subject at hand. But let me begin by saying that Annual Report of the National Research Council: I knew and worked with Roger and I know and am "Flying Beans, Jack and the Beanstalk, and a colleague of Peter. Their work in that most inte- Botanical Whales." grating of fields, ocean chemistry, spans contempo- This paper was a far cry from calcium carbonate, rary earth science, and it is fitting to honor both dur- but equally important to the world. Flying beans ing this National Chemistry Week. And also to have produce edible green pods in two months and this talk here at the National Academy of Sciences. beans after four months; yields are as large as soy- Roger was a force in the predecessor committee of beans, and the crop could rival soybeans. Rapidly today's Ocean Studies Board, and Peter has been a growing trees, such as the Leucaena, can grow to a two term member and a major contributor. height of nine meters in two years, twenty meters in Roger Revelle's accomplishments are legendary ill six to eight years. Annual growths can be twelve to earth sciences, and he had a huge effect on applica- fifty tons per hectare: as close as a living plant can tion of science to practical problems, from energy come to the beanstalk that Jack climbed. Botanical policy to feeding the world's growing population. whales refers to jojoba: a slate green twiggy stunted I've had the privilege of seeing oceanography from shrub. Half the weight of the nut is a yellowish, the academic world and the government policy odorless polyunsaturated liquid wax, much like world, and 1 appreciate Roger's influence and sperm oil. At the time Revelle wrote this, 20,000 breadth more because of that dual view. Peter's talk sperm whales were being killed per year for their today illustrates his considerable and ongoing influ- oil. Commercial whaling has stopped, but the ence on both the science and policy world. search for oil substitutes continues. Roger Revelle published his first paper in 1934, Roger served two institutions: Scripps Institution more than 65 years ago, on the subject of calcium of Oceanography, and Harvard University, and he carbonate in sea water a beginning to his long inter- spent two years in Washington advising the ests in carbon in the sea and in the atmosphere. This Secretary of the Interior. He kept these dual, paral- first work led to the wellknown developments of lel and coPmected tracks active until he died, exem- measurement and impacts of increasing carbon plifying the true renaissance man. dioxide in the atmosphere and all the discussions of Well, our speaker was not publishing papers in global warming. 1934. But ,aTe can ask what was he doing in 1978, 84 Oceanography • VoL 13 • No. 2/2000 while Roger Revelle was talking about botanical finally to the topic of coral reefs. I just returned marvels? Peter Brewer was in fact demonstrating from the U.S. Virgin Islands where we had the third the breadth of his interests with three published meeting of the U.S. Task Force on Coral Reefs, papers that year: with Mary Scranton on appointed by the President as a result of last year's "Consumption of dissolved methane in the deep National Ocean Conference. At the meeting, carbon ocean," with Mike Bacon and Derek Spencer on sequestration was noted as a critical topic for the "Lead 210 and Polonium 210 as marine geochemi- world. The question was raised what will happen to cal tracers: review and discussion of some recent the coral reefs if CO2 is pumped into the ocean for results from the Labrador Sea," and by himself on storage? I thought: this is a good question for Peter "Direct Observation of the oceanic CO, increase." Brewer, and is just one of the many issues that relate Peter's accomplishments are demonstrated by that to today's subject. year of papers, which show how he goes about Active intervention in a natural system for the extracting the oceanic signals of global change, and good of mankind is the overarching theme. In his developing novel techniques for measurement. book The New WoHd of the Ocean, Daniel Behrman Peter Brewer also has served two institutions: says that "More than any single figure, Roger Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Revelle is responsible for the introduction of Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. And, oceanography into public affairs." Peter Brewer like Roger, he spent two years in Washington. He continues that theme. has shown a deep interest in ship design and insti- It is my pleasure to introduce a great ocean tution building, and has been successful at both. chemist, Dr. Peter Brewer. And finally, like Roger, Peter has also shown an interest in the practical solution of global problems. - Introduction for First Annual Roger Revelle Just as Roger Revelle looked at new agricultural Lecture by Dr. Peter Brewer practices and explored the environmental conse- November 9, 1999 quences of growing new kinds of plants, Peter National Academy of Sciences Brewer is looking at new ways to deal with CO~ and the environmental consequences. D. James Baker • Under Secretary of Commercefor As a consequence of human activity, atmospher- Oceans and Atmosphere ic carbon dioxide is steadily growing. Can this Administrator of the National Oceanic and increase be stored in the ocean? This brings me Atmospheric Administration Introduction It is a great pleasure to give this, the first Revelle But all experiments are expected to have a result, and it Commemorative Lecture, for [ had the privilege both to may be supposed that we have reached one today. The know Roger over the last decade of his career, and to temperature signal is only just emerging from the noise, work on problems in whicln he was keenly interested. and its trajectory is still uncertain. But within the last Roger of course did not personally establish that carbon few years an enormous international debate has taken dioxide was increasing in the atmosphere; that was rec- place, with the conclusion by the Intergovernmental ognized much earlier in the centurv (1). But his passion Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that "the balance of for this problem, and his leadership (2), his uncovering evidence suggests a discernible human influence on cli- of what we now call the "Revelle Factor" for carbon mate" (4). And we have the announcement of a goal by dioxide buffering of the ocean, and his hiring of Dave the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Keeling at Scripps during the IGY vears to make the (UNFCCC) to achieve "stabilization of greenhouse gas first wonderful series of atmospheric measurements, concentrations ... at a level that would prevent danger- are surely the basis for the world wide interest today. ous anthropogenic interference with the climate sys- Roger also wrote one of the first papers on gas hydrates tem." One recent example (5) of the present rapid in the oceans, and introduced me to the subject. These change in northern hemisphere temperatures is shown amazing compounds will make their appearance in the in Figure 1. The question now shifts to what we are lecture I give today. going to do about it. And the role that active interven- The end of the experiment? It is now 42 },ears since tion, through carbon sequestration in the ocean, may Revelle and Suess wrote their seminal paper (3) with play in achieving this goal is the focus of this lecture. the now legendary phrase "human beings are now car- This was recently recommended by the Presidentis rying out a large scale geophysical experiment" that so Council of Advisors on Science and Technology captured the imagination of large numbers of scientists. (PCAST), and must be taken as a serious question. But Oceanography • VoL 13 • No. 2/2000 85 is this even possible? What is the underlying science? Usual" scenario if atmospheric stabilization at about And where do we go from here? 550 p.p.m.v. (about twice the pre-industrial level) is to It is of course deliberately provocative to suggest be achieved. The numbers are strikingly large; about 1 this. For four decades the scientific response has been to GtC/year by 2025, and about 4 GtC/year by 2050 are measure, to model, to uncover quite beautifully the required by the efforts of all nations if the 550 p.p.m.v. powerful fluctuations of greenhouse gases and climate target is to be adopted. in the Earth's past, and to issue warnings both sober These are prodigious quantities. To put these num- and dire about the future. This work will continue, and bers in perspective recall that 1 GtC/year was approxi- we may expect the continued evolution of elegant mod- mately the entire world carbon dioxide output in about els, and the establishment of monitoring networks and 1932, and 4 GtC/year the output of the world in about stations of increasing sophistication as the march of our 1967.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • SIO Biographical Files
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8rn3dbg No online items SIO Biographical Files Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Copyright 2015 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla 92093-0175 [email protected] URL: http://libraries.ucsd.edu/collections/sca/index.html SIO Biographical Files SAC 0005 1 Descriptive Summary Languages: English Contributing Institution: Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla 92093-0175 Title: SIO Biographical Files Identifier/Call Number: SAC 0005 Physical Description: 31 Linear feet(78 archives boxes) Date (inclusive): 1850-2013 (bulk 1910-2011) Abstract: The collection contains biographical information about Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) students, faculty, staff, and other individuals associated with SIO or with the history of oceanography. Scope and Content of Collection The collection contains biographical information about Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) faculty, staff, students, and other individuals associated with SIO or with the history of oceanography, collected by SIO Archives staff. The files include biographies, obituaries, bibliographies, correspondence, photographs, memoirs, oral histories, newspaper clippings, press releases, articles, and other sources of information. The collection is arranged in two separate series: materials collected before 1981, and materials collected from 1981 to 2013. The Library no longer adds to the biographical information files. MATERIALS COLLECTED PRE-1981: This section of the collection contains biographical materials, including personal papers and correspondence, gathered by Elizabeth Shor, the acting SIO archivist, from the 1970s to 1981. Shor arranged materials alphabetically by the surname of the subject. The bulk of the files contain correspondence and the personal and professional papers of individual SIO faculty and staff who transferred their materials to the Archives.
    [Show full text]
  • Walter Heinrich Munk
    WALTER HEINRICH MUNK 19 october 1917 . 8 february 2019 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY VOL. 163, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2019 biographical memoirs alter Heinrich Munk was a brilliant scholar and scientist who was considered one of the greatest oceanographers of W his time. He was born in Vienna, Austria in 1917 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire was declining and just before the death of one of its great artists, Gustav Klimt. Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, who later changed her name to Hedy Lamarr to accommodate her film career, was one of Walter’s childhood friends.1 Walter’s mother, Rega Brunner,2 the daughter of a wealthy Jewish banker, divorced Walter’s father in 1927 and married Dr. Rudolf Engelsberg in 1928. By age 14, Walter apparently had not distinguished himself in his school studies and announced that he intended to become a ski instructor. Walter later claimed that it was this that caused his mother to send him to work at a family bank in New York. The validity of this claim should be tempered by the political turmoil in Germany and its proximity to Austria. In any case, Walter left Vienna in 1932. In New York, he attended Silver Bay Preparatory School for Boys on Lake George and then became a lowly employee in the Cassel Bank, which was associated with the family’s Brunner Bank in New York. In the meantime, Walter restarted his education at Columbia’s Extension School. He greatly disliked the work at the bank and apparently made a number of mistakes, which didn’t endear him to the owners of the Cassel Bank.
    [Show full text]
  • San Diego History San Diego History
    The Journal of The Journal of SanSan DiegoDiego HistoryHistory The Journal of San Diego History Founded in 1928 as the San Diego Historical Society, today’s San Diego History Center is one of the largest and oldest historical organizations on the West Coast. It houses vast regionally significant collections of objects, photographs, documents, films, oral histories, historic clothing, paintings, and other works of art. The San Diego History Center operates two major facilities in national historic landmark districts: The Research Library and History Museum in Balboa Park and the Serra Museum in Presidio Park. The San Diego History Center presents dynamic changing exhibitions that tell the diverse stories of San Diego’s past, present, and future, and it provides educational programs for K-12 schoolchildren as well as adults and families. www.sandiegohistory.org Front Cover: Original Temple Beth Israel building located in Heritage Park, San Diego. Photo courtesy of Timothy Schenck. Back Cover: The Bishop’s School showing the chapel and tower designed by Carleton Winslow and to the right Bentham Hall entrance rebuilt. Photo editors’ collection. Design and Layout: Allen Wynar Printing: Crest Offset Printing Editorial Assistants: Cynthia van Stralen Travis Degheri Joey Seymour Articles appearing in The Journal of San Diego History are abstracted and indexed in Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life. The paper in the publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Science-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. The Journal of San Diego History IRIS H. W. ENGSTRAND MOLLY McCLAIN Editors THEODORE STRATHMAN DAVID MILLER Review Editors Published since 1955 by the SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1649 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, California 92101 ISSN 0022-4383 The Journal of San Diego History VOLUME 63 SPRING 2017 NUMBER 2 Editorial Consultants Published quarterly by the San Diego History Center at 1649 El Prado, Balboa MATTHEW BOKOVOY Park, San Diego, California 92101.
    [Show full text]
  • Accession No. 91-20 Scripps Institution of Oceanography
    Accession No. 91-20 Scripps Institution of Oceanography Archives Processing Record ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Revelle, Roger Randall Dougan 1909-1991 Roger Randall Dougan Revelle Papers, 1909-1991 Physical Description: 205 boxes (186 mss, 8 Lmss, 2 1/2 shoe boxes, 8 oversize), slides Brief Description: Papers of oceanographer Roger Revelle, documenting his work in science & public policy, MidPac & Capricorn Expeditions, Pacific bomb tests, carbon dioxide & climate change, NAS, ICSU, UNESCO, AAAS, IOC, UCSD, La Jolla Playhouse & the US Navy. Arrangement: Files from the six separate accessions of the Revelle Papers were brought together, combined, and arranged into nine series: Biographical; Correspondence; Organizations; University of California, San Diego; Subjects; Writings, Speeches, and Publications; Writings of Others; Calendars, Addresses and Telephone Memo Records; and Audiovisual. These series generally correspond to the series arrangement in another Revelle collection in SIO Archives [83- 47], with several additional series, but without a Harvard series. Files relating to Harvard University are located in the Organizations Series. The original order has been maintained whenever possible. However, Revelle's filing system was not consistent for the various office locations and over time. For example, in one accession, letters of recommendation and nomination were filed by individual's name, and in another accession filed chronologically by year. Files have been combined to create a single comprehensive series or subseries whenever possible. Revelle often kept two or more separate files for the same topic at different locations. This often resulted in duplicates and some overlap of dates within different folders. The separate folders were combined and items within folders interfiled into chronological order.
    [Show full text]
  • WORLD WAR II and POSTWAR GROWTH by Stanley Schwartz and Lawrence Krause
    CHAPTER 4 WORLD WAR II AND POSTWAR GROWTH By Stanley Schwartz and Lawrence Krause VEN BEFORE THE JAPANESE ATTACK its acoustics. A gala event to celebrate the burning of the E on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, which mortgage was held on December 12, 1944, in the temple. drew the United States into World War II, San Diego "is event also celebrated Rabbi Bergman’s 10 years of was heavily a!ected by the hostilities in Europe and service to the congregation. "e two earliest members Asia. President Roosevelt was determined to make the of the congregation, Eleanora (Mrs. Adolph) Levi United States the arsenal of democracy with the lend-lease and Cecilia Schiller (daughter of Marcus and Hannah program to England. Because airplanes were central to Schiller), performed the ceremonial burning of the the program, the aircraft industry of San Diego – which mortgage during Chanukah. included Consolidated Aircraft, and to a lesser extent, "e year before, in 1943, Adolph Levi, beloved Ryan, Solar and Rohr – expanded at breakneck speed. pioneer and past president of the congregation, died. In San Diego became a boom town again. January 1946, Henry Weinberger resigned after having After Pearl Harbor, the city was cloaked in blackouts served seven years as president. Nathan F. Baranov for a few weeks. Friday night services were held in the succeeded him. "e #rst issue of the Temple Bulletin, now council room of the temple center, which was equipped known as Tidings, was published in June 1946, and Rabbi for blackouts. "e congregation did its part for Jewish Bergman retired from the pulpit on July 24, 1946, due to servicemen and women on duty here.
    [Show full text]
  • Hans Suess Papers
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf7c6008jd No online items Hans Suess Papers Finding aid prepared by Special Collections & Archives Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, California, 92093-0175 858-534-2533 [email protected] Copyright 2005 Hans Suess Papers MSS 0199 1 Descriptive Summary Title: Hans Suess Papers Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0199 Contributing Institution: Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, California, 92093-0175 Languages: English Physical Description: 29.0 Linear feet (69 archives boxes, 1 card file box and 5 oversize folders) Date (inclusive): 1875 - 1991 (bulk 1955-1991) Abstract: Papers of Hans Suess, an Austrian-born geochemist who pioneered radiocarbon dating techniques and was a founding faculty member of the University of California, San Diego. His papers span the years 1875-1991 and contain grant proposals, conference materials, subject files, photographs, and writings by Suess and others. The collection also contains correspondence with prominent scientists and UC San Diego faculty. Many of the correspondence files and the writings by Suess are in German. Creator: Suess, Hans Eduard, 1909- Acquisition Information Acquired 1991, 1994. Preferred Citation Hans Suess Papers, MSS 0199. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego. Biography Hans Eduard Suess was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1909. He was the son of Franz E. Suess, former professor of geology at the University of Vienna, and Olga Frenzl Suess. His grandfather was Eduard Suess, who wrote The Face of the Earth, an early work in geochemistry. Suess studied chemistry and physics at the University of Vienna where he received a Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • The Luck of Walter Munk
    015K1999_KP_LE_B_en.doc The Luck of Walter Munk Walter H. Munk We have been asked to talk about ourselves. For a title, I have chosen the title of a talk given by Roger Revelle in 1982＊. I was born in Austria soon after the end of World War I. My grandfather Lucian Brunner [photo 1] was a Viennese banker with political ambitions. He ran for mayor on a reform platform and was thoroughly defeated. He became a socialist and changed the name of his bank from “Lucian Brunner” to “Österreichische Volksbank” (Austrian People’s Bank), but kept all the shares. Grandfather was intrigued by high technology. He was on the board of the “Südbahn,” the railroad that developed the audacious route from Vienna to Trieste, and he built funiculars in the Dolomites. This area is now in Italy, but was then part of Austria. At the time it would have made some sense for an Austrian to become an oceanographer. Austria had inherited the northern Adriatic, down to Venice, from Napoleon, had a Navy and was doing respectable ocean research. But by the time I grew up the country was landlocked, and becoming an oceanographer made no sense at all. Lucian’s daughter, my mother [photo 2], read botany at Newnham, one of the two women’s colleges at Cambridge University. It was then unheard of for a girl from the continent to go to university in England. She married my father at the end of the war. They were divorced when I was very young, and father went to live and ski in Kitzbuehel.
    [Show full text]
  • Scri Pps Institution of Oceanography
    SCRI PPS INSTITUTION OF OCEANOGRAPHY FIRST FIFTY YEARS BY HELEN RAITT AND BEATRICE MOULTON The Ward Ritchie Press Copyright 1967 by Helen Raitt and Beatrice Moulton Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 67-22490 Printed in the USA by Anderson, Ritchie & Simon Designed by Ward Ritchie TO ROGER R. REVELLE WHO SAID IN A CHARTER DAY ADDRESS MARCH 22, 1950 "But a university is not great because it has many hundreds of buildings, thousands of employees, tens of thousands of students or millions of dollars of annual income. A university is not great because it has elegant classrooms, laboratories full of equipment, a well stocked library, a business-like administration or a winning foot­ ball team. Like all human institutions, a university is the product of the work and devotion of individual men and women, and it can be great only in so far as it can obtain the fullest measure of creative accomplishment from the men and women who give it life and meaning." PREFACE THE SAN DIEGO SUBURB of La Jolla lies some thirteen miles north of its parent city, at a point where the coastline dips abruptly inward and arcs gently to the north along a level stretch of beach. The beauty of its physical setting and the region'S mild climate have made the community a favorite of vacationers and those retiring from more rigorous climes and responsibilities, so that La Jolla has long been regarded as one of the "resort towns" of the California coast. There is speculation now that this sleepy, leisurely atmosphere is bound to change, for in 1964, one of the newest branches of the University of California was established here.
    [Show full text]
  • Rewards and Penalties of Monitoring the Earth
    rg o me 23 (c)1998 by Annual Reviews. u September 11, 1998P1: H 13:40 Annual Reviews AR064-00 AR64-FrontisP-II Annu. Rev. Energy. Environ. 1998.23:25-82. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews. Reprinted, with permission, from the Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, Vol Reprinted, with permission, from the Annual Review of Energy and Environment, P1: PSA/spd P2: PSA/plb QC: PSA/KKK/tkj T1: PSA September 29, 1998 10:3 Annual Reviews AR064-02 Annu. Rev. Energy Environ. 1998. 23:25–82 Copyright c 1998 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved rg o REWARDS AND PENALTIES OF MONITORING THE EARTH Charles D. Keeling me 23 (c)1998 by Annual Reviews. u Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California 92093-0220 KEY WORDS: monitoring carbon dioxide, global warming ABSTRACT When I began my professional career, the pursuit of science was in a transition from a pursuit by individuals motivated by personal curiosity to a worldwide enterprise with powerful strategic and materialistic purposes. The studies of the Earth’s environment that I have engaged in for over forty years, and describe in this essay, could not have been realized by the old kind of science. Associated with the new kind of science, however, was a loss of ease to pursue, unfettered, one’s personal approaches to scientific discovery. Human society, embracing science for its tangible benefits, inevitably has grown dependent on scientific discoveries. It now seeks direct deliverable results, often on a timetable, as compensation for public sponsorship. Perhaps my experience in studying the Earth, initially with few restrictions and later with increasingly sophisticated interaction with government sponsors and various planning committees, will provide a perspective on this great transition from science being primarily an intellectual pastime of private persons to its present status as a major contributor to the quality of human life and the prosperity of nations.
    [Show full text]
  • Marine Technical Developing Countries
    Marine Technical Assistance to Developing Countries The U.S. Role MARINE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE U.S. ROLE Marine Technical Assistance Group Ocean Policy Committee Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Resources National Research Council National Academy Press Washington, D.C. 1982 NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the .ouncils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance. This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authcors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The National Research Council was established by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and of advising the federal government. The Council operates in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy under the authority of its congressional charter of 1863, which establishes the Academy as a private, nonprofit, self-governing membership corporation. The Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of'Engineering in the conduct of their services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. It is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicne.
    [Show full text]
  • Memorial to Roger Randall Dougan Revelle 1909-1991 ROBERT L
    Memorial to Roger Randall Dougan Revelle 1909-1991 ROBERT L. FISHER Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California 92093 Roger Randall Dougan Revelle, oceanographer, died quietly in his family’s presence on July 15, 1991. Roger was great­ hearted in every way; finally, though, that heart failed him. In a high-profile career of nearly six decades, Roger Revelle was a demanding and ever-curious scientist, making fundamental connections between physical observations, an innovative educator whose dream became within his life­ time one of our new great research universities, and an artic­ ulate and tireless statesman of science on the national and international scenes. In recent years we’ve often heard Rev­ elle referred to in television discussions as “the grandfather of the greenhouse effect,” a prescient prophet of global warming and the dire changes it arguably would bring. But it is primarily of Roger’s earlier and enduring love, geology, and the philosophical geology based on marine field explo­ ration from which a fortunate few created plate tectonics that I speak of here. Roger Revelle was born on March 7, 1909, in Seattle, Washington, the first of two children of William Roger Revelle and Ella Robena Revelle. His father, a lawyer and schoolteacher, in 1917 took the family to Pasadena, California, where Roger attended the public schools. Entering nearby Pomona College in 1925 with a high school editor’s interest in journalism, Roger soon became a devoted student and lifelong warm admirer of the superb teacher-geologist Alfred Woodford. In those years Woodford had as students a stellar and bonded bunch, among them Rollin Eckis, the oil-finder, and the late Manley Natland, Dana Russell, Cliff Johnson, and Mason Hill.
    [Show full text]
  • THE Official Magazine of the OCEANOGRAPHY SOCIETY
    OceanTEFFH O icial MAGAZINEog OF the OCEANOGRAPHYraphy SOCIETY CITATION Sabine, C.L., H. Ducklow, and M. Hood. 2010. International carbon coordination: Roger Revelle’s legacy in the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. Oceanography 23(3):48–61, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2010.23. COPYRIGHT This article has been published inOceanography , Volume 23, Number 3, a quarterly journal of The Oceanography Society. Copyright 2010 by The Oceanography Society. All rights reserved. USAGE Permission is granted to copy this article for use in teaching and research. Republication, systematic reproduction, or collective redistribution of any portion of this article by photocopy machine, reposting, or other means is permitted only with the approval of The Oceanography Society. Send all correspondence to: [email protected] or The Oceanography Society, PO Box 1931, Rockville, MD 20849-1931, USA. do WNLOADED FROM WWW.tos.org/oceanography CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL OcEANOGRAPHIC COMMISSION In TERNATIONAL CARBON COORDINATION Roger Revelle’s Legacy in the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission By CHRISTOPHER L. SABINE, HUGH DUCKLOW, AND MARIA HOOD R oger Revelle in his lab circa 1958. Photo courtesy of Scripps Institution of Oceanography Archives, UC San Diego Libraries 48 Oceanography Vol.23, No.3 ABSTRACT. Since its inception in 1960, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic INTRODUCTION Commission (IOC) has been responsible for organizing and coordinating the Recognizing that global issues scientific investigation of ocean carbon. Roger Revelle (Scripps Institution like climate change could only be of Oceanography) first articulated the principal need for international and addressed through international intergovernmental coordination to address global-scale problems such as climate and intergovernmental cooperation, change when IOC was first developed.
    [Show full text]