Dr. George Woodwell was a pioneering climate researcher whose work helped lead to the banning of the pesticide DDT.
- Died: June 18, 2024 (Who else died on June 18?)
- Details of death: Died at the age of 95.
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George Woodwell’s legacy
Dr. George Woodwell spent time in the U.S. Navy before earning his master’s and PhD in botany from Duke University, setting the stage for a career in science that would prove influential for decades to come. Some of his early efforts included studying the effects of the pesticide DDT on ecosystems. The work he and other scientists did provided the foundation needed to ban its agricultural use in 1972.
Dr. Woodwell then turned his eye on North American forests and estuaries, and the effects of global shifts to carbon dioxide levels. His probings were among the first to identify the feedback loop that leads to global climate change, and he helped the Woods Hole Research Center – which he founded in 1985 – begin studying climate change in locations throughout the world. The organization is now called the Woodwell Climate Research Center.
He was also a former chairman of the trustees’ board of the World Wildlife Fund US, former president of the Ecological Society of America, and he helped found organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund, World Resources Institute, and Natural Resources Defense Council.
In 1997, Dr. Woodwell was honored with the Heinz Award in the Environment, and in 2000 he was granted the John H. Chafee Excellence in Environmental Affairs. He was the author of five books, including “A World to Live In: An Ecologist’s Vision for a Plundered Planet” and “The Nature of a House: Building a World that Works.”
Notable quote
“I don’t have any patience at all with those who claim there is nothing to worry about. There is everything to worry about. The chances of keeping a heavily technological civilization intact with an open-ended warming of the planet taking place are practically zero.” — Interview with FAIR, 1999
Tributes to George Woodwell
Full obituary: Woodwell Climate Research Center
