Experts

In a small courtroom in Helena, Montana, ten experts testified—communicating to those in power what science requires to protect the fundamental rights of children. The world listened and learned.

Expert

Dr. Kevin Trenberth

I have authored over 590 publications, of which 294 are in refereed journals, in the area of climate science, and given hundreds of talks on the subject. I am among the most highly cited researchers in all of geophysics. I have extensively investigated global-scale climate dynamics, and the observations, processes, and modeling of climate changes from interannual to centennial timescales. I have particular expertise in El Niño, the hydrological and energy cycles, hurricanes and storms, and climate change.

I have served on many national and international committees, including National Research Council/National Academy of Science committees, panels and/or boards. I co-chaired the international Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) Scientific Steering Group of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) from 1996 to 1999 and I have served as a member and officer of the Joint Scientific Committee that oversees the WCRP as a whole from 1998 to 2006. I chaired the WCRP Observations and Assimilation Panel from 2004 to 2010, and from 2010 to 2014 I chaired the Scientific Steering Group of GEWEX: the Global Energy and Water Exchanges program of WCRP. I was co-chair of the CLIVAR “Consistency between planetary energy balance and ocean heat storage (CONCEPT-HEAT)” working group, 2014-18. I have been involved in global warming science and extensively involved in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientific assessment activity as a lead author of individual chapters, the Technical Summary, and Summary for Policy Makers (SPM) of Working Group (WG) I for the Second, Third and Fourth Assessment Reports (SAR, TAR and AR4; IPCC 1996, 2001, 2007). I was a Coordinating Lead Author for the SAR and AR4; in the latter I led Chapter 3 that dealt with observations of surface and atmospheric climate change. I was a Review Editor of the Fifth IPCC Assessment Report (AR5) in 2013. Accordingly, I shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 that went to the IPCC and Al Gore. In 2017 I was awarded the prestigious Roger Revelle Medal by the American Geophysical Union. I recently published a book on “The Changing Flow of Energy Through the Climate System” (2022) through Cambridge University Press.