In the Eye of the Storm

Overview

For John Houghton, the Chief Executive of the Met Office at the time of the Great Storm in 1987, and founding member of the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), childhood curiosity about the natural world led to a quest for answers through science. Inspired by new, exciting developments in space and computing technologies he pushed to use both to expand the horizons of meteorology and climate science. Through the IPCC he worked with scientists across the globe to develop our understanding of changing patterns of weather and climate, and to show that the impact of this change on human communities and natural ecosystems is real and menacing. Sir John's autobiography tells the story of a man who inspired a generation of scientists through his leadership, but also of the conflict this has brought him into with those who shared his Christian faith as well as with climate change deniers, in both America and Europe.

Reviews

"...illuminating."  –Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Author Biography

Sir John Theodore Houghton FRS was professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Oxford, before becoming Chief Executive at the Met Office. Founder of the Hadley Centre and President of the John Ray Initiative, he chaired or co-chaired the Science Working Group for the IPCC from 1988 to 2002.