David Karoly

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title: "David Karoly" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["australian-meteorologists", "australian-climatologists", "alumni-of-the-university-of-reading", "monash-university-alumni", "academic-staff-of-the-university-of-melbourne", "university-of-oklahoma-faculty", "academic-staff-of-monash-university", "living-people", "1955-births"] description: "Australian atmospheric scientist (born 1955)" topic_path: "geography/australia" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Karoly" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Australian atmospheric scientist (born 1955) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox scientist"]

Field	Value
name	David J. Karoly
image	David Karoly DSC 9243.JPG
caption	Karoly speaking on climate change at Hawthorn, Australia
birth_date	1955
death_date
resting_place_coordinates
nationality	Australian
fields	Atmospheric sciences
workplaces	University of Melbourne, Monash University, University of Oklahoma
alma_mater	University of Melbourne
Monash University
University of Reading
doctoral_advisor	Brian J. Hoskins
doctoral_students	John T. Allen
known_for	Climate change and climate patterns
signature
website
::

| name = David J. Karoly | image = David Karoly DSC 9243.JPG | image_size = | alt = | caption = Karoly speaking on climate change at Hawthorn, Australia | birth_date = 1955 | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | citizenship = | nationality = Australian | fields = Atmospheric sciences | workplaces = University of Melbourne, Monash University, University of Oklahoma | alma_mater = University of Melbourne Monash University University of Reading | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | doctoral_advisor = Brian J. Hoskins | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = John T. Allen | notable_students = | known_for = Climate change and climate patterns | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | footnotes = | spouse = | children = David John Karoly (born 1955) is an Australian atmospheric scientist, currently based at CSIRO.

Education and academic career

In the early 1970s David Karoly enrolled in applied mathematics at Monash University, Melbourne, but later became interested in meteorology. In 1980 he was awarded a doctorate in meteorology from the University of Reading in Reading, England.

After returning to Australia, from 1995 to 2000 Karoly became Director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Southern Hemisphere Meteorology at Monash University. Between 2003 and 2007 he was Professor of Meteorology in the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma (OU). In May 2007 he joined the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne as a Federation Professor. In 2017 he became Leader of the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub in the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program.

Contributions

He is an expert in climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, and climate variations due to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

Karoly has served as a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group 2 (on societal impacts) and he is a member of the faculty of the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne. His work, along with that of the many other lead authors and review editors, contributed to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, which was won jointly by the IPCC and Al Gore. He is member of the board of the Climate Change Authority.

David Karoly as communicator

In the Australian scene, Karoly is credited with standing up to Alan Jones, a conservative and climate change denying Sydney radio commentator with the largest daily audience in that city of ca.150,000.

In doing so Karoly, originally a sceptic (1980), has earned the reputation of being a climate scientist communicator with the ability to explain the complexities of his research to the general public. On The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's high ranking television program Q&A wherein audience members can ask direct questions of experts, Karoly claimed his authority by stating in regard to his nemesis, "I am a climate scientist and Alan Jones is wrong."

Karoly pointed out that one hundred years ago carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 280 parts per million whereas now it is 400 parts per million, an increase of 40% which he asserted was unquestionably caused by human activity. He also admonished Australians for producing 1.5% of the world's greenhouse gases when they were only 0.3% of the world's population.

On the population issue Karoly sounded a warning, saying, "climate scientists in Europe have said that the long-term sustainable population of people on the Earth is about 1 billion people in 2100 – not the foreshadowed United Nations population estimates of about 10 to 12 billion people. That’s not good news."

References

References

1. [http://www.theage.com.au/environment/coming-down-to-earth-20080815-3wdz.html Adam Morton: ''Coming down to earth''], in [[The Age]], 16 August 2008
2. [http://www.findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/researcher/person67077.html University of Melbourne: Find and expert], retrieved 27 June 2011
3. [http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/david-karoly-27436.html ABC: The Drum], retrieved 27 June 2011
4. [http://research.science.unimelb.edu.au/profile/eminent/karoly University of Melbourne: Profile] {{webarchive. link. (2011-06-30 , retrieved 27 June 2011)
5. Greg Combet. (21 June 2012). "Strong Board appointed for Climate Change Authority". Australian Government.
6. (17 June 2019). "Alan Jones is wrong". Sydney Morning Herald.
7. "Alan Jones is wrong". News Limited.
8. (17 June 2019). "QandA". ABC -Australian Broadcasting Commission.

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