Mojib Latif

Mojib Latif ( born September 29, 1954 in Hamburg ) is a German meteorologist, climatologist and professor.

Scientific career

From 1961 to 1974 his education took place, from which he graduated at the High School Kaiser- Friedrich -Ufer with the Abitur. Latif studied from 1974 to 1976 Business Administration at the University of Hamburg. In 1976 he began his studies in meteorology and graduated from there in 1983 with a diploma. After several stays at institutions abroad also took place in Hamburg in 1987, the PhD in oceanography, inter alia, about the weather phenomenon El Niño with the dissertation model Theoretical study of the low-frequency variability of the equatorial Pacific Ocean Circulation and 1989, the Habilitation in oceanography. Between 1983 and 2002 he was first employed as a researcher and then as a lecturer at the Hamburg Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. Since 2003 he is professor at the former Institute of Oceanography and today Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Christian- Albrechts- University (CAU ) in Kiel. Since 2007 he is also a member of the Cluster of Excellence Future Ocean University of Kiel. He is also a board member of the German Climate Consortium eV (DKK ) (September 2012).

His research interests are seasonal and interannual climate variability, decadal and century - variability, anthropogenic influences on the climate and the development of models, including the analysis and the comparison with observations.

In various German television and radio stations Mojib Latif is a frequent studio guest as an expert on the subject of Global Warming ( "Climate Change ").

Positions and controversies

In May 2008, a team of climate scientists led by Noel S. Keenlyside, which also belonged Latif, in the journal Nature a study in which the potential temperature development was studied until 2025. According to this study, the average temperature of the years 2005 to 2015 could remain roughly constant or only slightly warmer than the decade 2000-2010, which is so far the warmest decade since temperature records in the 19th century. In the period from 2010 to 2020, there could then come back to an accelerated warming. That is, until around 2015, new heat records were to be expected, even if for an earlier date is not excluded. Cause of several years may be stable temperatures were short-term natural climate fluctuations that overlay long term anthropogenic warming trend. As a concrete cause a change in the meridional overturning circulation is accepted.

In some media such as the New Scientist this has been rendered as an upcoming announcement in the coming decades, global cooling. Latif himself contradicted this view, among other things, in an interview with Spectrum Direct. The break in the warming trend provide only " a breathing space " that global warming is by no means off the table. Already earlier, Latif had expressly distanced itself from the climate skeptics who " know nothing about the physics of the climate". He had been expected that his statements about the climate change " certain pages are deliberately misunderstood ."

The treated in the study so-called decadal climate variability, ie the evolution of the climate over one to two decades, is a controversial field of research. Another study comes to the conclusion that could be expected between 2009 and 2014, due to increasing greenhouse gases and again rising solar activity, a warming of 0.15 ° C, whereas by 2019 then entering a relative standstill.

In light of the flood disaster in Pakistan and wildfires in Russia 2010 Latif warned that this was a " blueprint for what we have to befriend us in the future." Climate change will lead to an accumulation of weather extremes with more drought on the one hand and extreme precipitation on the other.

Personal

Mojib Latif was born in Hamburg and there - spent his childhood - along with two brothers and a sister. His father was a Pakistani imam of the 1957 built Fazle - Omar Mosque. Latif is married to the Norwegian Elisabeth Latif; he has no children. Mojib Latif is an honorary ambassador of Climate Forest Foundation.

Honors and Awards

• 2000: Max Planck Prize for public science
• 2000: Sverdrup Gold Medal of the AMS (American Meteorological Society )
• 2002: Honorary Member of the American Meteorological Society
• 2004: DUH Environmental Media Award, category " life's work " ( the German Environmental Aid )
• 2006: Norbert Gerbier - MUMM International Award ( WMO )
• 2007: Full Member of the Academy of Sciences in Hamburg
• 2009: German Bank - IFM- GEOMAR Marine Research Award

Publication activity

• Human activity is changing the climate? City of Friedrichshafen, 1992, ISBN 3-926162-32-5
• Heat records and flood of the century. Challenge of climate change. What we must do now. Heyne, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-453-87832-9; updated paperback edition: Challenge of Climate Change. What we must do now. ibid 2007, ISBN 978-3-453-61503-8
• Climate. Fischer -Taschenbuch -Verlag, Frankfurt 2004, ISBN 3-596-16125-8
• Let's get the air out of the clock? Backgrounds and forecasts. Fischer -Taschenbuch -Verlag, Frankfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-17276-4
• Climate change and climate dynamics. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-8252-3178-1
• Why is the polar bear a refrigerator needs: ... and other secrets of the climate and weather research. Herder Verlag 2010, 176 pp. ISBN 978-3-451-30163-6.

Editors of scientific journals

Audio CDs

• I'm the weather man. The job of a climate researcher. In: SWR2: Did you know? Scientists explain the world children. Episode 5 Terzio, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-89835-539-1
• Earth system management. Climate change as a global challenge. Conception, directed and produced by Klaus Sander. Supposé, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-932513-82-4