Two UW-Madison faculty members made considerable efforts in the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Friday jointly with former Vice President Al Gore.
UW-Madison professor Jonathan Patz and professor emeritus John Magnuson contributed to IPCC reports, which are produced every five years and provide state-of-the-art scientific reviews about climate change and the problems associated with global warming.
According to a Norwegian Nobel Committee statement, thousands of scientists and officials from over 100 countries"" have collaborated in producing the scientific reports.
""I think it's a major event,"" said Patz, a professor in the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, and lead author of the North American chapter of the 2007 IPCC report.
Patz said this year is unique in that scientists now agree with 90 percent certainty that global warming is caused by human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels.
He said awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore and the IPCC signals the increased recognition that climate change is one of the world's major security issues.
""The Nobel Peace Prize is basically equivalent to the world thanking the IPCC and Al Gore for increasing public awareness and acknowledging the work over many years looking into this problem which could be the biggest environmental problem we've ever faced,"" Patz said.
Magnuson, a UW-Madison professor emeritus of zoology and director emeritus of the Center of Limnology, was the lead author of chapters in the 1995 and 2000 IPCC reports and helped to initiate research on the impacts of climate change on freshwater ecosystems.
Both professors said they hope this award will increase public awareness of the severity of the global warming problem and encourage societies around the world to take a more proactive stance on the issue.
Magnuson conveyed the importance of individual recognition of the problems of climate change.
""Learn and become knowledgeable about global climate change - its causes, impacts and mitigation,"" Magnuson said. ""Relay that information to your friends and parents. Apply that knowledge to steering the world to a sustainable future. It is not too late.
