PE OPL E
Atmospheric Oracle Climate influencer David Reidmiller is here to rescue Earth’s bubble.
DIANE HUDSON
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s the inaugural Climate Center Director at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI), Dr. Dave Reidmiller, 41, helps people, communities, and businesses understand and anticipate how climate change affects them. An atmospheric chemist by training, his dissertation research at the University of Washington involved taking precise measurements of pollutants from the summit of Mt. Bachelor, a 9000-foot ski mountain just outside Bend, Oregon, to study how pollution from Asia affects air quality in the western U. S. “While the work was exciting,” Reidmiller says, “the societal implications drew me to the realm of science policy” and a position in the U. S. Senate working with Mark Udall (D-Colorado) on energy issues. “This was the time of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. There was no lack of pressing policy issues demanding technical understanding. But it was also just after the landmark Waxman-Markey climate legislation failed in Congress.” After working on domestic energy and climate issues 2010-2011, Reidmiller joined the State Department to focus on the international climate landscape. “I spent the next five years ascending to the position of Chief Climate Scientist. In that capacity, I led U. S. engagement in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and served as the lead science and technology negotiator for the U. S. to the Paris Agreement of 2015.” In September 2016, Reidmiller was recruited into the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to lead a team of more than 300 volunteer experts from across the country in producing the Fourth National Climate Assessment
B Y DIAN E HUDSON
This was the time of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.” (NCA), a 1500-page, thirty-chapter report on how climate change is affecting the lives of everyday Americans and what we can do about it: nca2018.globalchange.gov. “In the wake of the 2016 election, there was a sea change in terms of how climate change was viewed within the White House. Still, because the NCA is mandated by law, the work persisted and culmi-
nated in the Black Friday release of a report that upheld the highest standards of scientific integrity, having navigated the clearance process of an Administration that at times took an overtly hostile approach to climate science. That multi-year process deepened my experience working with folks who hold different perspectives and values to identify compromise and forge consensus—something that started during my tenure working with a ‘purple state’ Senator and continued through my years working on environmental matters in a variety of U.N. forums.” How did all of these roads lead to Maine? “It was in that capacity of the NCA that I met Andy Pershing and Kathy Mills, two scientists here at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. I had half-jokingly said to them back in 2018 that if anything ever opens up at GMRI, they better let NOVEMBER 2021 43
