The scientist who discovered the ocean as a reservoir of anthropogenic carbon emissions.

Today, it is widely accepted that a significant amount of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) generated by burning fossil fuels is taken up by the ocean, causing ocean acidification and global warming. Taro Takahashi (1930--2019) was a seagoing scientist who studied CO₂ cycling between the oceans and the atmosphere. Throughout his 60+ year career, Takahashi and his colleagues went on many voyages documenting the CO₂ concentration in the ocean and the atmosphere. With the well-documented data, he and his team put forward the mechanism and quantification of CO₂ exchange between ocean water and the atmosphere.

Today, it is widely accepted that a significant amount of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) generated by burning fossil fuels is taken up by the ocean, causing ocean acidification and global warming. Taro Takahashi (1930--2019) was a seagoing scientist who studied CO₂ cycling between the oceans and the atmosphere. Throughout his 60+ year career, Takahashi and his colleagues went on many voyages documenting the CO₂ concentration in the ocean and the atmosphere. With the well-documented data, he and his team put forward the mechanism and quantification of CO₂ exchange between ocean water and the atmosphere.

Takahashi was born in Tokyo, Japan to parents who greatly admired American culture. His father, Takezo Takahashi spent time as a mining engineer in Texas during the 1920s. Influenced by his parents, young Takahashi became a fan of the New York Yankees and books such as Huckleberry Finn. World War II changed his family’s relatively comfortable life as the United States fire-bombed Tokyo and dropped nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Later, Takahashi got his Bachelor’s degree in mining engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1953 and moved to New York City to study at Columbia University where he earned his Ph.D. degree in Geology in 1957. Upon graduation, Takahashi was hired by Maurice Ewing, the founder of Lamont-Doherty to board a 10-month research cruise to take CO₂ measurements to better understand air-sea dynamics. In 1961, the same year that Takahashi became a US citizen, he published his findings from the cruise on air-sea CO₂ dynamics. In collaboration with other scientists, including Wallace Broecker, he continued this work and developed analytics tools and instruments to expand on the initial findings.