UCI's research influential

By Gary Robbins

January 6, 2003

The often contentious discussion of the rate of, and reasons for, global warming involves several thousand scientists worldwide, including several influential researchers at the University of California, Irvine.

The best-known figures are atmospheric scientists Ralph Cicerone, UCI's chancellor, and F. Sherwood Rowland, who shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry for revealing that chlorofluorocarbons were damaging Earth's ozone layer.

Two years ago, Cicerone chaired a National Academy of Sciences committee that analyzed the various conclusions of climate scientists. Rowland also was a member of the committee, which was acting on a request from the Bush administration.

Cicerone's committee concluded that global warming is real, and that while it's hard to quantify, humans are chiefly responsible for rising temperatures.

President George W. Bush responded to the findings by saying that Americans should learn to adapt to climate change, drawing a rebuke from Cicerone.

"The White House is apparently saying we can live with these problems, that we can work around them," Cicerone said. "I don't like that approach."

UCI also is home to Michael Prather, an atmospheric scientist who has long done climate modeling for the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change, the international group most responsible for monitoring and interpreting changes in global temperatures and climate.

Like Cicerone and Rowland, Prather has been a voice of moderation. He has pushed for a worldwide reduction in greenhouse gases. But he's also noted that there are many variables involved in modeling climate change, making it hard to forecast the future pace of global warming.