Konstantin Vinnikov MCH (Making Climate History) Oral History Interview

Oral history interview with Konstantin Vinnikov conducted by Sarah Dry on 12th July 2022 as part of the Making Climate History project. Time Stamped Summary Memories of childhood and parents [I: 02:05] Fleeing Leningrad during WWII [I: 05:45] Practicing science in Soviet Russia [I: 12:15] Undergraduate study at Hydrometerological Institute [I: 16:11] Work at Main Geophysical Observatory [I: 20:08] Memories of Mikhail Budyko [I: 25:58] Computers being seen as capitalist [I: 30:30] Budyko’s application of energy balance to everything, including climate [I: 30:30] Manually mapping energy balance [I: 42:17] Temperature observations and mapping [I: 50:24] Shift from understanding climate as stable to dynamic [I: 59:46] Correcting data [I: 1:06:09] Hemispheric versus global data [I: 1:09:47] Ocean and aerological data [I: 1:11:42] Budyko’s pivot to work on ‘inducing’ climate change, i.e. geoengineering, (in order to secure funding and stability) [I: 1:17:52] Track Two Establishing Research Laboratory on Contemporary Changes of Climate and Water [II: 00:20] Soviet work on global temperature predating US and UK [II: 04:54] Trip to Australia in 1986/87 [II: 13:50] Recollections of Phil Jones and CRU [II: 21:46] Polar amplification [II: 28:41] Research in the Arctic; impossibility of sharing data gathered at the poles [II: 31:11] Russian satellite programs [II: 48:26] Oversupply of data [II: 48:26] Suki Manabe’s work on soil moisture using Russian data [II: 58:42] Arrival in the US at age 52 [II: 1:07:12] Fall out with Budyko [II: 1:09:04] Work at GFDL [II: 1:12:01] Paleo-analogues in IPCC report [I:14:32] Track Three Looking at photos from Princeton in 1987 [IV 00:20] Transition from USSR to US [IV 03:11] Increased access to computers [IV 04:16] Reflections on climate crisis today [IV 07:28]