The Alarmist: Fifty Years Measuring Climate Change
by Dave Lowe (Victoria University Press May 2021)
Book launch and celebration at the Goethe-Institut in Wellington, from 5.30pm 14 May 2021
We live in a difficult world, one where humans face many existential threats including pandemics and climate change. Dave has spent a career lifetime working with the atmosphere watching in horror as human activities have increasingly damaged the planet. His autobiography ‘The Alarmist: Fifty Years of Measuring Climate Change’ details a personal journey of scientific discovery through New Zealand and Germany in equal parts of adventure and warning carrying the message of the urgency of reducing carbon emissions.
We are delighted that Dave partners with us and the German Embassy to celebrate the launch of his book as an example of the essential benefits of cultural and scientific international cooperation between New Zealand and Germany.
Biography Dr Dave Lowe
Adjunct Professor Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington
Director LOWENZ Ltd, a small company focussed on science education
Wellingtonian of the Year 2020 Environment Award
Dave Lowe is an atmospheric chemist and a lead author of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize-winning IPCC Fourth Assessment Report on Climate Change. In 1970 he became the first person to make continuous atmospheric CO2 measurements in the southern hemisphere confirming the awful truth - the gas was increasing in the global atmosphere.
In 1978 Dave was awarded a scholarship by the German State of Nordrhein-Westfalen to study for a PhD in atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Cologne. His research work included air sampling flights over Germany as well as aboard the German oceanographic research vessel Meteor in the Atlantic. Dave and his wife, Irena, spent four remarkable years in the small German town of Jülich an experience which enriched and changed their lives for ever. With two children born there and lifelong friendships made, their linkages with Germany have flourished.
In New Zealand Dave used techniques developed in Germany to establish a world leading atmospheric chemistry group based at NIWA in Wellington. He has taught atmospheric chemistry at Victoria University and from 2012-18 acted as the government’s German-New Zealand science coordinator. Today Dave is heavily involved in educational outreach activities focussing on climate change, sustainability and the advantages of building cultural and scientific bridges between Germany and New Zealand.
