OdÉn, Svante N. F. (1924-1986)

Swedish soil scientist and chemist

Svante Odén is known because of his efforts in the 1960s to publicize the problem of acid rain and connect it with the deterioration of forests and fisheries. Acid rain was known to European scientists in the seventeenth century, named by Robert Angus Smith (1817–1884) in 1872, and accurately described by Eville Gorham (b. 1925) in the 1950s, but only became a popular environmental concern after the Swedish National Science Research Council published Odén's findings in 1968 as "The Acidification of Air and Precipitation and its Consequences in the Natural Environment" in Ecology Community Bulletin No. 1.

Odén was born on April 29, 1924 in Oscar's Parish, Stockholm, Sweden. After passing his upper secondary school examination in 1943, he earned a master of science degree in agriculture in 1954 and a licentiate in agriculture in 1957. He taught soil science and ecological chemistry at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, for the rest of his career. He disappeared and was presumed dead in 1986.

In 1961, Odén began collecting field data about the relationship between bodies of fresh water and surrounding soils. This research, following that of two other Swedes, Carl Gustav Arvid Rossby (1898–1957) and Erik Eriksson at the Meteorology Institute of Stockholm University, led him toward analyzing the chemistry of rain and eventually to the retroactive monitoring of air pollutants emitted from several parts of Europe . He soon correlated these findings with meteorological evidence and concluded that industrial air pollution, especially sulfur dioxide, from Britain and Germany adversely affected the rain that fell in Sweden.

Comparing his data with that of fisheries inspector Ulf Lunden, Odén became alarmed that the unchecked continuation of this trend could destroy Swedish fish populations and reduce Swedish crop yields. Accordingly, he took the unusual step of publishing his results, not first in a scientific journal, but in a newspaper, the October 24, 1967, issue of Dagens Nyheter. The Swedish government and people immediately mobilized behind Odén, and in 1972 the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm, reported extensive fish kills, forest and farm damage, and human health problems in Sweden, all related to acid rain.

Sweden was the first country where the study of acid rain was taken seriously. Since much of the Swedish economy centers around fish—and since acid rain can decrease fish populations—Odén's publications in both the scientific and the popular press galvanized public opinion and rallied scientists and politicians to defend and protect Swedish interests. Odén remained a tireless advocate for policy reform regarding acid rain, but sometimes overdramatized the case, for example by claiming that Western Europe was waging "chemical warfare" against Scandinavia. He conducted a lecture tour of the United States in 1971 and spoke at the Nineteenth International Limnological Congress in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1974. These trips inspired many American and Canadian scientists to begin studying acid rain.

See also Atmospheric pollution; Forests and deforestation; Freshwater; Groundwater; Hydrologic cycle; Lakes; Precipitation; Rivers; Water pollution; Wind