Mayewski a most-influential climate change author
Paul Mayewski has been rated one of the most-cited and influential climate change authors.
His article “Holocene climate variability” was ranked No. 58 of the all-time top 100 papers on climate change by Carbon Brief, a website in the United Kingdom that covers developments in climate science, climate policy and energy policy.
As of August 2015, Mayewski’s paper, published in November 2004 by “Quaternary Research,” had been cited 852 times.
In the paper, the director of the University of Maine Climate Change Institute analyzed climate variability in the Holocene Period (from about 11,500 years ago to the present).
His examination of global paleoclimate records revealed significant rapid climate change from 9,000–8,000, 6,000–5,000, 4,200–3,800, 3,500–2,500, 1,200–1,000 and 600–150 calendar years ago. Several intervals, he discovered, coincided with major disruptions of civilization, demonstrating the significance of people on Holocene climate variability.
His work and discoveries have been recognized before.
In April, he’ll receive a Hans Oeschger Medal in Vienna, Austria. The medal was established by the European Geosciences Union in recognition of Oeschger, a physicist from Switzerland and pioneering expert on the effects of greenhouse gases on the planet.
In 2015, the World Ocean Observatory hailed Mayewski as a Citizen of the Ocean for his inspiring contributions to ocean knowledge and advocacy. The Explorers Club Fellow and medal winner also was awarded the first Medal for Excellence in Antarctic Research from the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research.
Last summer, Mayewski was named one of the state’s 50 Bold Visionaries by “Maine” magazine. He also was featured in the Emmy Award-winning Showtime series “Years of Living Dangerously” that focused on effects of climate change on people and the planet, and he appeared in the MPBN version of the award-winning film “Thin Ice: The Inside Story of Climate Science.”
To learn more about Carbon Brief’s criteria, visit carbonbrief.org/analysis-the-most-cited-climate-change-papers. A list of 100 papers is available online.