Response
by Prof. Sir John Houghton
Winner of the 2009 Albert Einstein World Award of Science

Academic Hall, University of Liege
Liege, Belgium

This prize from the Consejo Cultural Mundial has come as a wonderful surprise. I feel most honoured to receive such a prestigious award. As I accept it I realize how much I owe to those who taught me years ago and to those who have worked with me during my varied scientific career. From the start, I was favoured with particularly inspiring teachers and would especially like to mention Alan Brewer who supervised my doctorate research project, a highly distinguished meteorologist, from whom I learnt an enormous amount about how the atmosphere works and about the design and construction of scientific instruments. I also want to mention an early colleague in scientific research, Desmond Smith, with whom I enjoyed a close and highly successful partnership as we developed instruments for Nimbus satellites in the early 1970s.

I also want to pay tribute to those many hundreds of scientists with whom I have had the privilege of working over the past 50 years in observations of the atmosphere from space, in developing the science of weather forecasting and also in the assessment of human induced climate change through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). I have sometimes felt like the conductor of a large scientific orchestra, so to speak, but a conductor on his own is no good at all without the players. With such wonderful players it has been possible to produce some great scientific ‘music’.

I also want to thank my wives, Margaret who died from cancer in 1986 and Sheila who unfortunately is not able to be here today. Their love and support have provided a wonderful base for my scientific career.

This award is named after Albert Einstein who was not only possibly the most brilliant scientist ever but one who also worked tirelessly towards science being employed for furthering human freedom and peace rather than being misused for purposes of destruction. I feel proud to be receiving this award that follows in the Einstein tradition as it recognizes the role of science in promoting the social, cultural, moral and spiritual advancement of human kind and in enhancing relationships between humans and the non-human creation.

My work with the IPCC was particularly exciting as many hundreds of scientists engaged in extremely lively debate. Our object was to make sense of the mountains of data that are available about human influences on the Earth’s climate and that emanate from the wide range of scientific disciplines involved. We were able to advance our understanding of climate changes in the past. We were also able to estimate what is likely to occur in the future as the climate warms due to the billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide that we humans are adding to the atmosphere each year as we continue to burn coal, oil and gas and to denude the Earth of its forests.

But even more challenging than the basic physical science is the nature of the human response to human induced climate change. What we learn through our science about the damaging impacts on our planet in the future has enormous implications for our behaviour as individuals, communities and nations. In two weeks time in Copenhagen, all the world’s nations will be grappling with demands for action being spelt out by scientists, technologists, economists and ordinary people. Described by some as the most important meeting ever held on Earth, it is essential that the nations begin to speak with one voice. My hope and prayer is that as the nations face the fierce reality and urgency of climate change they may come together in a new spirit of mutual cooperation and partnership.

May I thank you again for the honour of this wonderful prize.