Tom M. L. Wigley is an Australian mathematical physicist and climatologist who made many important contributions to climate and carbon-cycle modeling and to climate data analysis. He made important contributions to a diverse collection of topics in climatology including data analysis; climate impacts on agriculture and water resources; paleoclimatology; and modeling of climate, sea level, and the carbon cycle. He was a lead scientist in most major scientific reviews of climate change science, including the studies by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Wigley has argued in the popular media that the IPCC has been too optimistic about the prospect of averting harmful climate change by reducing greenhouse emissions, and that "the human-induced changes that are expected over the next 100 years are much, much greater than any changes that societies experienced in the past."

Sources

• Cleveland, Cutler (Lead Author); Peter Saundry (Topic Editor). 2008. "Wigley, Tom M.L.." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth November 14, 2006; Last revised August 25, 2008; Retrieved May 22, 2009]. 
• Wikipedia Contributors, Tom Wigley, Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Accessed 22 May 2009.