Robert Watson (scientist)
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Robert T. Watson is a British-born U.S. scientist who has worked on atmospheric pollution issues since the 1980s (including ozone depletion, global warming), paleoclimatology and was the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change between 1996 and 2002. Watson had previously served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under Bill Clinton, been Director for Environment and Head of the Environment Sector Board at the World Bank, and worked at NASA. He is currently Chief Scientist at the World Bank's Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Network.[1]
The New York Times has characterized Watson as an "outspoken advocate of the idea that human actions - mainly burning coal and oil - are contributing to global warming and must be changed to avert environmental upheavals."
In April 2002 the United States pressed for and won his replacement by Rajendra Pachauri as IPCC chair. According to New Scientist, "The oil industry seems to be behind the move." The industry campaign to oust Watson had begun days after George W. Bush's inauguration in January 2001, with a memo to the White House from Randy Randol of oil giant ExxonMobil asking "Can Watson be replaced now at the request of the US?" [2]
According to one global-warming-skeptical organization, Sovereignty International, Watson said at a 1997 press briefing that "The science is settled [and] we're not going to reopen it here." [3] No other sources for the alleged quote have been found, nor the date and place of the briefing identified. (See The science is settled.)
[edit] Opinion
In 2000, he said:
- The overwhelming majority of scientific experts, whilst recognizing that scientific uncertainties exist, nonetheless believe that human-induced climate change is inevitable. Indeed, during the last few years, many parts of the world have suffered major heat waves, floods, droughts, fires and extreme weather events leading to significant economic losses and loss of life. While individual events cannot be directly linked to human-induced climate change, the frequency and magnitude of these types of events are predicted to increase in a warmer world.
- The question is not whether climate will change in response to human activities, but rather how much (magnitude), how fast (the rate of change) and where (regional patterns). It is also clear that climate change will, in many parts of the world, adversely affect socio-economic sectors, including water resources, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and human settlements, ecological systems (particularly forests and coral reefs), and human health (particularly diseases spread by insects), with developing countries being the most vulnerable. The good news is, however, that the majority of experts believe that significant reductions in net greenhouse gas emissions are technically feasible due to an extensive array of technologies and policy measures in the energy supply, energy demand and agricultural and forestry sectors. In addition, the projected adverse effects of climate change on socio-economic and ecological systems can, to some degree, be reduced through proactive adaptation measures. These are the fundamental conclusions, taken from already approved/accepted IPCC assessments, of a careful and objective analysis of all relevant scientific, technical and economic information by thousands of experts from the appropriate fields of science from academia, governments, industry and environmental organizations from around the world [4].
