Schneider, Stephen H. (1945-)

AMERICAN CLIMATOLOGIST AND professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, Senior Fellow at the Center for Environment Science and Policy of the Institute for International Studies, and professor by courtesy in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University since September 1992, Schneider has been an outspoken advocate of the global warming theory since the 1980s and has helped draw public attention to the issue of climate change. He has argued for sharp reductions of greenhouse gas emissions to combat the phenomenon. Schneider has also served as an adviser to different U.S. administrations and federal agencies since the presidency of Richard Nixon. His research includes modeling of the atmosphere, climate change, and the relationship of biological systems to global climate change.

Schneider was born on February 11, 1945, in New York. He received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and plasma physics from Columbia University in 1971. He investigated the role of greenhouse gases and suspended particulate material on climate as a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He was appointed a postdoctoral fellow at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in 1972 and was a member of their scientific staff from 1973 to 1996, where he cofounded the Climate Project. Although Schneider emerged as a public figure in the global warming debate in the 1980s, his interest in the subject dates back to the early 1970s, when he coauthored an article in Science (“Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Aerosols: Effects [Page 885]of Large Increases on Global Climate”), which examined the competing effects of cooling from aerosols and warming from CO2. The paper, however, predicted that carbon dioxide would only have a minor role and warned about a large possible decrease of the Earths temperature. In the late 1970s, Schneider modified his position stating that, at that time, it was not possible to be certain whether the climate was cooling or warming. In The Genesis Strategy: Climate and Global Survival (1976), he wrote that “consensus among scientists today would hold that a global increase in atmospheric aerosols would probably result in a cooling of the climate; however, a smaller but growing fraction ofthe current evidence suggests that it may have a warming effect.”

Stephen H. Schneider at the Center for Environment Science and Policy of the Institute for International Studies.

It was with his 1989 book, Global Warming: Are We Entering the Greenhouse Century?, that Schneider became a main figure in scientific debates about human effects on the environment. In clear language exempt from academic jargon, Schneider argued his case for global warming. The burning of fossil fuels, he claimed, causes a buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Those gases trap the solar energy reradiated by the earth that would otherwise escape into space. This phenomenon could have devastating effects such as droughts, more frequent and more powerful tropical storms, and a rise in sea level. Schneider believes that temperature change appears less noticeable than it would otherwise be thanks to the capacity of the oceans to absorb heat. He is persuaded of the necessity to improve climate models that will take fully into account the interactions between atmosphere and oceans.

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