[meteorite-list] Climate Change

From: Michael Mulgrew <mikestang_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 10:24:15 -0700
Message-ID: <CAMseTy0cS2k6fAvnEejAaFj1ZrMHzZN-iCxqcOmjhVFzw=Wqhg_at_mail.gmail.com>

I missed the part where the Earth's climate was ever stable...

Michael in so. Cal.

On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 9:39 AM, Galactic Stone & Ironworks via
Meteorite-list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> wrote:
> PLOT IDEA :
>
> 97% of the world's scientists contrive an environmental crisis, but
> are foiled by a plucky band of billionaires and oil companies!
>
> Movie studios are lining up around the block to make this one!
>
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Web - http://www.galactic-stone.com
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> -------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
> On 9/22/14, BWFlowers via Meteorite-list
> <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> wrote:
>> Former Obama Official: Climate Change Not 'Settled' Science
>> Sunday, 21 Sep 2014 06:11 PM
>> By Sandy Fitzgerald
>>
>> A former high-ranking Obama administration official says climate science
>> and
>> the implications of global warming are not "settled," insisting such claims
>> are "misguided" and stifle debate on the matter.
>>
>> Writing a Page One story in the Wall Street Journal Weekend Review
>> section,
>> Dr. Steven Koonin argues that group think among experts has been inhibiting
>> "the scientific and policy discussions that we need to have about our
>> climate future."
>>
>> Koonin, who served at the Energy Department as President Obama's
>> undersecretary for science in the Energy Department, is director of the
>> Center for Urban Science and Progress at New York University.
>>
>> Urgent: Do You Approve Or Disapprove of President Obama's Job Performance?
>> Vote Now in Urgent Poll
>>
>> Koonin's position strikes a blow against climate change activists as
>> People's Climate March organized demonstrations at more than 2,000
>> locations
>> worldwide.
>>
>> In New York, tens of thousands participated in the demonstration demanding
>> urgent steps against carbon emissions as the United Nation's General
>> Assembly opened.
>>
>> "We often hear that there is a 'scientific consensus' about climate
>> change," writes Koonin. "But as far as the computer models go, there isn't
>> a useful consensus at the level of detail relevant to assessing human
>> influences."
>>
>> Koonin says his extensive training as a computational physicist with a
>> 40-year career of scientific research and management, has given him an
>> up-close knowledge of climate science.
>>
>> "Detailed technical discussions during the past year with leading climate
>> scientists have given me an even better sense of what we know, and don't
>> know, about climate," writes Koonin.
>>
>> The point, Koonin says, isn't whether the climate is changing, as "the
>> climate has always changed and always will."
>>
>> Further, he says, there is little doubt that humans are influencing
>> climate
>> change, as greenhouse gases, mainly from carbon-dioxide emissions, have had
>> an effect.
>>
>> But the main question remains about how the climate will change under both
>> natural and man-made influences, which will affect energy and
>> infrastructure
>> choices.
>>
>> "Those questions are the hardest ones to answer," writes Koonin.
>>
>> However, Koonin adds, while humans can cause serious issues for the
>> climate, "they are physically small in relation to the climate system as a
>> whole," with additions to carbon dioxide to "directly shift the
>> atmosphere's
>> natural greenhouse effect by only 1% to 2%."
>>
>> Other scientists have argued that the sun's solar activity has a much
>> greater impact on earth temperatures that human activities.
>>
>> Meanwhile, while the Earth's average surface temperature has risen by 0.9
>> degree Fahrenheit over the last quarter of the 20th century, the increase
>> has been much slower over the past 16 years, while the human contribution
>> to
>> carbon dioxide has gone up by 25 percent.
>>
>> "Yet the models famously fail to capture this slowing in the temperature
>> rise," says Koonin. "Several dozen different explanations for this failure
>> have been offered, with ocean variability most likely playing a major role.
>> But the whole episode continues to highlight the limits of our modeling."
>>
>> Koonin says current global warming models have limitations. Many advocates
>> of global warming dismiss or downplay contradictory data, he writes.
>>
>> To this end, Koonin cites:
>> .Models that show Arctic ice melting over the past 20 years forget to note
>> the almost equal growth of ice across Antarctica, which he says is "now at
>> a
>> record high."
>> .A prediction that the "lower atmosphere in the tropics will absorb much of
>> the heat of the warming atmosphere" has not materialized.
>> .The fact global sea levels in the first half of the 20th century rose at
>> almost the same rate as today.
>> .Climate sensitivity- "that is, the warming induced by a hypothetical
>> doubling of carbon-dioxide concentration," he says is "no different, and no
>> more certain" than it was 30 years ago.
>> These, and many other factors that are still not decided will not allow
>> lawmakers and the public to make a definite decision when it comes to
>> climate change, he contends.
>>
>> "But I fear that rigidly promulgating the idea that climate science is
>> 'settled' (or is a 'hoax') demeans and chills the scientific enterprise,
>> retarding its progress in these important matters, he writes.
>>
>> "Uncertainty is a prime mover and motivator of science and must be faced
>> head-on. It should not be confined to hushed sidebar conversations at
>> academic conferences ...
>>
>> "Any serious discussion of the changing climate must begin by
>> acknowledging
>> not only the scientific certainties but also the uncertainties, especially
>> in projecting the future."
>>
>>
>> http://www.Newsmax.com/Newsfront/climate-change-science/2014/09/21/id/595969
>> /#ixzz3E3Sbd2Zf
>>
>>
>>
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Received on Mon 22 Sep 2014 01:24:15 PM PDT