PROFILE - Legendary climate scientist John Houghton dies at 88

By Burak Bir

ANKARA (AA) - Sir John Theodore Houghton, a prominent British atmospheric physicist and climate scientist, and co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), died on April 15 in the U.K, from a suspected case of coronavirus.

"We are sorry to have to announce that Sir John Houghton, the President of JRI, and our founding father, died yesterday (15th April 2020) in Wales. More details will follow. Pray for Sir John's family at this difficult time," the JRI Christian science educational charity said on Twitter.

Houghton’s granddaughter, Hannah Malcolm, shared information about his life where she described him as a person "who devoted his career to climate justice, including chairing the IPCC and changing the mind of a major U.S. evangelical lobbyist."

Houghton was a professor in atmospheric physics at the University of Oxford, former director-general at the U.K.'s Met Office and founder of the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research.

He was born Dec. 30, 1931, in Dyserth village, Denbighshire in northeast Wales.

His interest in science, appeared when he started Rhyl Grammar School (Rhyl High School) where his father was a teacher and continued at Jesus College, Oxford at the age of 16, where he earned a B.A. in 1951, M.A in 1955, and Ph.D in 1955.

During his career in climate and science, he authored Global Warming, the Complete Briefing, which was among his famous writings that included IPCC findings and guides to climate change.

Houghton defined global warming as a "weapon of mass destruction" since it kills more people than terrorism. "Our long-term security is threatened by a problem at least as dangerous as chemical, nuclear or biological weapons, or indeed international terrorism: human-induced climate change."

He became a professor at Oxford in 1958 that led to setting up the Global Atmospheric Research Program in the late 1960s.

In the 1980s he was the chairman of the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Program. He was designated director-general of the U.K. Meteorological Office in 1983 until 1991.

In 1988 was the year the first IPCC was created and Houghton was also co-chair of its scientific assessment working group until 2002. He was lead editor of the first three IPCC reports.

He was an honorary scientist of the Hadley Centre from 2002, honorary scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory since 1991, a trustee of the Shell Foundation from 2000 and chairman of the John Ray Initiative from 1997 until his death.

Houghton also an advisory board member for Sure Chill Technology in 2013.

"I have two children and seven grandchildren. I’m concerned about the problems their generation will inherit from us unless we take the problems of sustainability, and especially climate change, very seriously," he said in an interview published Nov. 22, 2013, in the Church Times.

He died in Wales at the age of 88 and left a legacy of unique works as well as a struggle for climate change.

- Awards

Viewed as the most distinguished climate scientists of his generation, Houghton received many awards and honors, including the World Award of Science.

- Albert Einstein World Award of Science in 2009

- Japan Prize in 2006

- International Meteorological Organization Prize in 1999

- American Meteorological Society, Honorary Member in 1998

- Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1995

- Global 500 Award, under the United Nations Environmental Program in 1994

- Climate Institute Annual Award in 1992

- Bakerian Lecture of the Royal Society in 1991

- Symons Gold Medal, Royal Meteorological Society in 1990

- Richard Glazebrook Medal and Prize, Institute of Physics in 1990

- William Gaskell Medal of the Royal Meteorological Society in 1983

- The Chree medal and prize in 1979

In addition, he received honorary doctorates of science from many U.K.-based universities of Wales in 1991, Stirling in 1992, East Anglia in 1993, Leeds in 1995, Heriot-Watt in 1996, Greenwich in 1997, Glamorgan in 1998, Reading in 1999, Birmingham in 2000, Gloucestershire in 2001, Hull in 2002 and Canada-baes Dalhousie University in 2010.

- Publications

- Does God Play Dice, 1988

- Global Warming, the Complete Briefing, 1994,

- The search for God; can science help?, 1995

- Physics of Atmospheres, 1977

- Climate Change, the IPCC Scientific Assessment, eds J.T. Houghton, G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums, 1990,

- Climate Change 1992, the Supplementary Report to the IPCC Scientific Assessment, eds. J.T. Houghton, B.A. Callander and S.K. Varney, 1992

- Climate Change 1994, Radiative Forcing of Climate Change and an Evaluation of the IPCC IS92 Emission Scenarios, eds. J.T. Houghton, L.G. Meira Filho, J. Bruce, Hoesung Lee, B.A. Callander, E. Haites, N. Harris and K. Maskell, 1994

- Climate Change 1995, the Science of Climate Change, eds. J.T. Houghton, L.G. Meira Filho, B.A.Callander, N. Harris, A. Kattenberg and K. Maskell, 1995

Climate Change 2001, The Scientific Basis, eds J.T. Houghton, Y. Ding, D.J. Griggs, M. Noguer, P.J. van der Linden, X. Dai, K. Maskell, C.A. Johnson, 2001