As a tribute to the late Roger Revelle, who was one of the first scientists to recognize the effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide on global warming, several UCSD scientists gathered on Jan. 11 in York Hall to speak about the human impacts on climate change.
The panel of speakers comprised the first of several global warming symposia scheduled as a part of the 40th anniversary of Revelle College.
The event began with a look back at Revelle’s life and scientific work. Revelle first made contributions to oceanography as a graduate student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Later, he become director of SIO and also served as one of the founding forces of UCSD in 1960.
“Roger was a father of UCSD, but he was also a father of global warming research,” Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said. “This symposium is, I believe, a fitting tribute to [his] impact on U.S. science and U.S. higher education.”
Throughout his lifetime, Revelle also gave expert advice on issues including the environment, agriculture and human populations. In addition to serving as science adviser to the Secretary of the Interior, he received the National Medal of Science from President George Bush in 1990.
“Most of us saw Roger to be an inspirational, charismatic colleague — not an organized administrator,” said Hugh Bradner, professor emeritus of mechanical and aerospace engineering and of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. “He was sometimes likened to a juggler with too many objects in the air. Just before one would crash on the floor, Roger would catch it with his size-15 shoe and restore things up to their proper order.”
During the second half of the event, faculty members made brief presentations on the various biological impacts of global warming and other human activities.
According to biology professor Milton Saier, the world’s current population of 6.3 billion people is still rapidly expanding at a rate of about 250,000 new births per day. Human activities add six billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere every year, while only 1 percent of that amount can be recycled by the photosynthetic capacity of the Earth, he said.
“Environmental issues are more important to mankind in the biosphere than terrorism, war or individual human life,” Saier said. “Many of our environmental problems can be traced to our excessive human population, yet the United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars on ‘home security’ and the military, while spending virtually nothing for human population control and environmental protection.”
Director of the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine Bill Fenical discussed the costs of biodiversity loss due to climate modification, with an emphasis on the possible loss of natural drug breakthroughs used to treat human diseases.
“Fifty percent of all of the pharmaceutical products that we have today are natural products, and many of those that are not natural were actually synthesized based on natural products,” Fenical said. “Now people look for concrete, commercial and economic reasons why global warming is important, and one of the areas that they certainly understand is their own health and their own survival.”
Other professors presented information about the impact of global warming on animal species and the oceans, as well as the importance of conservation biology.
The next symposium in the series will be held on Jan. 18 and will focus on the environmental effects of climate change.
