President Jimmy Carter with Dr. Malone, as Foreign Secretary of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1978-1982).
NAS is the official science advisory body to the U.S. government, composed of approximately 2,000 scientists covering all areas of science.
Jimmy Carter is one of 11 presidents Dr. Malone served under as a leading scientist-statesman of the twentieth century.
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Dr. Malone at the U.S.-Soviet scientific conference on nuclear war that he hosted through the National Academy of Sciences.
According to many observers, including future Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, this international scientific conference helped prevent a global nuclear war during the desperate final years of the Soviet Union. Jointly and publicly, the leading scientific bodies charged with advising the American and Soviet governments formally acknowledged that a nuclear war between nation-states cannot be won because of the phenomenon of nuclear winter. The knowledge that a nuclear war would necessarily destroy both the superpowers prevented military hawks in the Soviet government from gambling with the nuclear option during the last throes of the Soviet empire. Dr. Malone's collaborative investigation into the environmental impact of nuclear war so convinced the governments of the United States and the U.S.S.R. about the rationale for nuclear disarmament that they both ordered an immediate and drastic reversal in Cold War policy, from continuous nuclear proliferation to historic reductions in the stockpile of apocalyptic weapons.
Summary of Dr. Malone's relevant activities:
- He initiated the Academy’s Committee on International Security and Arms Control,
- He arranged for collaboration with a high-level counterpart committee in the USSR Academy of Sciences, and then
- He secured funding for a major two-volume report by the International Council of Scientific Unions on the environmental consequences of a nuclear war.
- Finally, he served on the United Nations Group of Consultants on Climatic and Other Global Consequences of Nuclear War (1987-1989). This U.N. committee summarized previous studies on this subject, concluding that “such a conflict would produce climatic and severe long-term socio-economic consequences that are unprecedented, even when compared with the most tragic natural disasters and conflicts in history.”
Roger Revelle, one of the leading spokesman for the scientific community during the Cold War, observes the importance of Dr. Malone's nuclear winter initiative:
"You have done many things on the world scientific stage – creation of the Global Atmospheric Research Program and of SCOPE (the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment) 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.”
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Addendum to previous photo: Dr. Malone's note to his counterpart in the Soviet Science Academy commemorating the nuclear conference.
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Dr. Malone as the Special Honorary Guest at the first Earth Summit (1992), the opening conference for the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This organization that Dr. Malone helped to create received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for its work in spreading awareness of the multifaceted threat posed by man-made global warming.
Dr. Malone’s leadership as a scientist-statesman was instrumental in propelling the three-decade movement to establish the IPCC. In particular, Dr. Malone’s diverse efforts to advance global warming research and help establish 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 as one of the founding fathers of the IPCC involved numerous contributions, including his offices 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 U.S. National Academy of Sciences
- - In congressional testimony on the 1984 NAS report “Changing Climate” that advocated the creation of the IPCC four years before its founding, 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.
- A leading diplomat in forging international scientific collaborations to address the world’s foremost man-made threats, such as nuclear war, climate change and poverty. Helping to foster cooperation among nations, this 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.
Dr. Malone’s offices in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the International Council of Scientific Unions proved instrumental in facilitating his efforts to create the IPCC. Some of these posts included:
- In NAS (the official scientific advisory body for the U.S. government, currently consisting of about two thousand members):
Foreign Secretary (1978 -1982), Deputy Foreign Secretary (1969-1973), Chaired the Academy's Geophysics Research Board (1969-1976), Chaired the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (1982-1984), Chaired the Committee on International Organizations and Programs (1969-1976), Chaired the Bicentennial Symposium Steering Committee (1975-1976), Chaired the Committee on Atmospheric Sciences (1962-1968), Member of the Committee on Meteorology (1957-61), Member of the Environmental Studies Board (1969-74), Member of the Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Natural Resources (1984-86),
- In ICSU (the leading organization representing the global scientific community):
President of the American Geophysical Union, Secretary for International Participation (1964-72), Vice President and Treasurer of ICSU (1978-1982), Secretary General of the Committee on Atmospheric Sciences (1964-1968), Liaison to the World Meteorological Organization for the Global Atmospheric Research Program and the World Climate Research Program (1968-1984), First Secretary General of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (1970-1976), Representative on the Panel of Experts on Climate Change for the World Meteorological Organization (1964-1978).
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Dr. Malone on the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology and Government.
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A 1970 LA Herald announcing Dr. Malone's warning of man-made global warming
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A 1990 Hartford Courant article on Dr. Malone's participation in a Moscow conference that helped prepare for the first Earth Summit in Rio. "The Global Forum on the Environment and Development for Survival" in Moscow is described as a conference of 200 world leaders in science, politics and religion.
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A biographical article on Dr. Malone in Triangle Review, a newspaper for his fraternity at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
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A 1998 American Catholic article on Dr. Malone and his wife Rosalie.
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The St. Joseph's College Living Legend Awards for Dr. Malone and his wife Rosalie
