Climatologist Sir John Houghton

 2007 Spring Events

Environment, Economics, Equity
Sponsored by The Center for Applied Christian Ethics
Sir John Houghton

Tuesday, January 23rd (Audio/Video Downloads)
Environment and Politics Class Lecture, Armerding Lecture Hall (mp3)
Lecture Q & A (mp3)

Wednesday, January 24th
Pastor’s Breakfast with Sir John. Co-sponsored with Chaplains Office (mp3)

Chapel Message by Sir John Houghton, visit WETN
10:30 AM, Edman Chapel

Plenary Session: "Climate Change: A Challenge to Scientists and Christians”
Audio Only (mp3) Slides and Audio (M4v plays in iTunes and some Quicktime versions)

Printed Materials courtesy of John Ray Institute
Big Science, Big God. (pdf)

"Global Warming, Climate Change and Sustainability" (pdf)

Biography

John Houghton was born in 1931 in Dyserth, Clwyd, educated at Rhyl Grammar School, entering Jesus College, Oxford as a scholar in 1948, obtaining MA and D.Phil in 1955. After a short period at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, he returned to Oxford in 1958 as Lecturer, Reader (1962) and Professor (1976) of Atmospheric Physics, where he became involved, in cooperation with Professor Desmond Smith, then at Reading University, in devising novel instrumentation mounted on NASA satellites for measuring the global structure of temperature and composition of the stratosphere and mesosphere (altitudes from 10-90 km). After a period on leave from Oxford as Director of the Appleton Laboratory (1979-1983), during which it merged with the Rutherford Laboratory at Chilton, he moved to become Director General (later Chief Executive) of the Meteorological Office. There he took a particular interest in research into human induced climate change and in 1988, on the formation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was appointed chairman of its Scientific Assessment – a position he held until 2002. After retiring from the Met Office in 1991, he became chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (1992-8) and in 1997 the Chairman of the John Ray Initiative, a charity formed to connect science, environment and Christianity in the promotion of environmental sustainability. He continues to lecture widely on climate change, the underlying science and the challenge it presents to all human communities. His many awards include the Japan Prize (2006), International Meteorological Organisation Prize (1998) gold medals from the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Meteorological Society. His books include The Physics of Atmospheres, Global Warming: the Complete Briefing, Does God play dice? and The search for God: can science help. He now lives in Aberdyfi, Wales where he enjoys sailing and mountain walking.

Promoting and encouraging the formation of moral character and the application of biblical ethics to contemporary moral decisions