David John Karoly (born 1955) is an Australian atmospheric scientist, currently based at

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...

Education and academic career

In the early 1970s David Karoly enrolled in

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematics, mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and Industrial sector, industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a ...

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, but later became interested in

meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

.Adam Morton: ''Coming down to earth''
in

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

, 16 August 2008 In 1980 he was awarded a doctorate in meteorology from the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

in Reading, England. After returning to Australia, from 1995 to 2000 Karoly became Director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Southern Hemisphere Meteorology at Monash University. Between 2003 and 2007 he was Professor of Meteorology in the School of Meteorology at the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...

(OU). In May 2007 he joined the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne as a Federation Professor. In 2017 he became Leader of the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub in the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program.

Contributions

He is an expert in

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

, stratospheric

ozone depletion Ozone depletion consists of two related events observed since the late 1970s: a lowered total amount of ozone in Earth, Earth's upper atmosphere, and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone (the ozone layer) around Earth's polar ...

, and climate variations due to the

El Niño-Southern Oscillation EL, El or el may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities * El, a character from the manga series ''Shugo Chara!'' by Peach-Pit * Eleven (''Stranger Things'') (El), a fictional character in the TV series ''Stranger Things'' * El, fami ...

(ENSO). Karoly has served as a lead author for the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to "provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies". The World Met ...

(IPCC) Working Group 2 (on societal impacts) and he is a member of the faculty of the School of Earth Sciences at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

. His work, along with that of the many other lead authors and review editors, contributed to the award of the

2007 Nobel Peace Prize The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (founded in 1988) and United States former vice president, Al Gore (b. 1948) "for their efforts to build up and disseminate gr ...

, which was won jointly by the IPCC and

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...

.University of Melbourne: Profile
, retrieved 27 June 2011 He is member of the board of the

Climate Change Authority The Climate Change Authority (CCA) is an Australian Government statutory agency responsible for providing independent advice to government on climate change policy. It was established by and operates under the ''Climate Change Authority Act 201 ...

David Karoly as communicator

In the Australian scene, Karoly is credited with standing up to Alan Jones, a conservative and climate change denying Sydney radio commentator with the largest daily audience in that city of ca.150,000. In doing so Karoly, originally a sceptic (1980), has earned the reputation of being a climate scientist communicator with the ability to explain the complexities of his research to the general public. On The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's high ranking television program Q&A wherein audience members can ask direct questions of experts, Karoly claimed his authority by stating in regard to his nemesis, "I am a climate scientist and Alan Jones is wrong." Karoly pointed out that one hundred years ago carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 280 parts per million whereas now it is 400 parts per million, an increase of 40% which he asserted was unquestionably caused by human activity. He also admonished Australians for producing 1.5% of the world's greenhouse gases when they were only 0.3% of the world's population. On the population issue Karoly sounded a warning, saying, "climate scientists in Europe have said that the long-term sustainable population of people on the Earth is about 1 billion people in 2100 – not the foreshadowed United Nations population estimates of about 10 to 12 billion people. That’s not good news."

References

External links

David Karoly on SlowTV
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karoly, David John Australian meteorologists Australian climatologists Alumni of the University of Reading Monash University alumni Academic staff of the University of Melbourne University of Oklahoma faculty Academic staff of Monash University Living people 1955 births