‘Nuclear Winter’ Scientist to Share 1989 Tyler Prize
A scientist who helped develop the theory that nuclear war could plunge Earth into a “nuclear winter” will share the 1989 Tyler Prize with a chemist who pioneered studies of ocean pollutants.
The prize for environmental achievement, administered by USC, will be awarded tonight to Paul Crutzen, director of atmospheric chemistry at West Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, and Edward Goldberg, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla.
They will split the $150,000 prize money and receive gold medallions, according to the prize committee.
Ozone Discoveries
The group credited Crutzen with important discoveries about the depletion of Earth’s protective high-altitude ozone layer, the formation of ozone as a pollutant at lower altitudes, the “nuclear winter” theory and “humanity’s capacity to upset the global atmosphere.”
Crutzen’s research indicating that the ozone layer could be harmed by nitrogen oxide pollutants played a role in the debate over supersonic transport aircraft in the 1970s. It also helped lead to later discoveries that refrigerant gases called chlorofluorocarbons were damaging Earth’s ozone shield, the prize committee said.
In 1982, Crutzen and scientist John Birks published a paper titled “The Atmosphere After a Nuclear War: Twilight at Noon.” They hypothesized that fires from nuclear warfare would blanket Earth with smoke, blocking enough sunlight to damage food crops.
The prize committee said it was the fundamental paper that led another group of scientists to coin the term “nuclear winter” and demonstrate that nuclear war could temporarily plunge the planet into freezing temperatures and cause mass starvation of war survivors.
Goldberg, a chemistry professor at Scripps, dedicated much of his career to monitoring and finding solutions to ocean pollution, the Tyler committee said.
Started ‘Mussel Watch’
He helped get toxic tributyl tin boat paints banned in California, started the “Mussel Watch” program to monitor ocean pollutant levels by measuring toxic contaminants in oysters and mussels, and pioneered ocean pollution research on DDT, radioactive substances, heavy metals and hydrocarbons.
The committee also said Goldberg has pushed for using the oceans as safe dumping grounds for non-toxic waste to reduce air and ground-water pollution due to waste burning and landfill disposal.
The Tyler Prize was established in 1973 by Alice C. Tyler and her husband, the late John C. Tyler, founder of Farmers Insurance Group.
