Michael James [‘Jim’] Salinger MCH (Making Climate History) Oral History Interview

Abstract

Oral history interview with Michael James [‘Jim’] Salinger conducted by Sarah Dry on 18 July, 2023 as part of the Making Climate History project. [Track 1] Birth in Dunedin, 1947, and about his parents and their families [I: 01:06] Growing up in Dunedin, school, hobbies—including an early interest in making weather recordings [I: 07:17] Going to university in Otago [I: 13:57], Jewish upbring, identity [I: 16:41], and deliberations and decisions about what to study at university [I: 20:00] A breakdown, a year out of study and then a switch from geography to medicine, including a year of research at the Salk Institute in San Diego [I: 23:52] Switching back from medicine to climate, setting up a climate network, the influence of Reid Bryson’s work on his 1975 paper in Nature [I: 29:08] The data ana data analysis behind the 1975 paper, the length and homogeneity of NZ temperature records [I: 32:26] Follow-on 1976 paper in Nature on the relationship between temperature and glacier movements in NZ [I: 44:09] [Track 2] Work as a junior lecturer in geography at Victoria University Wellington, including the teaching of climate and statistics courses to undergraduates [II: 02:30] Choice of PhD topic at Wellington and the work that entailed regarding data acquisition, homogenising and aggregation [II: 08:55] Awareness of international work going on, involvement with Paul Ehrlich and Steve Schneider [II: 14:41] Connections to activism and the Otago Ecology action group [II: 18:55] Attending the University of East Anglia (UEA) ‘Climate and History Conference’ in 1979 and then joining the Climatic Research Unit [CRU] in 1980; the nature of the work at CRU in 1980 and 1981 [II: 19:31] The significance of Southern Hemisphere perspective for the work in CRU about worldwide temperature data and trends [II: 25:32] Reflections on Jim Hansen’s work and UK Met Office collaboration, especially with Chris Folland with respect to marine temperature data [II: 31:18] Attending a US Department of Energy conference around 1980 in the United States [II: 35:35] Understanding of the work of climate modellers around 1980 and the relationship between climate modelling and climate observations [II: 37:57] [Track 3] Personal life: mother’s depression, meeting first wife, divorce and then subsequent relationships [III: 00:18] Involvement in the Otago Ecology Action Group in the 1970s [III: 05:01] and thoughts about the relationship between science and activism, and more recent activist involvements and influences [III: 08:21] Reflecting on his two years at CRU, the value of Southern Hemisphere perspective, the ex-CRU colleagues who are now in Australia and NZ [III: 12:32] Returning to NZ in 1982 and getting his job with the NZ Met Service [III: 14:45] Work on forecasting El Niños, especially the 1982/83 El Niño, using analogue methods [III: 17:45] What a NZ/Pacific Ocean perspective brings to seasonal climate forecasts; seasonal forecasts as bridging between weather and climate time-scales [III: 28:53] Working for the WMO Commission on Agricultural Climatology [III: 33:45] and efforts to gather archival and paleoclimate data [III: 36:35] Ongoing collaborations with CRU and with the UK Met Office, especially Chris Folland, and with the French meteorologists re. Pacific climate data [III: 40:00] Annual updates of the global temperature record, media interest in this, and involvement with early studies of climate change impacts in NZ [III 50:18] Writing his retrospective 2010 essay for Steve Schneider’s journal Climatic Change, generally about choices of where to publish, joining the Editorial Board of Climatic Change [III: 59:03] Creation of the Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in 1992, and commercialisation of data, and the effects it had on his work [III: 1:06:21] Working on agricultural climatology in NZ and elsewhere [III 1:14:49] Work for the WMO, conferences attended, commission reports, and Pacific data collection [III: 1:21:14] Involvement and role with the IPCC, especially the Third Assessment Report (1997-2001) [III: 1: 33:23] Reflections on the ‘global’ nature of global temperature, the credibility of climate models and their relationship with the global temperature record [III: 1:38:19] Views on climate change risks, dangers [III: 1:48:05]