Wheaton woman shares in Nobel

Three days after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Jean Bogner spent her Monday preparing for her next task as a member of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The Wheaton resident soon will travel to Brazil to continue the discussion about the human contribution to global warming and its environmental impact.

Bogner was part of a network of 2,000 scientists from around the world chosen to share the Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore for spreading awareness of man-made climate change.

Her contribution was as the coordinating lead author of the chapter on waste management in the panel's global warming report.

Bogner wrote that consumer waste is a small contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions (less than 5 percent), but low-cost mitigation techniques can cut the emissions further.

"It's not a large part of the problem, but it can be part of the solution," Bogner said.

The chapter discusses the importance of harnessing methane gas created by landfills as a renewable energy source. It also cites the composting of organic waste, incineration and recycling as important ways to cut waste.

The key is for federal governments to preserve all the waste management options to provide a gamut of environmentally friendly possibilities.

Bogner's expertise comes from 20 years at Argonne National Laboratory and work with the U.S. Department of Energy on programs for the commercial use of landfill gas recovery systems.

She now runs a one-person waste management consulting business called Landfills + Inc. out of her home.

Bogner said the lingering doubt about the human contribution to global warming is dissolving as the vested interests of individuals and companies who don't want it to be true are revealed.

"The strength of the IPCC report is that it's authored by hundreds of scientists," Bogner said. "The other strength is, being part of the U.N., it has very, very broad international participation."

Indeed, scientists from Sudan, Cuba, China, Japan and the Netherlands all contributed to Bogner's chapter in the report. That's also why the recognition is humbling, she said.

"Across the world, many, many people share this award," Bogner said. "It's nothing that any one of us can lay any claim to."

Bogner says she doesn't expect to receive any part of the $1.5 million award that comes with the Nobel Prize, nor does she want to.

She hopes most of the money helps fund promotion of the panel's work.