Steve Schneider

I write to mourn the passing of Steve Schneider.

My own participation in the climate field was inspired by reading an article of Schneider's in Scientific American in the late 1980's, as I was casting about for something meaningful a mathematically oriented person might do for the world.

I was privileged to spend a day and an evening with Steve in the company of Paul Baer the summer before last. It was a memorable day. So, while I can't claim to have been close to him, I can personally attest to the fact that Steve's was a vivid, rational and highly ethical mind. He was the quintessence of the modern intellectual, both bon vivant and a dedicated servant of the common good, an excellent model for the post-scarcity life well and consciously lived.

To those who were close to him, this must be a great tragedy indeed. For what it's worth, they should know that the thoughts and best wishes of many like myself are with them.

Although his health was not terrific, this is still an unexpected and harsh blow to the community. Let us rise to the occasion and redouble our efforts both in understanding the dimensions of the climate problem and related sustainability issues, and in communicating their scope and urgency to the public.

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Resources, via Nick Sundt of WWF:

· Stephen Schneider Home Page.

· Stephen H. Schneider. Wikipedia.

· Interview: Climate Science, Policy and Public Opinion. WWF Annual Report, 2008.

· Interview with Stephen Schneider on climate science expert credibility study. Climate Science Watch, 12 July 2010.

· The Passing of a Climate Warrior. By Andrew Revkin, New York Times blog, DotEarth, 19 July 2010.

· Remembering Stephen Schneider. By Joe Romm, Climate Progress, 19 July 2010.

· Climate Change Expert Stephen Schneider Dies. All Things Considered, National Public Radio, 19 July 2010. Listen to what President Obama's science advisor, John Holdren, says about Schneider.

· A Eulogy to Stephen Schneider. RealClimate, 19 July 2010.

· Stephen Schneider, a leading climate expert, dead at 65. Press release (19 July 2010) from Stanford University.

· TNR Q&A: Dr. Stephen Schneider. The New Republic, 9 November 2009.

· Dr. Stephen Schneider, Climate Warrior . By Peter Gleick in the Huffington Post, 19 July 2010.

To that list, I'd like to add an item and especially to draw it to the attention of those who think the climate science mainstream is closed-minded. Please look at the annals of Climatic Change, the journal that Steve Schneider edited from its inception.

Climatic Change is dedicated to the totality of the problem of climatic variability and change - its descriptions, causes, implications and interactions among these. The purpose of the journal is to provide a means of exchange between those working on problems related to climatic variations but in different disciplines. Interdisciplinary researchers or those in any discipline, be it meteorology, anthropology, agricultural science, astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, geography, policy analysis, economics, engineering, geology, ecology, or history of climate, are invited to submit articles, provided the articles are of interdisciplinary interest. This means that authors have an opportunity to communicate the essence of their studies to people in other climate related disciplines and to interested non-disciplinarians, as well as to report on research in which the originality is in the combinations of (not necessarily original) work from several disciplines. The journal also includes vigorous editorial and book review sections.

Update:

. Climatologist Stephen Schneider calls for cooler heads as temperatures, and tempers, rise. Stanford Magazine

. Steve on Johnny Carson's Show, 1977