Nigel Calder

Who was Nigel Calder?

Nigel David McKail Ritchie-Calder was a British science writer.

Between 1956 and 1966, Calder wrote for the magazine New Scientist, serving as editor from 1962 until 1966. After that, he worked as an independent author and TV screenwriter. He conceived and scripted thirteen major documentaries and series concerning popular science subjects broadcast by the BBC and Channel 4, with accompanying books. For his television work he received the Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science during 1972. During 2004, his book Magic Universe was shortlisted for The Aventis Prizes for Science Books.

In 1970, Calder participated in the original Earth Day by proclaiming "The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind."

Calder said that climate change science has been invaded by sophistry about man-made global warming. As early as 1980, he predicted that within 20 years "the much-advertised heating of the earth by the man-made carbon-dioxide ‘greenhouse’ [will fail] to occur; instead, there [will be] renewed concern about cooling and an impending ice age".