Data Or Dogma? Promoting Open Inquiry in the Debate Over the Magnitude of Human Impact on Earth’S Climate
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S. HRG. 114–373 DATA OR DOGMA? PROMOTING OPEN INQUIRY IN THE DEBATE OVER THE MAGNITUDE OF HUMAN IMPACT ON EARTH’S CLIMATE HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE, SCIENCE, AND COMPETITIVENESS OF THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION DECEMBER 8, 2015 Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 21–644 PDF WASHINGTON : 2016 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Nov 24 2008 08:09 Oct 04, 2016 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 S:\GPO\DOCS\21644.TXT JACKIE SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JOHN THUNE, South Dakota, Chairman ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi BILL NELSON, Florida, Ranking ROY BLUNT, Missouri MARIA CANTWELL, Washington MARCO RUBIO, Florida CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota TED CRUZ, Texas RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut DEB FISCHER, Nebraska BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii JERRY MORAN, Kansas EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska CORY BOOKER, New Jersey RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin TOM UDALL, New Mexico DEAN HELLER, Nevada JOE MANCHIN III, West Virginia CORY GARDNER, Colorado GARY PETERS, Michigan STEVE DAINES, Montana DAVID SCHWIETERT, Staff Director NICK ROSSI, Deputy Staff Director REBECCA SEIDEL, General Counsel JASON VAN BEEK, Deputy General Counsel KIM LIPSKY, Democratic Staff Director CHRIS DAY, Democratic Deputy Staff Director CLINT ODOM, Democratic General Counsel and Policy Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE, SCIENCE, AND COMPETITIVENESS TED CRUZ, Texas, Chairman GARY PETERS, Michigan, Ranking MARCO RUBIO, Florida EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts JERRY MORAN, Kansas CORY BOOKER, New Jersey DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska TOM UDALL, New Mexico CORY GARDNER, Colorado BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii STEVE DAINES, Montana (II) VerDate Nov 24 2008 08:09 Oct 04, 2016 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\21644.TXT JACKIE C O N T E N T S Page Hearing held on December 8, 2015 ........................................................................ 1 Statement of Senator Cruz ..................................................................................... 1 E-mail dated November 23, 2015 between Hon. Ted Cruz and John Coequyt .......................................................................................................... 15 Statement of Senator Peters ................................................................................... 2 Letter dated December 7, 2015 to Hon. Ted Cruz and Hon. Gary Peters from Gerald R. Fink, Chair, AAAS Board of Directors, Herman and Margaret Sokol Professor, Whitehead Institute/Massachusetts Institute of Technology ................................................................................................. 4 Article dated December 9, 2006 from the AAAS Board ................................ 5 Letter dated December 7, 2015 to Hon. Ted Cruz from Dr. Keith L. Seitter, Executive Director, American Meteoreological Society ................ 7 Letter dated December 7, 2015 to Hon. Ted Cruz and Hon. Gary Peters from Robert Gropp, Ph.D., Interim Co-Executive Director, American Institute of Biological Sciences .................................................................... 9 Statement of Senator Nelson .................................................................................. 10 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 12 Letter dated December 2, 2015 from Hon. John Thune to Dr. John R. Christy, Professor and Director, Earth System Science Center, NSSTC, University of Alabama in Huntsville .......................................................... 17 Letter dated December 2, 2015 from Hon. John Thune to Dr. Judith Curry, School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology ..................................................................................................... 18 Letter dated December 2, 2015 from Hon. John Thune to Dr. William Happer, Department of Physics, Princeton University .............................. 19 Letter dated December 2, 2015 from Hon. John Thune to Mr. Mark Steyn .............................................................................................................. 20 Letter dated December 2, 2015 from Hon. John Thune to Dr. David W. Titley, RADM (ret.), Professor of Practice in Meteorology, Penn State Department of Meteorology ................................................................ 21 Statement of Senator Daines .................................................................................. 94 Statement of Senator Schatz .................................................................................. 96 Statement of Senator Udall .................................................................................... 99 Statement of Senator Markey ................................................................................. 101 WITNESSES John R. Christy, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science and Director of the Earth System Science Center, University of Alabama ............ 22 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 23 Judith A. Curry, Ph.D., Chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology .......................................................... 38 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 40 William Happer, Ph.D., Cyrus Fogg Bracket Professor of Physics, Princeton University ............................................................................................................. 55 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 57 Mark Steyn, International Bestselling Author ..................................................... 70 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 71 David W Titley, Rear Admiral USN (Ret.), Ph.D., Professor of Practice and Director, Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk, Pennsylvania State University ................................................................................................... 78 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 80 (III) VerDate Nov 24 2008 08:09 Oct 04, 2016 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\21644.TXT JACKIE IV Page APPENDIX Response to written questions submitted to Admiral David Titley by: Hon. Richard Blumenthal ................................................................................ 181 Hon. Edward Markey ....................................................................................... 185 Hon. Gary Peters .............................................................................................. 188 VerDate Nov 24 2008 08:09 Oct 04, 2016 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\21644.TXT JACKIE DATA OR DOGMA? PROMOTING OPEN INQUIRY IN THE DEBATE OVER THE MAGNITUDE OF HUMAN IMPACT ON EARTH’S CLIMATE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2015 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE, SCIENCE, AND COMPETITIVENESS, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, Washington, DC. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 3:10 p.m., in room SR–253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Ted Cruz, Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding. Present: Senators Cruz [presiding], Gardner, Daines, Nelson, Schatz, Markey, Booker, Udall, and Peters. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. TED CRUZ, U.S. SENATOR FROM TEXAS Senator CRUZ. This hearing will come to order. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to what I hope will be an im- portant and informative hearing. This is a hearing on the science behind claims of global warming. Now this is the Science Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, and we are hearing from distinguished scientists, shar- ing their views, their interpretation, their analysis of the data and the evidence. Now I am the son of two mathematicians, two computer pro- grammers and scientists. And I believe that public policy should follow the actual science and the actual data and evidence and not political and partisan claims that run contrary to the science and data and evidence. On November 28, 2013, an intrepid band of explorers set off from New Zealand on a research expedition to the Antarctic. Among their goals was investigating the impact of global warming on the Antarctic continent and islands. On Christmas Eve, they became stuck in ice, ice that the climate industrial complex had assured us were vanishing. This expedition was there to document how the ice was vanishing in the Antarctic, but the ship became stuck. It had run into an inconvenient truth, as Al Gore might put it. Three icebreakers tried and failed to reach the trapped ship be- cause the ice was too thick. After a week of rescue attempts, the passengers were airlifted from the vessel. (1) VerDate Nov 24 2008 08:09 Oct 04, 2016 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\GPO\DOCS\21644.TXT JACKIE 2 Here are the inconvenient facts about the polar ice caps. The Arctic is not ice-free.