{"id":83011,"date":"2019-11-20T11:41:15","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T17:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=83011"},"modified":"2020-01-14T10:31:04","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T16:31:04","slug":"grandmaster-of-climate-change-wally-broecker-remembered-at-climate-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/grandmaster-of-climate-change-wally-broecker-remembered-at-climate-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Grandfather of climate change\u2019 Wally Broecker remembered at climate conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Zack Fishman<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

Dozens of scientists convene every year\u00a0 at the Comer Climate Conference to share new research about rising oceans and melting glaciers, both today and in the past. The event, funded by the family of late billionaire philanthropist Gary Comer, has been organized since 2004 by famed climate scientists Wallace Broecker, Richard Alley and George Denton.<\/p>\n

But this fall, the conference was overcast by Broecker\u2019s death in February. Colleagues, students and friends shared stories and memories of the influential scientist, who passed away at the age of 87 still actively engaged in climate research. The 2019 conference honored his legacy with the latest findings in global climate science.<\/p>\n

Born in 1931 in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Wallace Smith Broecker \u2014 known as Wally to all who knew him \u2014 completed his Ph.D. in geology at Columbia University and joined the faculty the following year. As a professor at Columbia\u2019s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Broecker significantly contributed to several fields of ocean- and climate-related research. He introduced the concept of a \u201cconveyor belt\u201d that connects the world\u2019s oceans through heat-driven circulation and he led the scientific community in using radioactive isotopes of carbon to date the oceans\u2019 past.<\/p>\n

Broecker is most well known for popularizing the phrase \u201cglobal warming\u201d in a 1975 paper that predicted the modern rise of global temperatures. He was also a longtime proponent of action on climate change, warning about the \u201cclimate beast\u201d created by CO\u2082 emissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s got the seeds of really terrible chaos on the planet, and we\u2019ve got to start to respect that,\u201d Broecker said at the 2018 Comer Climate Conference.<\/p>\n

In his last conference appearance, he promoted controversial measures to mitigate the warming climate such as removing CO\u2082 and spraying cooling sulfates into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\"Wally
Wally Broecker, right, walks through an explanation during the 2018 Comer Climate Conference (Jasmin Shah\/Comer Family Foundation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One year later, several attendees invoked Broecker\u2019s memory in both social and academic settings over the four-day-long conference. They described him as an innovative researcher, supportive mentor and notorious prankster. Broecker once left his research group behind with nothing but water bottles and a note saying they had to walk several miles back to town \u2014 only to be waiting with a bus a mile down the road, according to geoscientist Jeffrey Severinghaus,.<\/p>\n

Severinghaus, who teaches at the University of California San Diego, earned his Ph.D. at LDEO with Broecker as his academic advisor. He praised the late scientist\u2019s mentorship and academic prowess.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a great talent in seeing the major part of a scientific story and not getting all lost in the weeds,\u201d Severinghaus said.<\/p>\n

Jerry McManus, a geochemistry professor at LDEO, attended Columbia as an undergraduate student and took an advanced course taught by Broecker.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe took the two undergraduates in his Ph.D. class and sat down with us every week and said, \u2018Did you follow everything? What did you think about this or that?\u2019\u201d McManus said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn’t have to do that \u2014 he’s in one of the most famous scientists on earth, and you\u2019re just two random students,\u201d McManus continued. \u201cBut he took that interest, and it was my observation then as an undergraduate student that he was very generous with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broecker\u2019s involvement with Gary Comer, founder of clothing company Lands\u2019 End, began after Comer’s yacht trip through the Arctic in 2001. He sailed through the typically frozen Northwest Passage connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and became concerned about the melting ice. He met with Broecker and other scientists to learn about global warming, said Stephanie Comer, his daughter and the president of the Comer Family Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sparked a friendship and the climate change program our foundation supports today,\u201d Stephanie said.<\/p>\n

After the meeting, Comer funded dozens of climate research fellowships and later created the conference in 2004 for recipients to share their research. Gary Comer passed away in 2006, but the Comer Family Foundation continues to support the climate change research. Broecker attended every conference until his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cWally was instrumental in shaping the topics and helping to guide the discussions (at the conference),\u201d Stephanie said. \u201cHis knowledge was vast and specific and arcane. \u2026 While he challenged his students, he was a devoted mentor and celebrated new and diverse generations of scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Note: Zack Fishman receives a scholarship for environmental journalism from the Comer Family Foundation as a student at Northwestern University.)<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Wally Broecker (left) sits with his wife Elizabeth Clark and George Denton of the University of Maine, while listening to a research presentation at the 2015 Comer Climate Conference. (Jasmin Shah\/Comer Family Foundation)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Zack Fishman Medill Reports Dozens of scientists convene every year\u00a0 at the Comer Climate Conference to share new research about rising oceans and melting glaciers, both today and in the past. The event, funded by the family of late billionaire philanthropist Gary Comer, has been organized since 2004 by famed climate scientists Wallace Broecker, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":600,"featured_media":83013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[452,4780,28,29,30],"tags":[192],"class_list":["post-83011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beyond-chicago","category-fall-2019","category-general-interest","category-health-and-science","category-public-affairs","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Grandfather of climate change\u2019 Wally Broecker remembered at climate conference - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/grandmaster-of-climate-change-wally-broecker-remembered-at-climate-conference\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Grandfather of climate change\u2019 Wally Broecker remembered at climate conference - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Zack Fishman Medill Reports Dozens of scientists convene every year\u00a0 at the Comer Climate Conference to share new research about rising oceans and melting glaciers, both today and in the past. 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