|
Professor Hans Oeschger was the founder of the Division of Climate and Environmental Physics at the Physics Institute of the University of Bern in 1963 and director until his retirement in 1992.
Oeschger was the first to date the "age" of Pacific deep water. The Oeschger counter was the leading instrument for many years which enabled the Oeschger's team to measure the activity of naturally occurring radioisotopes.
Oeschger was a pioneer and leader in ice core research. In collaboration with his colleagues he was the first to measure the glacial-interglacial change of atmospheric CO2. They showed in 1979 that the atmospheric concentration of CO2 during the glacial was almost 50% lower than today.
Together with his colleagues Chester C. Langway and Willi Dansgaard, he documented a series of abrupt climate changes in the Greenland ice cores now known as Dansgaard-Oeschger events.
Hans Oeschger was deeply troubled by the potential of an increased greenhouse effect caused by the steady increase of atmospheric CO2. He said: “The worst for me would be, if there were serious changes in the next 5 to 10 years and we scientists are helpless and did not have the courage to point at these dangerous developments early.â€
|
