Marty Hoffert of New York University

Humankind’s greenhouse emissions from coal, oil and gas burning have created long-predicted worldwide wildfires, floods, droughts, sea ice, glacier and tundra melting, disintegration of land-grounded Antarctic ice sheets and species extinction. The worst is yet to come.

In reality, it was accurately foreseen 40 years ago. The “good news” is we might still mitigate the worst climate disasters faced by our grandchildren with a massive transition away from fossil fuels now, as called for by the Paris Climate Treaty. The rapidity of this transition will challenge politicians and the engineering community as never before.

After a career change from aerospace to a deep dive into alternate energy, climate research and teaching, first at NASA, and later NYU, Marty Hoffert wondered if it would be practical in the US to live a middle class, even a comfortable lifestyle with a near-zero carbon footprint. And do it cost-effectively with solar electric, wind and renewable resources, as opposed to fossil fuels, as he had calculated at NYU from known performance data and costs. He will describe and show data from his rooftop solar electric home in Central Florida where he tested this idea in retirement. The answer is yes -- good news, though perhaps forty years too late.

Marty will close with a discussion of his congressional testimony on the role of Big Oil fostering this avoidable disaster based on his experience as a consultant to Exxon Mobil 40 years ago.

Biography:

Martin (Marty) I. Hoffert is Professor Emeritus of Physics and former Chair of the Department of Applied Science at New York University. His academic background includes a B.S. (1960) in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; M.S. (1964) and Ph.D. (1967) from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now the NYU Tandon School of Engineering) in Astronautics; and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (1969) from the New School for Social Research. In addition to NYU he has been on the research staff of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, General Applied Science Laboratories, Advanced Technology Laboratories, Riverside Research Institute and the NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies. While at NYU he was a consultant to Exxon Research conducting modeling and simulations of global warming. The Martin Hoffert Awards for excellence in undergraduate Environmental Studies are awarded annually at NYU graduation ceremonies.

Dr. Hoffert has conducted research in fluid mechanics, climatic change, plasma physics, atmospheric chemistry and physics, oceanography, environmental science, and solar and wind energy conversion. His work in geophysics has focused on the development of theoretical models of atmospheres and oceans, to address current environmental issues. These include studies of the impact of nitrogen oxide emissions on the stratospheric ozone shield, photochemical smog, mixing and heat transport in the planetary boundary layer, geochemical tracers in the world's oceans, the build-up of atmospheric carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning, the role of oceans in transient climate change, the sensitivity of climate to changes in greenhouse gases like CO2 and variations in solar radiation, and the effect of differences in early atmosphere atmospheric composition on the thermal evolution of the Earth and the Planet Mars -- the latter aimed at an explanation of riverbed-like channels observed by the NASA Viking orbiters. His research in alternate energy includes theoretical and experimental studies of wind energy conversion by conventional and novel configurations such as the Lebost and Tornado Vortex systems, photovoltaic generation of hydrogen fuels, and economic analysis of alternate energy systems.