The scientist, known as the “Godfather of climate change” and who coined the term “global warming” has died at the age of 87.
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Columbia University said longtime professor and researcher Wallace Smith Broecker died yesterday after a period of ill health.
Broecker brought the term “global warming” into common use in 1975 in a paper that correctly predicted rising carbon dioxide levels would lead to pronounced warming. He told The Associated Press in 1997 that by dumping huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere we are conducting an experiment that could have devastating effects.
He was also first to recognize what he called the “Ocean Conveyor Belt,” a global system of ocean currents that circulate water and nutrients.
Broecker was presented with the US National Medal of Science by then President Bill Clinton in 1996 and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 2002.