Stephen Schneider

Blog | Elizabeth May
July 24, 2010

One of the world’s leading climate scientists has died. I knew him and respected his work and his commitment enormously. Stephen Schneider did his work from Colorado but is perhaps best known for tracking the growth in carbon dioxide from the pure readings of the Mauna loa site in Hawaii. In 1988, at the world’s first international comprehensive climate conference in Toronto, he was a major speaker. It was there that I met him and appreciated his words of thanks for organizing the conference to include a portion of public lectures to increase public understanding.

I can’t believe he is dead. At 65 and of a heart attack on an airplane.

I wish I could say I cannot believe that climate change deniers are attacking him in death on the obituary pages of newspapers. The vile nature of their obsession, the willingness to send scientists death threats, suggests it might be possible they would attack people in death. That they are doing so is so deeply unacceptable that I needed to (at least) say clearly, the world has lost a brilliant mind, a caring and committed scientist. And we have lost him far too soon.