Nobel climate scientist dead at 65

In Australasia, News Headlines, Scientific Reports

Nobel Prize-winning climate change researcher Stephen Schneider has died at the age of 65.

The Stanford University scientist worked on the international research panel on global warming that shared the 2007 Nobel Prize with former US vice-president Al Gore.

He spent 37 years studying the forces influencing the climate, including pioneering work on the effects of aerosols.

Dr Schneider was suffering from a rare cancer but died of a heart attack overnight on a flight between Stockholm and London.

He was a South Australian thinker-in-residence on climate change policy back in 2006.

SA Premier Mike Rann says Dr Schneider’s advice resulted in South Australia becoming one of the first places in the world to introduce greenhouse gas emission reduction legislation.

“Stephen Schneider was a terrific adviser, he was incredibly constructive,” he said.

“He wanted to make a difference in the world and he saw what we were doing here in South Australia as an important opportunity to demonstrate to other places around the world what we could do in terms of tackling climate change.”

Griffith University’s Professor Jean Palutikof says Dr Schneider was recently in Australia and he will be sadly missed.

“He cared that you understood what he was trying to tell you,” she said.

“I don’t think he cared whether you were the man who was collecting the garbage or whether you were the director of the institute he worked for.

“I don’t know of anyone who can begin to take his place.”

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