Bert Bolin Biography

Bert Bolin was a pioneering climatologist who led the United Nations Climate Panel, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for its warnings about global warming. Dr. Bolin traveled to Washington in 1959 and told the National Academy of Sciences that there would be a 25 percent increase in carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere by 2000. He stated that the carbon dioxide was the cause of the warming trend of two to three degrees in the early 20th century. The United Nations Environmental Program and the World Meteorological Organization created the climate panel. They brought 3,500 scientists together from around the world and divided them into three groups—the first to examine atmospheric chemistry and greenhouse gas emissions, the second to deal with the impacts of climate change, and the third to research the possibilities for mitigation. Bolin was chairman of the panel from 1988 to 1997 and led the first two influential climatological assessment reports with his scientific expertise and diplomatic skills.