[meteorite-list] Climate Change

From: Peter Marmet <p.marmet_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 19:42:46 +0200
Message-ID: <F1B8FAE7-22E7-49D1-9319-68EDDBB8A14C_at_thinsections.ch>

Am 22.09.2014 um 19:24 schrieb Michael Mulgrew via Meteorite-list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.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
>> Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/galacticstone
>> Twitter - http://twitter.com/galacticstone
>> Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/galacticstone
>> -------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> 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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>>
>> v
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Received on Mon 22 Sep 2014 01:42:46 PM PDT