Ward is an American earth scientist and geophysicist who has studied microearthquakes associated with active fault systems and volcanic eruptions throughout the western United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Iceland, Central America, and the East African Rift System. He developed a prototype global volcano surveillance system[1] that relayed data through the ERTS satellite. He was born August 10, 1943, in Washington, D.C. and was educated at the Noble and Greenough School (1955–1961), Dartmouth College (BA 1965), and Columbia University (MA, 1967, PhD 1970).
In January, 1975, he was appointed chief of the Branch of Seismology, a group of 140 scientists and staff at the United States Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, playing a lead role in the development of, and initial management of, the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. This Branch became the Branch of Earthquake Mechanics and Prediction, conducting scientific research aimed at predicting the time of occurrence of damaging earthquakes at a time when such research appeared promising worldwide.
In 2009, Ward published a detailed paper[12] suggesting that "large volumes of SO
2 erupted frequently appear to overdrive the oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere resulting in very rapid warming" (Page 3188). In addition, he noted that sulfur dioxide is a strong absorber of visible light. He proposed that the rapid increase in global warming during the 20th century was caused by these mechanisms as a result of the rapid increase in sulfur dioxide emitted by the burning fossil fuels.
In 2009, however, Ward noticed that the lowest levels of total column ozone since measurements began in 1927 occurred in 1992 and 1993 following the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo —the largest volcanic eruption since 1912. He subsequently found that similar depletion of ozone follows most volcanic eruptions, even small ones. From these observations, he argued that sulfate in ice cores is an important measure of the rate of volcanic activity, but that warming appears to result from ozone depletion by volcanic emissions of chlorine and bromine, which allows more ultraviolet-B radiation to reach Earth's surface, cooling the stratosphere and warming Earth. All eruptions deplete ozone, causing warming, but explosive eruptions, unlike effusive eruptions, also form stratospheric aerosols, which reflect and scatter sunlight, causing net cooling. He also argued that chlorine from man-made chlorofluorocarbon gases (CFCs) apparently caused the global warming observed from 1970 to 1998 by depleting the ozone layer, and that reduction of CFC emissions mandated by the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer led to the Global Warming Hiatus from 1998 to 2013, during which no statistically significant warming occurred. Warming began again in August 2014 when Bárðarbunga volcano in Central Iceland erupted 85 square kilometers of basaltic lava in six months—the largest effusive volcanic eruption since 1783. As with most effusive volcanic eruptions, this one did not form cooling aerosols in the stratosphere.
All of this research is explained in detail at WhyClimateChanges.com, is summarized in a book aimed primarily at non-scientists, What Really Causes Global Warming? Greenhouse Gases or Ozone Depletion? and is explained in two extended abstracts.
