Howarth is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University.
"[3] In 2011, Time named him one of that year's "people who mattered," for his research criticizing the presentation of natural gas as a "bridge-fuel" in the transition to renewable energy.
[4][5] His research influenced the decision of US President Joe Biden to temporarily halt any further approvals to export liquefied natural gas in January 2024.
In response, The Wall Street Journal described Howarth as "the climate scientist fossil-fuel companies can’t stand.
"[2] Howarth studied oceanography at Amherst College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1974, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, earning a Doctoral Degree in Biological Oceanography in 1979.