John Christy

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John R. Christy
Born California, USA
Nationality American
Fields Atmospheric Scientist
Institutions University of Alabama in Huntsville
Alma mater University of Illinois
Doctoral advisor Kevin Trenberth
Known for UAH satellite data
Notable awards 1991 Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, NASA
1996 Special Award, American Meteorological Society
Religious stance Baptist

John R. Christy is a climate scientist whose chief interests are global climate change, satellite sensing of global climate, and paleoclimate. He is best known, jointly with Roy Spencer, for his version of the satellite temperature record.

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[edit] Early life and education

A native of Fresno, California, Christy received a B.A. in Mathematics (1973) from the California State University, Fresno and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences (1984, 1987) from the University of Illinois. Prior to his scientific career, Christy taught Physics and Chemistry as a missionary teacher in Nyeri, Kenya (1973-75). After earning a Master of Divinity degree (1978) from Golden Gate Baptist Seminary he served four years as a bivocational mission-pastor in Vermillion, South Dakota where he also taught college math. [1]

He is a distinguished professor of atmospheric science, and director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He was appointed Alabama's state climatologist in 2000. For his development of a global temperature data set from satellites he was awarded NASA's Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, and the American Meteorological Society's "Special Award."[2] In 2002, Christy was elected Fellow of the American Meteorological Society.[3]

[edit] Status and views

Christy was a lead author for the 2001 report by the IPCC[4] and the US CCSP report Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere - Understanding and Reconciling Differences.[5] Christy helped draft and signed the American Geophysical Union statement on climate change.[6]

In an interview with National Public Radio about the new American Geophysical Union (AGU) statement, he said: "It is scientifically inconceivable that after changing forests into cities, turning millions of acres into irrigated farmland, putting massive quantities of soot and dust into the air, and putting extra greenhouse gases into the air, that the natural course of climate has not changed in some way."[6]

In October 2007 Christy gave a lecture at Auburn University in which he reviewed areas of the global warming debate that he deems most significant and offered his evaluation of them.[7]

While he supports the AGU declaration and is convinced that human activities are one cause of the global warming that has been measured, Christy is "still a strong critic of scientists who make catastrophic predictions of huge increases in global temperatures and tremendous rises in sea levels."[6]

More recently, in a publication in the series Washington Roundtable on Science and Public Policy he said, "I showed some evidence that humans are causing warming in the surface measurements that we have, but it is not the greenhouse relation."[8]

[edit] Awards

  • 1991: NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (with Roy Spencer)[2]
  • 1996: AMS Special Award "for developing a global, precise record of earth's temperature from operational polar-orbiting satellites, fundamentally advancing our ability to monitor climate." (with Roy Spencer)[2]

[edit] Selected publications

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.ntva.no/Arrangement/seminar/cv/christy.htm
  2. ^ a b c "John R. Christy: Short Biography". NASA. http://science.nasa.gov/ssl/PAD/sppb/NSSTC-CSPAR_Colloquia/FAL-01/christy_bio.html. Retrieved 2007-04-04. 
  3. ^ "List of AMS Fellows". American Meteorological Society. 2008. http://www.ametsoc.org/memdir/fellowslist/get_listoffellows.cfm. Retrieved 2008-10-08. 
  4. ^ "Appendix III - Contributors to the IPCC WGI Third Assessment Report". IPCC. 2001. http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/001.htm. Retrieved 2007-04-04. 
  5. ^ Wigley, Tom M.L.; V. Ramaswamy, J.R. Christy, J.R. Lanzante, C.A. Mears, B.D. Santer, C.K. Folland (April 2006). "Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere: Steps for Understanding and Reconciling Differences" (PDF). Climate Change Science Program. http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap1-1/finalreport/sap1-1-final-execsum.pdf. Retrieved 2007-04-04. 
  6. ^ a b c Perlman, David (December 18, 2003). "Earth warming at faster pace, say top science group's leaders". San Francisco Chronicle. pp. A-6. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/12/18/MNGNV3PH9D1.DTL&type=printable. Retrieved 2007-04-04. 
  7. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WWpH0lmcxA
  8. ^ "Washington Roundtable on Science and Public Policy: Satellite Temperatures by John Christy & Roy Spencer" (PDF). George C. Marshall Institute. April 17, 2006. http://www.marshall.org/pdf/materials/415.pdf. Retrieved 2007-04-04. 

[edit] External links

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