A biographical compilation
from the papers of
THOMAS FRANCIS MALONE:
The Scientist-Statesman
from the papers of
THOMAS FRANCIS MALONE:
The Scientist-Statesman
May 3, 1917 - July 6, 2013
Contents
Principal Accomplishments
Public Recognition
Autobiographical Retrospective
Principal Accomplishments
Public Recognition
Autobiographical Retrospective
PRINCIPAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
1. PREVENTING GLOBAL NUCLEAR WAR
2. SPREADING GLOBAL WARMING AWARENESS
3. ALLEVIATING GLOBAL POVERTY
4. FACILITATING INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
5. OFFERING A GLOBAL VISION FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
6. ADVOCATING DEVELOPMENT OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
7. SAFEGUARDING THE WORLD’S ENVIRONMENT
8. DEVELOPING HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
9. SERVING IN WORLD WAR II
10. COMPILING THE POST-WWII "BIBLE" ON ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES
11. FOSTERING WORLD PEACE
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"You have done many things on the world scientific stage – creation of the Global Atmospheric Research Program and of SCOPE are two memorable ones. Your part in establishing the NAS Research Grants Program is another. But your foresighted action several years ago in turning the Academy’s attention to the problem of avoiding a nuclear holocaust may in the long run be the achievement you find most satisfying. … all American scientists owe you a debt of gratitude, above all for showing them how science and technology can work for the welfare of the world’s human beings.”
(Remarks by ROGER REVELLE, preeminent spokesman for the scientific community and past President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, upon Dr. Malone’s retirement as Foreign Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences in 1982)
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1. PREVENTING GLOBAL NUCLEAR WAR
During the perilous final decade of the Cold War, Dr. Malone was a chief organizer of a series of joint U.S.-Soviet conferences of leading scientists investigating the phenomenon of nuclear winter, the scientific keystone for the nuclear nonproliferation movement that diplomatically unlocked the Cold War’s nuclear deadlock. This peaceful collaboration across the Iron Curtain helped persuade the desperate Soviet leadership that nuclear warfare was unwinnable and scientific reasoning mandated disarmament. In contrast to the military buildup of the Reagan Administration, Dr. Malone helped launched this peace initiative that facilitated the establishment of the U.S.-U.S.S.R. nuclear arms reduction treaties and the “cold” conclusion to the Cold War. Dr. Malone’s significant contributions to one of the pivotal global policy decisions of the 1980s, coupled with his inspirational influence on the nuclear nonproliferation movement since the Cold War, helped shepherd humanity through “the valley of the shadow of death” that is the nuclear age.
A pioneering effort at world peace in an age of unprecedented peril, formal scientific authentication of nuclear winter theory emerged from official international summits and joint-research projects by the American and Soviet Academies of Sciences. Dr. Malone founded and directed some of the most influential of these endeavors:
· In 1980 as Foreign Secretary of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
“As Foreign Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences from 1978—1982, I (Dr. Malone) became convinced that a scientific dialogue on nuclear weapons between members of our Academy and members of the Soviet Academy would complement official channels of communication between the superpowers. I had a comfortable relationship with academician George Skryabin, Chief Scientific Secretary of the USSR Academy of Sciences, as we were both members of the Executive Board of the ICSU (International Council of Scientific Unions). On February 12, 1980, National Academy President Phil Handler and I, in my role as Foreign Secretary, convened a meeting of colleagues that led to the creation of the Academy’s Committee on International Security and Arms Control. Meanwhile, the USSR Academy had established a Scientific Council for Problems of Peace and Disarmament.”
· In 1984 through the “Scientific Committee on the Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), a prolific research group created by Dr. Malone in 1970 within the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU)
Upon completion of four years as the Academy’s Foreign Secretary, Dr. Malone accepted the chairmanship of the International Committee of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research [Honor] Society. He continued his advocacy for the voice of science in issues of nuclear warfare. At this time, Dr. Malone persuaded ICSU to establish a Steering Committee within SCOPE to organize an international study on “the Environmental Consequences of Nuclear War”. He enlisted UK’s Sir Frederick Warner to chair the Committee and George Skryabin, Scientific Secretary of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, to participate in its deliberations.
“SCOPE’s two-volume report made a powerful case that the global climatic impact of a large-scale nuclear war would be catastrophic. Apart from the immediate devastation of an atomic bomb, food production would be grievously impaired in noncombatant countries. Civilization would be in serious jeopardy. These predictions were supported by a subsequent UN study (the 1989 Study on the Climatic and Other Global Effects of Nuclear War by the Department of Disarmament Affairs in the United Nations) in which I (Dr. Malone) participated. I would like to believe these assessments contributed to the reluctance of the superpowers to start a nuclear war.”
· In 1985, the International Conference on Nuclear War in Bellagio
Convening “scientific and religious leaders to make common cause against the nuclear threat to humanity”, this summit included: astronomer Carl Sagan, Nobel Laureates Charles Townes and Paul Crutzen, Soviet Academician George Skryabin, Director of the Soviet Space Agency Raold Sagdeev, Sir FrederickWamer from UK, Archbishop Kirill from Leningrad, Bishop (and now Cardinal) Roger Mahoney from California, and Muslim, Protestant, and Jewish religious leaders as well as scientists from around the world.
2. SPREADING GLOBAL WARMING AWARENESS
Human activities are the predominant cause of the modern global warming phenomenon that threatens worldwide climatic cataclysms. According to a 2004 Pentagon Review and the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Award, this disruption to the Earth's environment also significantly increases the risk of a nuclear war based on "resource conflicts". Today, despite a powerful disinformation campaign waged by the wealthiest industry in human history, the largest scientific investigation ever has convinced the majority of the world's scientists to concur with this damning assessment of fossil fuel usage. Most notably, this theory of man-made global warming is accepted by the world's foremost scientific and governmental institutions, including the United Nations, NASA, the American Medical Association and the National Academy of Sciences of thirty-two nations, including the United States. However, when this theory first emerged in international discussions during the 1960s, the entire movement to remedy man-made global warming rested entirely on the shoulders of a few brave scientists and statesman who were willing to question the fundamental rationale for our fossil-fuel based civilization. Dr. Malone was one of these pioneering scientist-statesmen.
Most notably, Dr. Malone helped lead the three-decade movement to establish the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the organization that received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for fostering global warming awareness. Dr. Malone’s diverse efforts to advance global warming research and to facilitate international networking among the world’s leading scientific organizations served to generate the scientific knowledge and global collaboration on which the IPCC is based. Dr. Malone’s service in the pioneering effort that led to the creation of the IPCC included multiple roles, particularly as:
· A science adviser to 11 U.S. presidents (1942-2000), including a prominent role in crafting the first U.N. resolutions (#1721 and #1802) on climate change that were proposed by President Kennedy
· A leading contributor to the world summits on the environment that created the IPCC, such as the 1972 U.N. Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, the 1979 “First World Climate Conference” in Geneva, and the 1985 “International Conference on Global Warming” in Villach
In the 1970 keynote address of CalTech’s preparatory conference for Stockholm, 28 years before the founding of IPCC, Dr. Malone observed, “Continued burning of fossil fuels will cause the earth’s temperature to rise and create grave climate changes.” His address called for “intensive study” of this man-made “greenhouse effect”.
· A leading representative of the National Academy of Sciences
In congressional testimony on the NAS report “Changing Climate” that advocated the creation of the IPCC, Dr. Malone observed, “The issue, and research directed at its illumination, will be with us for a long time... A successful response to widespread environmental change will be facilitated by the existence of an international network of scientists conversant with the issues and of a broad international consensus on facts and their reliability.” The NAS report was brought to public attention by David Hartman’s interview of Dr. Malone on ABC’s Good Morning America.
· A director of leading research on climate change performed by the National Academy of Sciences and the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment
· One of the founders of the IPCC’s forerunners, including the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the Global Atmospheric Research Program, the United Nations Environment Program, the World Climate Research Program, and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program.
3. ALLEVIATING POVERTY
Dr. Malone helped to charter the ongoing global initiative to eliminate poverty as one of the founding fathers of the world summits on sustainable economic development, such as the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit. This milestone event in world affairs was based in part on previous international conferences convened by Dr. Malone and his direction of pioneering research which investigated the concept of environmental and economic sustainability. Dr. Malone engaged in these activities largely through his many offices in the National Academy of Sciences, the International Council of Scientific Unions, and the United Nations.
· 1966: “Application of science and technology to economic development is the most urgent problem of mankind today and for the foreseeable future, Dr. Thomas F. Malone, Travelers Insurance Cos. director of research told a congressional committee Wednesday.” (The Hartford Courant, Jan 27, 1966, by ROBERT D BYRNES)
· 1972: The U.N. Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972 that Dr. Malone helped convene put the environment issue on the global agenda and affirmed its inextricable link with development, focusing particularly on the poverty and development needs of developing countries.
· 1974: “Interest has been growing in the interaction between environmental quality and economic development, particularly for nations in the early stages of economic development. In 1974, SCOPE President Victor Kovda (USSR), Mohammed Kassas (Egypt), and I convened a scientific conference on the intertwined issues of environment and development in Nairobi, Kenya. A decade later the World Commission on Environment and Development released its landmark report, Our Common Future, which powerfully described the inextricable link between environmental quality and economic development. This document led to the June, 1992, UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. More than 100 heads of state gathered at what came to be called the Earth Summit. I attended as a special guest of the Summit’s Secretary General, Maurice Strong.”
· 1978-1982: “Malone’s global activities led to his election as Foreign Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences in 1978. There his interests broadened to embrace issues such as nuclear warfare and the role of science and technology in alleviating poverty and distress in under-developed countries. Malone was instrumental in the initiation of a grants program in the NAS’s Board on Science and Technology in Development.”
· 1979: The United Nations Conference on the Application of Science and Technology to Development in Vienna advanced the international effort to elevate the standard of living in impoverished countries. Dr. Malone participated in this conference as a leading contributor.
4. FACILITATING INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
Through his leadership of international scientific collaborations to address the world’s foremost man-made threats, such as nuclear war, climate change and poverty, Dr. Malone helped foster cooperation among nations. Dialogue among the world’s scientists has proven to be a key resource in both developing scientific research and facilitating world peace. Perhaps most importantly, this development created a resonating, ethical, science-based voice in global politics.
· As chairman of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, Dr. Malone testified on February 28, 1984 before the U.S. House of Representatives on the NAS report Changing Climate and called for “the existence of an international network of scientists conversant with the issues and of broad international consensus on the facts and their reliability.” He maintained, “climate change could well be a divisive rather than a unifying actor in world affairs.” The U.N. International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created four years later to establish this consensus. By 2006, the Bush Administration’s rejection of the IPCC’s recommendations for mitigating global warming prompted validation of Dr. Malone’s forecast, as polls showed that the climate issue aroused world-wide hostility against the United States.
· “Malone, who traveled to China four times since 1979, went again last September, just three months after the bloody student massacre in Beijing. He said scientists there were devastated about the crackdown, but it did not stop him from going. That is because Malone believes ‘scientific enterprise is one of few universal activities and scientists should nurture that universality no matter what the politics of individual countries are.’” (Hartford Courant, “Meteorologist leaves today for forum in Moscow”, by Linda Hirsh, 1990)
5. OFFERING A VISION FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
As “one of the outstanding scientists of the twentieth century” (see The American Catholic article posted here), Dr. Malone has used his prominent position on the global stage to propose the vision for a sustainable global society detailed in this blog and championed by the Earth Charter organization (www.earthcharter.org).
· “Thomas F. Malone has traveled to Moscow over many political seasons, from Cold War to the thaw of glasnost. The meteorologist has brought his predictions on global ecology to scientific circles there more than a dozen times in the past 25 years . . . This time he will join Carl Sagan as well as political and religious leaders at the Global Forum on the Environment and Development for Survival. The 200 invited to the four day international conference will hammer out the twin concerns of increasing population and the effect of development on the environment. The issues ‘are emerging to the top of the world agenda,’ said Malone, the only Connecticut participant. ‘Scientists develop knowledge. Parliamentarians make policies and religious leaders deal with the ethics.’ . . . What is drawing Malone to Moscow is a set of facts. It took a little over 100,000 years to put 5 billion people on earth, but it will take less than 50 years to add another 5 billion at the current rate. And 90 percent of the new faces in the world are found in countries lagging in socio-economic development. ‘It is not a matter of population control,’ Malone said. ‘It is meeting human needs that we have to face up to. That’s the meaning of global change. Turning to nature to get answers that everyone can follow.’” (Hartford Courant, “Meteorologist leaves today for forum in Moscow”, by Linda Hirsh, 1990)
· Dr. Malone’s proposal was then repeated in an invited address at the 20th Anniversary Symposium of the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation in Seoul in June 1997. On that occasion, Dr. Malone set before the world a vision of a world in which all of the basic human needs and an equitable share of life’s amenities and human “wants” can be met by every individual in present and succeeding generations while maintaining a healthy, physically attractive, and biologically productive environment. In 2002 and 2003, Dr. Malone convened Earth Charter Cities symposia at Saint Joseph College in West Hartford to discuss the implications of the Charter for the pursuit of this new vision for society -- now within reach. In the autumn years of his professional career, Malone is revisiting a finding from the Wesleyan University symposium he convened in 2004: the fundamental importance to the human future of fostering human values, attitudes, and behavior among individuals in local communities.
6. ADVOCATING DEVELOPMENT OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
Dr. Malone helped lead the effort to develop renewable sources of energy alternatives to fossil fuels. This crucial contribution addressed the global warming crisis, as well as related environmental and public health issues. Additionally, this policy-reform movement served to highlight the broader detrimental effects of Western fossil fuel addiction on economic equity as well as geopolitical stability. Dr. Malone’s service as one of the founding fathers of the alternative energy revolution included:
· Helping to convene the first Earth Summits on climate change and the transition from fossil fuels
· Advising 9 U.S. presidents (1952-2000) on the environmental dangers posed by fossil fuels
· Directing leading scientific research into these dangers
In the 1977 National Academy of Sciences report “Energy and Climate” by the Geophysics Research Board that Dr. Malone chaired, the NAS warned that: “Worldwide industrial civilization may face a major decision over the next few decades—whether to continue reliance on fossil fuels as principal sources of energy or to invest the research and engineering effort, and the capital, that will make it possible to substitute other energy sources for fossil fuels within the next 50 years.” A New York Times editorial on July 28, 1977 commented on this report, “If the industrialized nations continue to burn significant amounts of any fossil fuel for the next 200 years, the consequences could be catastrophic.” The editorial also cited “the lively sense of urgency” with which Dr. Malone had summarized the sense of the report in an interview with David Hartman of ABC’s Good Morning America national television program on July 25th.
7. SAFEGUARDING THE ENVIRONMENT
Dr. Malone helped to safeguard the world environment as a leader in convening international summits, directing research, changing public policy and spreading awareness of the importance of ecological integrity. Dr. Malone’s significant role in preventing global nuclear war, mitigating man-made global warming and promoting sustainable economic development figured prominently in this endeavor, particularly his leadership in helping to found the United Nations Environmental Program and the Scientific Committee on the Problems of the Environmental (within the International Council of Scientific Unions).
· “Dr. Thomas F. Malone, director of research for the Travelers Insurance Companies, warned a Senate panel Wednesday that man's conduct over the nest 50 years will determine the survival of the human race.” (The Hartford Courant, Mar 6, 1969, by ROBERT WATERS)
8. DEVELOPING HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
Both through wide-ranging research and the “building of bridges” among the world's scientific organizations, Dr. Malone helped create the foundation for the modern advancement of scientific knowledge.
9. SERVING IN WORLD WAR II
As a rising star among the nation’s top weathermen at the premier U.S. technical university, Dr. Malone trained hundreds of the weathermen who provided invaluable meteorological intelligence for the D-Day operation, along with numerous other Allied operations in both theatres of WWII. Dr. Malone’s educational contribution to the Allied campaign at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and in the European theatre served as an important basis for the vital intelligence used to win the closely contested war against Hitler. Dr. Malone’s significant role in helping to fulfill the goal of the Greatest Generation earned him a special award in “appreciation for patriotic service in a position of trust and responsibility” from the U.S. Department of Defense.
· In addition to training some of the nation’s leading meteorology students at America’s top technical university, Dr. Malone was engaged in a special program at MIT to train Naval and Air Force officers to provide weather forecasts for military operations in WWII.
· From June 1945 to October 1945, Dr. Malone served as a consultant (simulated rank of major) to the Air Force’s Air Weather Service, assigned to the 19th Weather Squadron in Cairo, Egypt, and charged with establishing an upper-air forecasting center at Payne Field to support the Red Ball Express as an alternative supply route to the Pacific Theater.
10. COMPILING THE POST-WWII "BIBLE" ON ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES
Dr. Malone contributed to the scientific understanding of meteorology by serving as the chief editor of the seminal 1300-page Compendium on Meteorology (1951), the authoritative foundation for future research and U.S. national policy concerning the atmospheric sciences.
11. FOSTERING WORLD PEACE
In summary, Dr. Malone advanced the cause of world peace and prosperity on multiple fronts by initiating and directing scientific endeavors to address the leading man-made global threats. These initiatives included:
· The WWII meteorological instruction he provided that served a significant role in the internationalist effort to defeat the Nazis.
· The international research projects he marshaled involving the world's foremost scholars, such as the studies on nuclear winter, weather forecasting and climate change from fossil fuel pollution
· The world peace summits he helped convene to address global threats arising from widespread policies that are environmentally unsustainable, economically inequitable and socially unstable
· The broad establishment of international cooperation in the goal of world peace among governments, nongovernmental organizations and universities. In particular, Dr. Malone advanced this international movement by helping to unify the world's leading national academies of science into a resonating, ethical voice in global politics.
Dr. Malone's instrumental role in these diverse initiatives, including defeating Hitler, the prevention of nuclear war, and the mitigation of man-made climate change and cataclysmic world poverty, provided invaluable assistance to saving the world from the perils posed by unsustainable human development.
In a 2004 Pentagon review of climate change and the broader threat of unsustainable development, the analysis concluded that although climate change or cataclysmic poverty would not directly threaten to destroy all life on the planet in the short term, the social instability caused by these catastrophes would pose a serious threat of sparking a global nuclear war between battered or otherwise frightened nations competing for a rapidly dwindling supply of resources. In retrospect, we can understand that Dr. Malone not only helped save us from one nuclear war during the collapse of the Soviet Union, he helped save us from multiple nuclear wars. Humanity can be grateful to men like Dr. Malone who have helped to protect Earth’s inhabitants from the follies of a species that created and still possesses an unsecured arsenal of weapons capable of destroying all life many times over.
PUBLIC RECOGNITION
(Remarks by Maurice Strong, convener of the 1992 Earth Summit, while he received the Public Welfare Medal from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2004)
“We must look to science to illuminate major risks, vulnerabilities and opportunities, and to provide the ingredients for the technologies and processes through which we manage them. The National Academy of Sciences has done an extraordinary job in performing these functions for the United States and establishing cooperative relationships with its counterparts throughout the world. Indeed, its leadership and support for the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) and the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) was a major factor in enabling us to obtain the guidance of the international scientific community for both the Stockholm Conference and the Earth Summit. I want to recognize with immense gratitude the initiative, vision and relentless drive of Dr. Tom Dr. Malone in making this happen.”
(Remarks by Professor Gary Yohe, member of the Noble-Laureate IPCC 2007 team, upon Dr. Malone’s 2007 award of an honorary doctorate of science from Wesleyan University)
“Your tireless efforts as a steward of Mother Earth are manifestations of your personal commitment, as a man of science and as a man of deep faith, to making life on the planet sustainable for all people and for all time. As an initiator of international and interdisciplinary research programs, you have been recognized as a world leader in building the human capacity to endow future generations with a better world – and a better place to live. Multiple commendations for “scientific eminence and leadership” on the global scale understate the magnitude of your contributions to science and to humanity. You have been a paragon of unbounded energy even to the most productive among us. We are honored to recognize you as a true friend of Wesleyan and one of the best friends the planet has ever had.”
TOP AWARDS
A sampling of the dozens of merit prizes awarded Dr. Malone:
· The International Saint Francis Prize for Environment “for his role as initiator of major international and interdisciplinary environmental research programs in the framework of both the United Nations and the International Council of Scientific Unions,” selected by a jury of twelve scientists from eight countries
· The International Prize “for contributions to international research programs,” from the American Association for the Advancement of Science
· The Lifetime Distinguished Service Award for Leadership, Service, and Dedication from the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering
· The Charles Franklin Brooks Award “for playing an important part in framing the society’s response to the technological, social, and scientific changes of our times” from the American Meteorological Society
· The International Meteorological Organization Prize “for scientific eminence and a record of work done in the field of international meteorological organizations,” from the World Meteorological Organization
· The Living Legend Award from St. Joseph’s College (West Hartford)
· The Living Spirit Award presented by the Spiritual Life Center in Connecticut “to persons and/or organizations who have, over the course of their lives and ministries, facilitated the integration of spirituality and life.”
· Scholarly Degrees: MIT Sc.D., St. Joseph’s College (West Hartford, CT) L.H.D., Bates College Sc.D. (hon), Wesleyan University Sc.D. (hon)
· Who’s Who Citation: "Acknowledged as one of the outstanding scientists of the twentieth century, Dr. Malone's honors and achievements as scientist, teacher, editor, administrator and initiator of major international and interdisciplinary environmental research programs occupy a foot and a half of fine print in "Who's Who" (The American Catholic, see posted article in "Summary in Photos")
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RETROSPECTIVE
Abridged
Unabridged:
See the posting here titled “Reflections on the Human Prospect” by Dr. Malone
