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Esteemed University of Montana Climate Professor Retires

Running accepted the buyout in July

By Dillon Tabish

MISSOULA — An esteemed climate change professor at the University of Montana has retired with a buyout to focus on what he calls the coming “climate wars.”

Steve Running launched Montana’s climate change minor in 2009, which the university says is the nation’s first academic program dedicated to climate change.

The Missoulian reports that Running accepted the buyout in July. He says moving on will help the university’s budget crisis and will allow him to focus on the national committees he is on.

Running was on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 when it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nicky Phear, director of the university’s Climate Change Studies program, says she believes Running will have an advisory role with the university in the future.