Peter Gleick

Peter H. Gleick (born 1956) is an American scientist working on issues related to the environment.

Gleick worked as the Deputy Assistant for Energy and the Environment to the Governor of California from 1980 to 1982.

In the 1980s, tensions between the superpowers shifted after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

He works at the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, which he co-founded in 1987.

In 1987, with two colleagues, Gleick started the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, an independent non-profit policy research center currently located in Oakland, California.

The mission of the Institute is "The Pacific Institute creates and advances solutions to the world's most pressing water challenges."

Gleick currently serves as the Institute's President Emeritus, having been succeeded as President by Jason Morrison.

Gleick’s Ph.D dissertation from the University of California, Berkeley, and his early research, focused on the impacts of human-caused climate change for freshwater resources.

He was the first to link the output of large-scale general circulation models of the climate with a detailed regional hydrologic model to evaluate how changes in temperature and precipitation would alter streamflow, snowpack, and soil moisture, with a focus on the Sacramento River basin in California.

Among other results, this work was the first to call attention to the risks that rising temperatures would lead to accelerated snowmelt and a shift to earlier runoff in mountainous areas, leading to increased winter flood risk and reduced spring and summer runoff.

Many of the impacts anticipated by this early work have now been observed.

As a post-doctoral fellow in 1987 and 1988 at the University of California, Berkeley, Gleick published some of the earliest work addressing the risks of environmental factors for national and international security, including both climate change and water resources.

Up until this time, most academic work on international security was linked to realpolitik and superpower relationships between the United States and the Soviet Union.

The National Climate Assessment (NCA) is a United States government interagency ongoing effort on climate change science conducted under the auspices of the Global Change Research Act of 1990.

The NCA is a major product of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) which coordinates a team of experts and receives input from a Federal Advisory Committee.

Gleick also served as co-lead author of the Water Sector Report of the first National Climate Assessment, published in 2000.

In 2003 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for his work on water resources.

Among the issues he has addressed are conflicts over water resources, water and climate change, development, and human health.

In 2003, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for his work on water resources, and in 2006 he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Gleick has also been featured in a wide range of water-related documentary films, including River's End: California's Latest Water War, Jim Thebaut's documentary "Running Dry", the 2004 German documentary series "Der durstige Planet," Irena Salina's feature documentary Flow: For Love of Water, accepted for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, the ABC News documentary "Earth2100".

In 2006 he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

His 2010, book Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water, published by Island Press, won the Nautilus Book Award in the Conscious Media/Journalism/Investigative Reporting category.

Gleick received the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) Ven Te Chow Memorial Award in 2011, and that same year he and the Pacific Institute were awarded the first U.S. Water Prize.

In 2011, Gleick received the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) Ven Te Chow Memorial Award.

Also in 2011, Dr. Gleick and the Pacific Institute were awarded the first U.S. Water Prize.

Jessica Yu and Elise Pearlstein's 2011 feature documentary Last Call at the Oasis from Participant Media, and ''Pumped Dry: The Global Crisis of Vanishing Groundwater (A USA Today Network Production) USA Today.

He served on the scientific advisory boards of Thirst, Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk'' and other water-related films.

Peter Gleick's research addresses the cross-disciplinary connections among global environmental issues, with a focus on freshwater and climate change.

In 2012, Oxford University Press published a book written by Gleick and colleagues: "A 21st Century U.S. Water Policy," and he was named one of 25 "Water Heroes" by Xylem.

In 2013, Gleick was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Silicon Valley Water Conservation Awards.

In early 2013, Gleick launched a new blog at National Geographic ScienceBlogs entitled "Significant Figures."

He was also a regular contributor to Huffington Post Green, and now most of these essays can be found at his personal website.

In 2014, The Guardian newspaper listed Gleick as one of the world's top 10 "water tweeters."

In 2018, Gleick received the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization.

In 2019, Boris Mints Institute of Tel Aviv University awarded Gleick its annual BMI Prize as "an exceptional individual who has devoted his/her research and academic life to the solution of a strategic global challenge."

In 2023, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Gleick received a B.S. from Yale University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on hydroclimatology.

His dissertation was the first to model the regional impact of climate change on water resources.

Gleick produced some of the earliest work on the links between environmental issues, especially water and climate change, and international security, identifying a long history of conflicts over water resources and the use of water as both a weapon and target of war.

He also pioneered the concepts of the soft water path, and peak water.