FOUNDER and Director Hans Joachim Schellnhuber of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), won last Thursday this year’s Blue Planet Prize (BPP), the world’s most prestigious award in environmental science in a ceremony at the United Nations University, Shibuya Ward, Tokyo.
Prof. Gretchen C. Daily, director of the Center for Conservation Biology, cofounder and Faculty Director of the Natural Capital Project and senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute, Stanford University, also won the coveted prize for her outstanding research and field work for many years in the effects of human activities on the biosphere.
In addition to the coveted honor, the BPP carries a ¥50-million reward. The BPP recognizes outstanding efforts in scientific research or applications of science that contributed to solving global environmental problems. The Asahi Glass Foundation created the prize in 1992, the year of the Rio Earth Summit, and, since then, the foundation has awarded two winners every year.
“Professor Schellnhuber pioneered a new field of climate science,” said Yoshihiro Hayashi, chairman of the Blue Planet Prize Selection Committee and director general of the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo. “The director of PIK provided groundbreaking interdisciplinary science,” Hayashi said.
“Furthermore, one of his greatest successes was communicating the magnitude of the challenge of climate stabilization to a broad public, as well as decision-makers,” he added, and called Schellnhuber “the father of the 2-degrees limit for global warming.”
On the same note, the official declaration by the Blue Planet Prize organizers said: “His activities eventually created a torrent of measures against global warming worldwide, resulting in the 2-degree guardrail agreed upon by more than 190 countries at the UN climate summit COP21. Professor Schellnhuber and PIK have played a central role in this field for many years.”
The award committee said: “Prof. Daily played a major role in the creation and development of a new interdisciplinary field of environmental science called ‘Countryside Biogeography.’ She made a significant contribution to the understanding of biodiversity by predicting various species’ likelihood of surviving human impacts and analyzing the future of ecosystems and the implications for human well-being, especially from the standpoint of agricultural land use. She has incorporated environmental issues into business practices and public policies worldwide.”
“Around the world, we see awakening to human dependence on our blue planet’s nonhuman companions, from microbes and bees to giant sequoias and vast coral reefs. We see emergence of a common language and approach for integrating the values of nature into the design of cities, working landscapes and seascapes, and protected areas,” Daily said.
“I believe that the two recipients are leading us to a new era of tackling environmental issues,” said Hiroyuki Yoshikawa of the Blue Planet Prize Committee and a special counselor to the President of the Japan Science and Technology Agency. The committee includes internationally renowned scientists, such as Nobel Laureate Ryoji Noyori, who met Schellnhuber on the eve of the prize ceremony.
“This prize is said to be the Nobel Prize for environmental research,” said Masaharu Nakagawa, Japan’s Minister of the Environment, in a personal meeting earlier with Schellnhuber, whom he thanked “for helping with the long-term strategy of our country.”
“Stabilizing the climate is a global challenge that requires concerted action by all countries,” Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a message congratulating the awardees. “My government remains committed to climate action.”
Marking the outstanding significance of the event for Japan, His Imperial Highness Prince Akishino attended the ceremony. “In recent years, we humans have pursued the progress of science and technology—yet, precisely by this way of economic development, the ecosystems have been affected,” the Prince said.
He specifically mentioned the increase of dangerous weather extremes. “We need a correct understanding of the human effect on the environment—as well as actions. It is hence satisfying that the laureates have developed the science as well as they have sounded the alarm,” the Prince added.
In a congratulatory message, the Prince of Wales, Charles, emphasized that Schellnhuber’s work is important to persuade the world to counter climate change, and to save the planet for our children and grandchildren.
Previous recipients of the prize include the godfather of climate modeling, Syukuro Manabe of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway and Charles Keeling of the University of San Diego, California, who gave his name to the famous Keeling curve of atmospheric CO2 concentration measurements.
Today, scientists around the world, including those at the PIK that Schellnhuber founded in 1992 are successfully investigating the nonlinear dynamics of the complex climate system, and religious leaders like Pope Francis, whose green Encyclical Schellnhuber had the honor to present to the world in 2015, joined in the call for avoiding dangerous climate change.
“Man-made climate change has roared on, since policy has largely failed us,” Schellnhuber said, adding that: “Now, on the basis of the Paris Agreement to limit temperature rise to well below 2° Celsius, a great transformation of the global economy is required.”
He urged Japan and Germany to lead in the race against global disaster with sustainable innovations for the sake of the Blue Planet.
To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio.arillo@gmail.com.
1 comment
What a pity that the awarding committee didn’t do a little more research before describing Professor Schellnhuber as “the father of the 2 degree limit for global warming”. It was first mooted in 1975 and again in 1997, by economist William Nordhaus and picked up by Herr Schellnhuber in 1995. There is no science behind it, it is based on assumptions and extrapolations.
“Nordhaus’ claim was sourced to climatologist Hubert Lamb (1972) who in turn calculated long-term variations in temperature based on record kept in Central England.
So: The 2 degree temperature target that sits at the center of current climate policy discussions originated in a local, long-term record of temperature variation in England, which was adapted by an economist in a “what if?” exercise.”
https://www.climatedepot.com/2017/09/20/prof-roger-pielke-jr-on-origins-of-2-degree-temp-target-has-little-scientific-basis/