Lonnie G. Thompson

Removal of an ice core

Lonnie G. Thompson (born July 1, 1948 ) is an American paleoclimatologist and professor at Ohio State University who specializes in the study of tropical and subtropical mountain glaciers and ice caps. Together with his wife Ellen Mosley-Thompson , he leads a research group at the Byrd Polar Research Center , which carries out paleoclimatological analyzes of ice cores .

research

Remaining glacier on Kilimanjaro (2003)

Lonnie G. Thompson studied geology at Marshall University and Ohio State University . In the 1970s he was the first paleoclimatologist to take ice cores from tropical ice caps in order to draw conclusions about the climatic conditions of the past .

His regular observations and investigations of individual glaciers since the 1970s show that tropical mountain glaciers are on the decline and are melting around the world . His investigations of the Kilimanjaro ice cap , which has been melting since the end of the 19th century - mainly because of the lack of precipitation - met with particular media coverage.

In 2005, Thompson was a research advisor on Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth .

Awards

• 2002: Dr. AH Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences for his pioneering work in polar and tropical ice core research
• 2002: Vega Medal from the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography .
• 2005: Thompson joins the National Academy of Sciences . [1]
• 2005: Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement [2]
• 2005: National Medal of Science , presented by President George W. Bush
• 2006: Member of the American Philosophical Society
• 2008: Mosley-Thompson and Thompson, together with Geoffrey Eglinton, receive the $ 1 million Dan David Prize
• 2012: Mosley-Thompson and Thompson receive the Benjamin Franklin Medal
• 2019: Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Publications (excerpt)

• LG Thompson, E. Mosley-Thompson, H. Brecher, ME Davis, B. Leon, D. Les, TA Mashiotta, P.-N. Lin and K. Mountain: Evidence of abrupt tropical climate change: past and present . In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Volume 103, No. 28, 2006, p. 10536.
• LG Thompson, E. Mosley-Thompson, ME Davis, P.-N. Lin, K. Henderson and TA Mashiotta: Tropical glacier and ice core evidence of climate change on annual to millennial time scales. In: Climatic Change . Volume 59, 2003, pp. 137-155.
• LG Thompson et al .: Kilimanjaro ice core records: evidence of Holocene climate change in tropical Africa. (PDF; 272 kB) In: Science . Volume 298, No. 5593, 2002, pp. 589-593, doi: 10.1126 / science.1073198 .
• LG Thompson: Ice core evidence for climate change in the Tropics: implications for our future. In: Quaternary Science Reviews. Volume 19, 2000, pp. 19-35, doi: 10.1016 / S0277-3791 (99) 00052-9 .
• LG Thompson, T. Yao, ME Davis, KA Henderson, E. Mosley-Thompson, P.-N. Lin, J. Beer, H.-A. Synal, J. Cole-Dai and JF Bolzan: Tropical climate instability: the last glacial cycle from a Qinghai-Tibetan ice core. In: Science . Volume 276, No. 5320, 1997, pp. 1821-1825, doi: 10.1126 / science.276.5320.1821 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Directory by Group. Byrd Polar Research Center, September 29, 2009; accessed November 20, 2009 . 
2. ^ ^{A b} Lonnie Thompson To Receive National Medal Of Science. Ohio State University , May 29, 2007, accessed November 14, 2009 . 
3. ↑ Michael Hagmann: Iceman in the tropics. Die Zeit , January 9, 2003, accessed on November 14, 2009 . 
4. ↑ Climate change: Tropical glaciers are as warm as they have not been for 2000 years. Der Spiegel , June 27, 2006, accessed November 14, 2009 . 
5. ↑ Climate change: Africa's glaciers will disappear in 20 years. Der Spiegel , October 18, 2002, accessed on November 14, 2009 . 
6. ^ Andrew C. Revkin: Climate Debate Gets Its Icon: Mt. Kilimanjaro. New York Times , March 23, 2004, accessed November 14, 2009 . 
7. ↑ Tim Dickinson: Diary of a Dying Planet. Rolling Stone , May 19, 2004, accessed November 14, 2009 . 
8. ↑ Global warming: No more snow on Kilimanjaro. Der Spiegel , November 3, 2009, accessed November 14, 2009 . 
9. ^ Brian Vastag: The melting snows of Kilimanjaro. Nature , November 2, 2009, accessed November 21, 2009 . 
10. ^ Funds & awards - Laureates - Dr AH Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences - Lonnie G. Thompson (1948), USA. Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, accessed October 15, 2019 . 
11. ^ Office of Science and Technology Policy: President Bush Announces the Recipients of the 2005 National Medal of Science. May 29, 2007.
12. ^ Member History: Lonnie G. Thompson. American Philosophical Society, accessed November 12, 2018 (with biographical notes). 

Web links

• Ice Core Paleoclimatology Research Group
• Lonnie Thompson's web page at Byrd Polar
• Rapid Climate Change in the Earth System: Past, Present, Future. Lecture by Thompson in: Heineken Lectures 2002.
• Profile of Lonnie G. Thompson . In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Tropical Glacier Retreat. On RealClimate . May 23, 2005.
• Science Goes to New Heights , in The Antarctic Sun. June 27, 2008
• A Climate Scientist Battles Time and Mortality