Frederick Kenneth Hare

Frederick Kenneth Hare

Frederick Kenneth Hare, environmental scientist, professor, administrator (b at Wylye, Eng 5 Feb 1919; d at Oakville, ON 3 Sept 2002). A University of London King's College graduate and wartime meteorologist with the British air ministry, Frederick Hare came to Canada in 1945 as a geography professor at McGill. He earned his PhD (Université de Montréal) studying arctic CLIMATOLOGY and BIOGEOGRAPHY. He served as dean of arts and science at McGill, master of Birkbeck College, London, and president of UBC. A professor of geography and physics at the University of Toronto since 1969, he was the first director of the Institute for Environmental Studies there from 1974-79, became provost of Trinity College at U of T in 1979 and was appointed U of T professor emeritus (geography) in 1984.

Frederick Hare's early research focused on high-latitude climatology and biogeography, the behaviour of the stratosphere, and the water and energy balances of North America. From 1969 his research interests included atmospheric carbon dioxide, CLIMATE CHANGE, drought and arid zone climates. Long active in movements to protect and conserve the natural environment, Hare served on numerous commissions and committees related to, among others, acid precipitation, desertification, heavy metals, nuclear reactors and waste products, atmospheric ozone, greenhouse gases and climate change. Hare served as chairman of the Federal Study Group on Nuclear Waste Management and commissioner of the Ontario Nuclear Safety Review. He was chairman of the Technical Advisory Panel on Nuclear Safety (Ontario Hydro), and was a member of the Research and Development Advisory Panel of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. He also conducted studies on nuclear waste management in Sweden and France.

For the Royal Society of Canada Frederick Hare was chairman for studies on the long-range transport of airborne pollutants, on the nuclear winter phenomenon and on lead in the environment. In 1989 the Royal Society also appointed Hare chairman of the Canadian Global Change Program. He was director of the Washington-based energy research group Resources for the Future, and acted as the first chairman of the Special Advisory Committee on the Environment of the City of Toronto. From 1979 to 1989 he was chairman of the Climate Planning Board in Canada and in 1986-87 was president of Sigma Xi, a scientific research society.

A frequent spokesman on the atmospheric greenhouse effect, Hare believed that the main environmental issue confronting Canada in the future would arise from climatic change induced by fossil fuel consumption. Hare regarded nuclear power as more environmentally friendly than generators burning fossil fuels. As for radioactive waste, Hare contended that the knowledge and technology exist to overcome all the physical risks in transporting and storing it.

Frederick Hare wrote nearly 200 books, reports, articles and commentaries, including The Restless Atmosphere (1953) and, with Morley K. Thomas, Climate Canada (1974 and 1979). In 1988 he was appointed chancellor of Trent U. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada and recipient of the Order of Ontario. His many contributions globally have been such as to earn him 11 honorary doctorates and countless other awards, medals and honours. In June 1989 in Geneva, he received the International Meteorological Organization Prize from the UN's World Meteorological Organization.