Climate change science pioneer Wallace Smith Broecker dies

US professor raised early alarms about climate change and popularised term 'global warming'

A pioneering scientist who raised early alarms about climate change and popularised the term "global warming" has died aged 87.

Wallace Smith Broecker, a Columbia University professor and researcher died on Monday at a hospital in New York City, according to a spokesman for the university's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. He had reportedly been ill in recent months.