Dr Jack Barrett started his education at Feniscowles County Primary School, near Blackburn, Lancashire and from there spent seven years at Chorley Grammar School.

His main studies were Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Woodwork. Next came six years at the Victoria University of Manchester studying Chemistry and acquiring a PhD in physical chemistry for research into the Photolysis of Liquid Water. He then had a lecturing career at the Universities of Hertfordshire (Hatfield College of Technology as it was), London (Chelsea), London (Queen Elizabeth), London (King’s) and eventually London (Imperial). 

            Including around seventy papers on various aspects of the chemistry and spectroscopy of small molecules he is the author of ten textbooks of which the latest  ones are mentioned below.

            Three tutorial chemistry texts published by the Royal Society of Chemistry are: No. 5, Structure and Bonding, No. 9 Atomic Structure and Periodicity, and No. 21 Inorganic Chemistry in Aqueous Solution.

            His interest in climate change developed with the 1992 Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] (Cambridge University Press), not just because of the global importance of the topic, but because of his interest in the spectroscopy of small molecules which include the ‘greenhouse’ gases H₂O, CO₂, CH₄, N₂O and O₃. He became sceptical about climate modelling and what seemed to him the exaggerated claims emerging from the computer programmes about our future global climate.

Prof. David J. Bellamy, OBE., BSc., PhD., Hon FLS,. DSc., DUniv., C.Biol., FIBiol., FRIN

   Hon: Professor Adult and Continuing Education-University of Durham. Special Professor of Geography University of Nottingham. Hon Professor of the University of Central Queensland.  

   President of The Conservation Foundation, Durham. Surrey and Birmingham Wildlife Trusts, Coral Cay Conservation, National Association for Environmental Education. British Naturalists Association, Conservation Volunteers of Ireland, British Institute of Cleaning Science, British Home and Holiday Parks Association, Camping and Caravanning Club of Great Britain.  

   Vice President British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, Fauna and Flora International, Marine Conservation Society, Australian Marine Conservation Society, Wild Trout Trust, Countrywide Holidays Association.  

   Trustee of the Living Landscape Trust, Hon Fellow Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management. Honourary Member of the Emirates Environment Group.     

He is an international consultant, author of 44 books, writer and presenter of some 400 television progammes on Botany, Ecology and Environment. 

   Recipient of the Dutch Order of the Golden Ark, the U.N.E.P. Global 500 Award; The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award for Underwater Research; BAFTA., Richard Dimbleby Award., BSAC Diver of The Year Award, RGS Busk Medal