The Life and Achievements of Climate Change Expert Stephen Schneider Celebrated Today

"Stanford biology professor and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment Stephen Schneider will be memorialized and celebrated on Sunday, Dec. 12 from 1:00 to 6:30 p.m. with a day-long symposium of presentations on climate change...Sunday’s event will celebrate Schneider’s life with talks titled “Climate-Change Science and Sanity: Steve Schneider’s Extraordinary Contributions to Both,” “Why We Resist the Results of Climate Science” and “The American Public’s Understandings and Misunderstandings About Climate Change: Is There a Crisis of Confidence in Climate Science?” by John Holdren, Naomi Oreskes and Jon Krosnick, respectively."---Stanford Daily (12-1-10)

The life and achievements of the famous climate scientist Dr. Stephen Schneider are being celebrated today at Stanford University: Remembering Stephen Schneider: A Memorial Celebration Program December 12, 2010.

Dr. Schneider died of a pulmonary embolism on July 19, 2010, during flight from Sweden to London. He had been in Sweden to attend a conference about climate change.

According to his obituary in the New York Times (7-20-10):

The conference he had attended in Sweden before his death was partly to discuss how climate-change skeptics use that uncertainty to advance their cause.

But because the costs of global warming — from the melting of icecaps to the flooding of islands — is so high, Dr. Schneider maintained, not acting is riskier than acting. He demanded action from national, international and corporate leaders.

His case was buttressed by the “accumulated preponderance of evidence” scientists had amassed, he said. In an interview with the magazine American Scientist this year, he said his opponents relied on “the political chicanery of ideologists and special interests.”

The Stanford Daily (12-1-10) reports:

Stanford biology professor and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment Stephen Schneider will be memorialized and celebrated on Sunday, Dec. 12 from 1:00 to 6:30 p.m. with a day-long symposium of presentations on climate change. Schneider died of a pulmonary embolism on July 19 while traveling on a plane landing in London.

Sunday’s event will pay tribute to Schneider, one of the world’s leading climatologists and a beloved member of the Stanford community, through a scientific symposium and memorial celebration.

Sunday’s event will celebrate Schneider’s life with talks titled “Climate-Change Science and Sanity: Steve Schneider’s Extraordinary Contributions to Both,” “Why We Resist the Results of Climate Science” and “The American Public’s Understandings and Misunderstandings About Climate Change: Is There a Crisis of Confidence in Climate Science?” by John Holdren, Naomi Oreskes and Jon Krosnick, respectively.

Throughout his career, Schneider made enormous contributions to the study of climate change. In addition to his time at Stanford starting in 1992, Schneider also spent time advising the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, both Bush and Obama administrations and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schneider served as lead scientist on the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Prize with Al Gore.

“He was a fantastic mentor and an inspiration to his students, his colleagues and the global community,” said William Anderegg, one of Schneider’s graduate students, in an e-mail to The Daily after Schneider’s death. “He was a leading light in the science of climate change and in communicating the risks of climate change to the media and the public. His legacy will live on through those that he taught, spoke with and inspired, as we try to carry on his great work of protecting our planet’s climate.”

Visit http://woods.stanford.edu/woods/steve-schneider-memorial.html for more information.