Nobel winner cool on climate achievement
JAMAICA seems to have overlooked that University of West the Indies (UWI) Mona Professor Anthony Chen – and two other Caribbean scientists – were part of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that last month won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for highlighting the changes in weather patterns caused by human pollution.
That former United States President Al Gore was a joint, or perhaps we thought only awardee, we are much more aware. His campaigning documentary about climate change had informed many about the crisis, returned his political star – even sparking rumours of another run for the presidency and won an Oscar.
Gore is now well used to the adulation. But when contacted by the Observer, the immediate response of Professor Chen, a retired 69-year-old, was to downplay his achievement.
“I did not win the Nobel Peace Prize. I am a member of the IPCC (one of hundreds of scientists), which was awarded half the prize. I will just get a certificate from IPCC saying that I was a member of the team,” was the blunt but modest e-mail response from the retiree, who still keeps an office at the Physics Department from where he founded the Caribbean Climate Studies Group in 1994.
It has been a good year for the scientific community with recognition for their efforts. Former Nobel nominee Bert Fraser-Reid of the Natural Products and Glycotechnology (NPG) Research Institute at North Carolina State University, a leading researcher tackling Third World diseases like malaria and tuberculosis, won the Musgrave Award.
And in a country used to seeing its intellectual property appropriated by foreigners, Dr Henry Lowe, head of the Environmental Health Foundation (EHF), together with his research partner Joseph Bryant, laboratory animal veterinarian at the University of Maryland Institute of Human Virology (IHV), are patenting two endemic plants which they claim can help cure five cancers. Dr Lowe has since enjoyed widespread adulation, including being awarded Business Leader of 2006 by this newspaper.
But asked during an interview to give his reaction to the Nobel award, Professor Chen remained nonplussed.
“That morning I was leaving home I was hearing about Al Gore and I thought, ‘Okay that was expected’ and when I got to the office the first thing I got was an e-mail informing us that we had also been awarded. I felt it was good to know and I shared the news with the climate change group, but I didn’t expect everybody to be astonished by it!”
He admits that his reaction would be more enthusiastic had he been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for over 40 years of work since returning from the United States and a high school teaching career. He had been drawn to UWI and atmospheric physics by a combination of missing home and the pioneering work being conducted by the university on behalf of the US Air Force into investigating atmospheric effects on satellite signals.
Now, sitting in his cramped office at the UWI, books and papers shelved and stacked high, his routine seems to have slowed little since stepping down as head of the department. He has finished his three unpaid terms with the IPPC – but still teaches and lectures in the Physics Department and is publicly involved in the work of the Climate Change Studies Group.
“For Jamaica, what it means is that the convective areas would become more active and that pulls all the moisture from us so we will become dryer whereas other areas will become wetter. The sea level rise – it doesn’t appear to be much at 20-50 centimetres over 100 years – but that could lead to saline intrusion, the potential for higher storm surges and of course some land would be lost. Temperature increases would mean the bleaching of the corals which could lead to a depletion of the fisheries,” he explained.
He added: “Our tourism could be affected. If it becomes warmer in North America then maybe less tourists would come in the winter. A two-degree rise in temperature could lead to a threefold increase in the transmission of dengue fever based on research by epidemiologists.”
He is firmly against notions that climate change is unavoidable, stressing that Jamaicans – facing an annual oil import bill of US$2 billion for 2007 – need to take their own steps to reduce energy consumption. He also believes that Jamaica and so-called Small Island States (SIDs) need to increase their lobbying of the United States, the world’s most polluting country.
“I was at a forum last week and that is my main message to lobby as a group to get these industrialised countries especially the United States, to cut back. If we don’t cut back it could have very serious consequences,” he said.
He gives a straightforward response when asked if there is sufficient regional support for the group’s work.
“No. The support for what they call mitigation adaption processes come mainly from grant agencies. They go mainly to Caricom Climate Change Centre in Belize. They get most of the money which they distribute. I don’t see the private sector being much involved …”
At which point he receives a telephone call from a private sector group requesting that he addresses one of their meetings.
Perhaps his message is being heard.