Paul j crutzen biography of mahatma gandhi

I loved observing the world around me and trying to explain it. My parents told me funny stories of that. I did not know that people can swim, so I thought there was a man without a body in the water. One wintry night my parents found me standing in front of the window of a cold bedroom admiring my very first snowfall. Also I loved dictionaries.

When I had learned to read, I wanted to learn foreign languages by studying dictionaries. I could read the words, but of course I did not even know how to pronounce them. Apart from basic needs like food and peace I longed for snow-clad mountains. But there are no mountains in Holland. During the war we could not travel outside Holland. I looked at the clouds instead and I imagined that they were mountains.

The copyright holder reserves, or holds for their own use, all the rights provided by copyright law, such as distribution, performance, and creation of derivative works. Could you describe your path towards becoming a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry? Chemistry was not at all my favorite subject in my high school, the Hogere Burgerschool. I was much more interested in physics, astronomy, and mathematics.

In my free time I read books about astronomy and about voyages around the world. I played soccer and chess and skated along the canals whenever that was possible. I could not ask my parents for the money needed for studies. We were not a particularly rich family. My mother kept the family together in difficult times, as my father was often unemployed both during and after the war.

My mother worked as a cleaning woman in the kitchen of a hospital. I entered engineering school and worked in bridge construction for the city of Amsterdam, interrupted by two years in the military service. That was a tense time because of the uprising in Hungary against the communist regime. So how did you land a job in meteorology and how did you enter atmospheric chemistry?

During a short vacation I hitchhiked through Germany and France. I also went to Switzerland, where I was at last able to see the mountains I had dreamed about in my childhood. When my military service was over, I went to Helsinki to see her again. For two years we kept in touch by writing letters; in this way we got to know each other quite well.

But I wanted to do something more interesting. I was lucky to notice in the newspaper that Stockholm University was looking for a computer expert. I applied and got the job, even though I was no expert at all. We moved to Stockholm, and alongside the job I was able to study mathematics and meteorology at the university. It was my first step in my academic career.

My wife Terttu was always there for me, from the time I was a working student and she took care of our two daughters. She gave up her studies in Finnish history and literature so I could pursue my scientific work. So no, I did not have a straight career path at all. You then entered atmospheric research. Was that pure science for you or were you already concerned about the environment?

Before aboutwhen I was a postdoc in Oxford, the environment was not high on my list of interests. Scientists in general did not show much interest in the environment then.

Paul j crutzen biography of mahatma gandhi

It was actually my involvement as a computer programmer in the supersonic transport program SST that got me gradually interested in environmental issues. Harold Johnston and I looked at the danger of a large fleet of supersonic aircraft flying in the stratosphere, because they would emit nitric oxide NO and could deplete the ozone layer that protects Earth from solar ultraviolet radiation.

Luckily the large fleets of SSTs were never built, mainly because of the high cost. However, that did not mean that stratospheric ozone was safe. Before your research, it was not known that the ozone layer could be damaged…. Indeed, nobody had thought that small man-made substances could have a large effect on stratospheric ozone. My main supporter was Professor Bert Bolin, the head of the Stockholm department of meteorology and a world expert in CO 2.

He gave me a lot of freedom to begin my own independent research. My early papers were all concerned with the natural chemistry of the stratosphere, with an emphasis on ozone. But I realized that the soil could be a large source of nitrous oxide N 2 Owhich is converted to NO in the stratosphere, which then acts as catalysts to destroy ozone. Thus I discovered how the biosphere exerts an influence on ozone.

Yes, absolutely, and shortly after that an even greater danger was discovered in the shape of almost inert chlorine in organic molecules, the so-called chlorofluorocarbons CFCswhich are broken down by solar ultraviolet radiation above about 25 kilometers. In Crutzen received a prepublication draft of a scientific paper by Frank S. Molina, a postdoctoral fellow from Mexico.

It concerned the possible destructive effects of chlorofluoromethanes on the ozone layer. Crutzen immediately developed a model of this effect, which predicted severe depletion of ozone if those pauls j crutzen biography of mahatma gandhi continued to be used at that current rate. Crutze has listed his main research interests as "Stratospheric and tropospheric chemistry, and their role in the biogeochemical cycles and climate".

He was also a long-time adjunct professor at Georgia Institute of Technology and research professor at the department of meteorology at Stockholm UniversitySweden. He co-signed a letter from over 70 Nobel laureate scientists to the Louisiana Legislature supporting the repeal of that U. As of [update]Crutzen had an h-index of according to Google Scholar [ 26 ] and of according to Scopus.

One of Crutzen's research interests was the Anthropocene. Stoermerto emphasize the central role of mankind in geology and ecology, proposed using the term anthropocene for the current geological epoch. In regard to its start, they said:. To assign a more specific date to the onset of the "anthropocene" seems somewhat arbitrary, but we propose the latter part of the 18th century, although we are aware that alternative proposals can be made some may even want to include the entire holocene.

However, we choose this date because, during the past two centuries, the global effects of human activities have become clearly noticeable. This is the period when data retrieved from glacial ice cores show the beginning of a growth in the atmospheric concentrations of several "greenhouse gases", in particular CO 2 and CH 4. Such a starting date also coincides with James Watt's invention of the steam engine in Steve Connor, Science Editor of The Independentwrote that Crutzen believes that political attempts to limit man-made greenhouse gases are so pitiful that a radical contingency plan is needed.

In a polemical scientific essay that was published in the August issue of the journal Climatic Changehe says that an "escape route" is needed if global warming begins to run out of control. Crutzen advocated for climate engineering solutions, including artificially cooling the global climate by releasing particles of sulphur in the upper atmosphere, along with other particles at lower atmospheric levels, which would reflect sunlight and heat back into space.

If this artificial cooling method actually were to work, it would reduce some of the effects of the accumulation of green house gas emissions caused by human activity, potentially extending the planet's integrity and livability. In JanuaryCrutzen published findings that the release of nitrous oxide N 2 O emissions in the production of biofuels means that they contribute more to global warming than the fossil fuels they replace.

Crutzen was also a leader in promoting the theory of nuclear winter. Together with John W. Birks he wrote the first publication introducing the subject: The atmosphere after a nuclear war: Twilight at noon They concluded that absorption of sunlight by the black smoke could lead to darkness and strong cooling at the earth's surface, and a heating of the atmosphere at higher elevations, thus creating atypical meteorological and climatic conditions which would jeopardize agricultural production for a large part of the human population.

In a Baltimore Sun newspaper article printed in Januaryalong with his nuclear winter colleagues, Crutzen hypothesized that the climatic effects of the Kuwait oil fires would result in "significant" nuclear winter -like effects; continental-sized effects of sub-freezing temperatures. Crutzen, Mario J. Molinaand F. Sherwood Rowland were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in "for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone".

In Crutzen met Terttu Soininen, whom he married a few years later in February In December of the same year, the couple had a daughter. In Marchthe couple had another daughter. Crutzen died aged 87 on 28 January Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects.

Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Sherwood Rowland "for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone". Awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Crutzen and Rowland "for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone. Awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Crutzen and Molina "for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone.

Research and Professor of Meteorology. Paul Crutzen made many significant contributions like this during his lifetime — truly a great Anthropocene scientist. But he was also much more than that. He was a very enthusiastic, kind, and generous person who will be fondly remembered by all those who knew him. I feel that I speak for many colleagues who will miss Paul immensely, and we will be forever grateful for our many collective years of fruitful collaboration with him — and I know there are many who join me in extending our sincere condolences to his family, especially his wife Terttu and his daughters and grandchildren, and to his many friends and colleagues around the world.

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