Born: 9-Feb-1898
Birthplace: Montreal, Canada
Died: 3-Oct-1964
Location of death: London, England
Cause of death: Pneumonia

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Scientist

Nationality: England
Executive summary: Callendar Effect

Military service: Royal Navy Volunteer Reserves (WWI)

Guy Stewart Callendar was a British defense engineer specializing in steam and power generation, but he is remembered for his extensive albeit amateur work in climatology. In 1938 he published his first paper on the topic, entitled "The Artificial Production of Carbon Dioxide and Its Influence on Temperature," in which he noted a pattern of rising global temperatures over the first four decades of the 20th century. In this and several subsequent papers, he built on the work of Svante Arrhenius, explaining how man-made carbon dioxide emissions trap radiation, and linking rising planetary temperatures with the increased combustion of fossil fuels brought about by continued industrialization.

Callendar was the first scientist to compile a reliable data set of world-wide surface temperatures through the historical record, and in the scientific literature of his time the warming effect of atmospheric CO2 was described as "the Callendar Effect." For a few years before his death in 1964, the temperature increases halted and the world underwent a brief cooling period, causing Callendar to wonder if his life's work had been for folly. As the evidence of climate change has accumulated since his death, however, his research seems impressively prescient, especially considering the primitive state of climate monitoring data available in his time. He is now generally credited with helping to establish the foundation for the anthropogenic theory of climate change.

Father: Hugh Longbourne Callendar (physics professor at McGill University, b. 18-Apr-1863, d. 21-Jan-1930)
Mother: Victoria Mary Stewart (m. 1864)
Sister: Cecil Callendar (b. 1885, d. 1914)
Brother: Leslie Hugh Callendar
Brother: Maxwell Victor Callendar
Wife: Phyllis Burdon Pontreat (m. 30-Aug-1930, two daughters)
Daughter: Ann (twin b. 19-Nov-1931)
Daughter: Bridget (twin b. 19-Nov-1931)

    High School: St. Paul's School, London, England
    University: BS Mechanics and Mathematics, City & Guilds College (1922)

Author of books:
The 1939 Callendar Steam Tables (1939)

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