2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Global Warming Affords Politicians Serious Talking Point
Brendan Cox
Issue date: 3/26/07 Section: News
Global warming, a major talking point in today's political arena, is, according to Richard S. Lindzen, hardly cause for the alarm propagated by the likes of Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Lindzen, the endowed Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at MIT, spoke on the scientific basis for the IPCC's "iconic statement" Friday as part of the UConn Physics Colloquium.
This "iconic statement," he said, was the IPCC's claim that most observable global warming has been the direct result of human activities and greenhouse gas emissions. Lindzen said that the relationship between human emissions and atmospheric change is "neither simple nor well understood."
"Climate will change regardless of what we do," Lindzen said, citing the medieval warm period from about the tenth to the fourteenth century and warming on other planets as evidence of this.
He supported his claims by suggesting that the common understanding of the greenhouse effect is erroneous. According to the most commonly held perception of the phenomenon, greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide allow radiation from the sun to enter the atmosphere and in turn to heat the surface of the earth, but then disallow the passage of the waves that the earth radiates back towards space.
According to Lindzen, the surface of the earth doesn't actually cool by radiation, as is commonly believed. Temperature changes are actually the result of turbulence caused by atmospheric motions that carry heat to the troposphere, and the surface warming is actually the result of disequilibrium between the temperatures of the atmosphere and the oceans.
"The problem is that the majority of 'climate scientists' have no idea how the greenhouse effect really works," said Lindzen.
He said that the Earth's climate is an extremely complex fluid system characterized by variability.
The "tsunami of alarmist propaganda," as Lindzen called it, that is prevalent in today's culture is the result of what Lindzen called the "iron triangle of alarm." He said that often scientists make meaningless or ambiguous statements, advocates and the media in turn transform these into alarmist declarations, politicians respond by feeding the scientists more money, and so on indefinitely.
Lindzen, the endowed Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at MIT, spoke on the scientific basis for the IPCC's "iconic statement" Friday as part of the UConn Physics Colloquium.
This "iconic statement," he said, was the IPCC's claim that most observable global warming has been the direct result of human activities and greenhouse gas emissions. Lindzen said that the relationship between human emissions and atmospheric change is "neither simple nor well understood."
"Climate will change regardless of what we do," Lindzen said, citing the medieval warm period from about the tenth to the fourteenth century and warming on other planets as evidence of this.
He supported his claims by suggesting that the common understanding of the greenhouse effect is erroneous. According to the most commonly held perception of the phenomenon, greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide allow radiation from the sun to enter the atmosphere and in turn to heat the surface of the earth, but then disallow the passage of the waves that the earth radiates back towards space.
According to Lindzen, the surface of the earth doesn't actually cool by radiation, as is commonly believed. Temperature changes are actually the result of turbulence caused by atmospheric motions that carry heat to the troposphere, and the surface warming is actually the result of disequilibrium between the temperatures of the atmosphere and the oceans.
"The problem is that the majority of 'climate scientists' have no idea how the greenhouse effect really works," said Lindzen.
He said that the Earth's climate is an extremely complex fluid system characterized by variability.
The "tsunami of alarmist propaganda," as Lindzen called it, that is prevalent in today's culture is the result of what Lindzen called the "iron triangle of alarm." He said that often scientists make meaningless or ambiguous statements, advocates and the media in turn transform these into alarmist declarations, politicians respond by feeding the scientists more money, and so on indefinitely.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Brian
posted 3/28/07 @ 3:57 PM EST
Let's look at some of the statements Somerville is supporting:
- 0.2 deg. C rise in global temp per decade
- 0.14 to 0.35 channge in pH units (decrease). (Continued…)
Post a Comment