DOCSLIB.ORG

Dr. Willie Soon

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Dr. Willie Soon Monthly Planet December 2003 Q & A with Willie Soon: A Leading Physicist on What His Research Tells Us About Long-Term Climate Change, and the Environmental Establishment’s Reaction to His Findings r. Willie Soon, a physicist at representing reality. So there is indeed Dthe Solar and Stellar Physics a danger in rushing to discredit certain Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian climatic factors while most rejections, Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, especially of the sun’s radiant energy, Massachusetts, and an astronomer are simply not warranted yet. at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California’s San Gabriel Mountains, CEI: Were you surprised at the reception recently discussed with CEI his that your report, “Reconstructing research on climate change and Climatic and Environmental Changes the environmental establishment’s of the Past 1000 Years: A Reappraisal,” reaction to his article, “Reconstructing (published in the journal Energy & Climatic and Environmental Changes Environment) has received in the press of the Past 1000 Years: A Reappraisal,” and in some scientifi c journals? (co-authored with Sallie Baliunas) which shows that the 20th Century was Soon: Since the appearance of the not the warmest of the last 1000 years. paper, I have been writing many letters Dr. Soon writes and lectures frequently worrying about public perceptions, and to newspapers and magazines to better on important issues related to the sun, conduct the hard scientifi c research that educate reporters and writers. I am other stars, and the Earth, as well as is ahead of us. indeed surprised at the very negative general science topics in astronomy reactions from a group of scientists who and physics. CEI: Prior to 1950, there were various appeared to think that my paper was an theories for the cause of climate attack on their work. This perception “Every way of seeing is a way of not change—e.g. changes in elements of is unfounded. My paper simply adds seeing” ― Kenneth Burke, American the Earth’s orbit, lunar-solar tidal more cautions, novel viewpoints and rhetorician infl uences, sunspots. How many of approaches, and a broader range of these ideas have been discredited? evidence for climate variability and CEI: What fi rst got you interested in Which, in your estimation, merit further non-variability to the developing researching the impact of anthropogenic research? scientifi c literature. All my efforts have changes on the Earth’s climate? What, if centered on testing whether various any, impact has mankind had on the Soon: There are a number of proposed hypotheses should be accepted or Earth’s environment? factors for causal climate change. The rejected. In a letter to the Chronicle hardest aspect of scientifi c research is of Higher Education, my Harvard- Soon: I started seriously researching indeed to rule out—or discredit—any Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics of those possibilities. To date, we colleague and co-author Sallie Baliunas the possibility of carbon dioxide (CO2) warming of the globe when I was know that changes in the Earth’s solar and I point out that, “[W]hen Earth’s trying to learn how the sun’s variable orbit occurring over tens of thousand climate is perturbed by some forces, light and charged-particle outputs of years account for the huge swings more than just temperature changes.” can impact Earth’s climate on both in the Earth’s past climatic condition, Therefore, “to understand the climate year-to-year and century-to-century from fully glaciated states to the very change phenomena, it is prudent to timescales. That was about one sunspot warm epochs in which there is hardly inclusively examine the broader scope cycle, or 11 years, ago. We have plenty any ice around the continents. It is still of changes from a more comprehensive of direct evidence for man changing extremely diffi cult to quantitatively perspective than that of temperature.” the Earth’s environment on local and defi ne the role of climate factors like We also note: “Ultimately, willingness regional scales, but what is often not volcanic eruptions, the sun’s variable and carefully attending to examine all appreciated is that not all man-made outputs, atmospheric gases like water possibilities about the nature of climate modifi cations and infl uences are so vapor, carbon dioxide, or methane on variability will reveal more about what horribly destructive. The evidence climactic changes, especially those is going on than what we now know. Of occurring within the past 100 years that we have no doubt.” (This and other about man-made CO2 causing global warming is nowhere close to that neat, or so. All these factors need to be letters can be found on my web page: but incorrect, conceptual picture of quantitatively compared in a realistic http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~wsoon/ warming as in a greenhouse. If we are fashion. Many attempts based on ChronicleHigherEducation03-d). serious about knowing the answers, we computer climate models are inadequate need to avoid simplistic analogies, stop because climate models are still far from CEI: A 2001 National Science 6 www.cei.org Monthly Planet December 2003 Foundation survey of 1,500 people especially those convened by the World scale temperatures. This holds especially found that 77 percent believed that, Meteorological Organization—were true when dealing with climate history “increased carbon dioxide and other leading to a consensus that greenhouse of the last 1000 years or so, where gases released into the atmosphere will, gases may cause catastrophic cooling, one can hardly have enough local and if unchecked, lead to global warming.” ending with a new Ice Age for the Earth. regional information to construct People of all education levels seem Since the 1990s, we’ve been told that any global temperature confi dently. to buy this notion. Is there a way to greenhouse gases are causing global (Ross McKitrick is interviewed in the counter climate alarmism among the warming. It would be best left to the November issue of Monthly Planet.) public? social scientists to tackle the question about the dramatic switch in popular CEI: What are the Dalton Minimum and Soon: In my opinion, the only way to views—endorsed by certain scientists the Maunder Minimum and how could reduce alarmism is to yield to facts and and experts, though not all—since their study help us better understand evidence that may belie any extreme there are no real advances in scientifi c the Earth’s long-term climate? assertions. On the topic of carbon dioxide and global warming, there have been too many opinions but little We may be dangerously moving away from internally consistent facts. For example, science-by-evidence to science-by-public appeals; the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third and that is bad not only for science, Assessment Report, which is hailed but also for the public, who will be as the most authoritative source on left swimming in a pool of ignorance. climate change, is really a political document promoting a particular brand of belief: that the climatic impact of man-made greenhouse gases will be knowledge between the 70s and 90s Soon: The Dalton Minimum and the profoundly negative and that remedial that would explain those contrasting Maunder Minimum are two specifi c action is urgent. The science itself extremes in conviction. intervals, around 1795-1820 and 1645- is secondary. As one of the report’s 1715, respectively, in the sunspot record own co-authors, MIT meteorologist CEI: At a July 29 Senate Environment that points to signs of a less active sun, Richard Lindzen, points out, IPCC and Public Works Committee hearing, which in turn can plausibly be linked to a presented the report as representing you testifi ed that local and regional dimmer sun, at least in some wavelength a scientifi c consensus, even though temperature changes are more regions. A sun with less radiant energy is individual authors were not consulted important than global changes. What certainly a good possible explanation for on whether they agreed with parts of is the reason for this and why is this some of the cooler episodes in climate the report beyond those they worked proposition controversial? history. But I think the most important on. Further, IPCC used the “Summary reason to research these solar activity for Policymakers” to misrepresent what Soon: Yes, I emphasized that the minima is to provide a better contrasting is in the actual report. And the report’s reality of climate change is local and benchmark on what will happen when peer-review process was pointless, since regional in scope. I do think that this is the sun’s activity is stronger and forces authors did not respond to reviewers’ universally agreed since there is really more radiant energy onto the Earth’s comments—including Lindzen’s. We not much on which to argue against climate system. Coincidentally, a new may be dangerously moving away that. Neither we nor the environment scientifi c paper (“A Millennium Scale from science-by-evidence to science- function under any actual constraints Sunspot Number Reconstruction: by-public appeals; and that is bad not of a “global” temperature. The fact is Evidence for an Unusually Active Sun only for science, but also for the public, that “global” temperature is a quantity since the 1940s,” to appear in Physical who will be left swimming in a pool of that looks good on paper but is quite Review Letters) authored by a team led ignorance. diffi cult to measure confi dently. Going by solar physicist Ilya Usoskin, of the a step further, my friends Chris Essex University of Oulu in Finland, suggests CEI: In the 1970s, there was (University of Western Ontario) and that the sun’s magnetic activity has been considerable hysteria about global Ross McKitrick (University of Guelph, unusually active in the 20th Century cooling very similar to today’s hysteria Ontario), in their book Taken by Storm, compared to its activity record of the about global warming.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Abstracts Connecting to the Boston University Network
    20th Cambridge Workshop: Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun July 29 - Aug 3, 2018 Boston / Cambridge, USA Abstracts Connecting to the Boston University Network 1. Select network ”BU Guest (unencrypted)” 2. Once connected, open a web browser and try to navigate to a website. You should be redirected to https://safeconnect.bu.edu:9443 for registration. If the page does not automatically redirect, go to bu.edu to be brought to the login page. 3. Enter the login information: Guest Username: CoolStars20 Password: CoolStars20 Click to accept the conditions then log in. ii Foreword Our story starts on January 31, 1980 when a small group of about 50 astronomers came to- gether, organized by Andrea Dupree, to discuss the results from the new high-energy satel- lites IUE and Einstein. Called “Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun,” the meeting empha- sized the solar stellar connection and focused discussion on “several topics … in which the similarity is manifest: the structures of chromospheres and coronae, stellar activity, and the phenomena of mass loss,” according to the preface of the resulting, “Special Report of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.” We could easily have chosen the same topics for this meeting. Over the summer of 1980, the group met again in Bonas, France and then back in Cambridge in 1981. Nearly 40 years on, I am comfortable saying these workshops have evolved to be the premier conference series for cool star research. Cool Stars has been held largely biennially, alternating between North America and Europe. Over that time, the field of stellar astro- physics has been upended several times, first by results from Hubble, then ROSAT, then Keck and other large aperture ground-based adaptive optics telescopes.
    [Show full text]
  • $1.2 Million Conflict of Interest Plagues Climate Change Denial Research
    $1.2 Million Conflict of Interest Plagues Climate Change Denial Research... http://natmonitor.com/2015/02/22/1-2-million-conflict-of-interest-plague... $1.2 Million Conflict of Interest Plagues Climate Change Denial Research By James Paladino, National Monitor | February 22, 2015 A recently uncovered document shows that Wei-Hok Soon, a well-known aerospace engineer, was granted over $1.2 million from fossil-fuel companies for climate research and failed to disclose a conflict of interest in his peer-reviewed publications. In Washington, climate change deniers are fighting a fierce battle to stave off energy policy reform. The latest casualty of this war of ideas is Wei-Hock Soon, a part-time employee of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Resilient to the scientific consensus that human carbon emissions are fueling gradual warming, the aerospace engineer has served as a beacon for conservative legislators. A recently uncovered document shows that Soon was granted over $1.2 million from fossil-fuel companies and failed to disclose a conflict of interest in his peer-reviewed publications. Since the Smithsonian is part of the federal government, former Greenpeace member Kert Davies legally obtained the Soon’s grant agreements through the Freedom of Information Act. Contributors include the American Petroleum Institute, the Koch brothers, Exxon Mobil and Southern Company. Several scientific papers and a congressional testimonial were termed as “deliverables,” reports The New York Times. “These proposals and contracts show debatable interventions in science literally on behalf of the Southern Company and the Kochs,” said Davies. “What it shows is the continuation of a long-term campaign by specific fossil-fuel companies and interests to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change.” These recent revelations have drawn fire from members of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center and NASA, among others.
    [Show full text]
  • A Cultural Analysis of a Physicist ''Trio'' Supporting the Backlash Against
    ARTICLE IN PRESS Global Environmental Change 18 (2008) 204–219 www.elsevier.com/locate/gloenvcha Experiences of modernity in the greenhouse: A cultural analysis of a physicist ‘‘trio’’ supporting the backlash against global warming Myanna Lahsenà Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, University of Colorado and Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Epaciais (INPE), Av. dos Astronautas, 1758, Sa˜o Jose´ dos Campos, SP 12227-010 Brazil Received 18 March 2007; received in revised form 5 October 2007; accepted 29 October 2007 Abstract This paper identifies cultural and historical dimensions that structure US climate science politics. It explores why a key subset of scientists—the physicist founders and leaders of the influential George C. Marshall Institute—chose to lend their scientific authority to this movement which continues to powerfully shape US climate policy. The paper suggests that these physicists joined the environmental backlash to stem changing tides in science and society, and to defend their preferred understandings of science, modernity, and of themselves as a physicist elite—understandings challenged by on-going transformations encapsulated by the widespread concern about human-induced climate change. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Anti-environmental movement; Human dimensions research; Climate change; Controversy; United States; George C. Marshall Institute 1. Introduction change itself, what he termed a ‘‘strong theory of culture.’’ Arguing that the essential role of science in our present age Human Dimensions Research in the area of global only can be fully understood through examination of environmental change tends to integrate a limited con- individuals’ relationships with each other and with ‘‘mean- ceptualization of culture.
    [Show full text]
  • Open PDF File, 8.71 MB, for February 01, 2017 Appendix In
    Case 4:16-cv-00469-K Document 175 Filed 02/01/17 Page 1 of 10 PageID 5923 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS FORT WORTH DIVISION EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION, § § Plaintiff, § v. § No. 4:16-CV-469-K § ERIC TRADD SCHNEIDERMAN, § Attorney General of New York, in his § official capacity, and MAURA TRACY § HEALEY, Attorney General of § Massachusetts, in her official capacity, § § Defendants. § APPENDIX IN SUPPORT OF EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION’S BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF THIS COURT’S PERSONAL JURISDICTION OVER THE DEFENDANTS Exhibit Description Page(s) N/A Declaration of Justin Anderson (Feb. 1, 2017) v – ix A Transcript of the AGs United for Clean Power App. 1 –App. 21 Press Conference, held on March 29, 2016, which was prepared by counsel based on a video recording of the event. The video recording is available at http://www.ag.ny.gov/press- release/ag-schneiderman-former-vice-president- al-gore-and-coalition-attorneys-general-across B E-mail from Wendy Morgan, Chief of Public App. 22 – App. 32 Protection, Office of the Vermont Attorney General to Michael Meade, Director, Intergovernmental Affairs Bureau, Office of the New York Attorney General (Mar. 18, 2016, 6:06 PM) C Union of Concerned Scientists, Peter Frumhoff, App. 33 – App. 37 http://www.ucsusa.org/about/staff/staff/peter- frumhoff.html#.WI-OaVMrLcs (last visited Jan. 20, 2017, 2:05 PM) Case 4:16-cv-00469-K Document 175 Filed 02/01/17 Page 2 of 10 PageID 5924 Exhibit Description Page(s) D Union of Concerned Scientists, Smoke, Mirrors & App.
    [Show full text]
  • Deeper Ties to Corporate Cash for Doubtful Climate Research
    Deeper Ties to Corporate Cash for Doubtful Climate Research... http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/us/ties-to-corporate-cash... http://nyti.ms/1DIYhU3 SCIENCE Deeper Ties to Corporate Cash for Doubtful Climate Researcher By JUSTIN GILLIS and JOHN SCHWARTZ FEB. 21, 2015 For years, politicians wanting to block legislation on climate change have bolstered their arguments by pointing to the work of a handful of scientists who claim that greenhouse gases pose little risk to humanity. One of the names they invoke most often is Wei-Hock Soon, known as Willie, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who claims that variations in the sun’s energy can largely explain recent global warming. He has often appeared on conservative news programs, testified before Congress and in state capitals, and starred at conferences of people who deny the risks of global warming. But newly released documents show the extent to which Dr. Soon’s work has been tied to funding he received from corporate interests. He has accepted more than $1.2 million in money from the fossil-fuel industry over the last decade while failing to disclose that conflict of interest in most of his scientific papers. At least 11 papers he has published since 2008 omitted such a disclosure, and in at least eight of those cases, he appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work. The documents show that Dr. Soon, in correspondence with his corporate funders, described many of his scientific papers as “deliverables” that he completed in exchange for their money.
    [Show full text]
  • Uva-DARE (Digital Academic Repository)
    UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Networked Content Analysis: The case of climate change Niederer, S.M.C. Publication date 2016 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Niederer, S. M. C. (2016). Networked Content Analysis: The case of climate change. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:29 Sep 2021 3 Climate Change Debate Actors in Science and on the Web On DeceMber 12 of 2015, a consequential agreeMent in the histo- ry of global cliMate negotiations was reached when 195 coun- tries adopted the so-called Paris Climate Agreement during the 21st annual Conference of the Parties, better known as COP21. Two weeks of “fierce negotiations” ended with the words “I hear no objection in the room, I declare the Paris Climate Agreement adopted,” spoken by the president Laurent Fabius (United Nations Conference on Climate Change, 2015).
    [Show full text]
  • Multiple Regression Analysis of Anthropogenic and Heliogenic Climate Drivers, and Some Cautious Forecasts a Frank Stefani
    Multiple regression analysis of anthropogenic and heliogenic climate drivers, and some cautious forecasts a Frank Stefani aHelmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Bautzner Landstr. 400, 01328 Dresden, Germany ARTICLEINFO ABSTRACT Keywords: The two main drivers of climate change on sub-Milankovic time scales are re-assessed by means of Climate change a multiple regression analysis. Evaluating linear combinations of the logarithm of carbon dioxide Solar cycle concentration and the geomagnetic aa-index as a proxy for solar activity, we reproduce the sea surface 2 Forecast temperature (HadSST) since the middle of the 19th century with an adjusted R value of around 87 per cent for a climate sensitivity (of TCR type) in the range of 0.6 K until 1.6 K per doubling of CO2. The solution of the regression is quite sensitive: when including data from the last decade, the simultaneous occurrence of a strong El Niño on one side and low aa-values on the other side lead to a preponderance of solutions with relatively high climate sensitivities around 1.6 K. If those later data are excluded, the regression leads to a significantly higher weight of the aa-index and a correspondingly lower climate sensitivity going down to 0.6 K. The plausibility of such low values is discussed in view of recent experimental and satellite-borne measurements. We argue that a further decade of data collection will be needed to allow for a reliable distinction between low and high sensitivity values. Based on recent ideas about a quasi-deterministic planetary synchronization of the solar dynamo, we make a first attempt to predict the aa-index and the resulting temperature anomaly for various typical CO2 scenarios.
    [Show full text]
  • Sallie Baliunas: Combatting Global Warming Would Be a Waste 07/25/2003 Providence Journal
    Sallie Baliunas: Combatting global warming would be a waste 07/25/2003 Providence Journal WASHINGTON HUMANS RECORD historical events, Herodotus wrote, "in the hope of preserving from decay the remembrance of what men have done." Nature also writes its own history. And when coupled with that written by men, it can ameliorate the tendency to sensationalize current trends in climate into something unusual or dangerous. Recently, Sen. John Kerry of my home state, Massachusetts, and a leading Democratic Party presidential candidate, added to the alarmism over climate change. At an environmental conference in Washington, he compared the "threat of global warming" with that of the Cold War, indicating that it required the same mobilization of national resources as was needed to defeat Soviet communism. In a similar vein, attorneys general from six states are suing the federal government to enforce reductions in carbon dioxide emission, which is essential to life on the planet and has never been classified as a toxic pollutant but is blamed by alarmists for warming the globe. New York and some other states are even considering legislation for the state to enforce reductions in the emission of CO2, which arises mainly from burning fossil fuels. These domestic calls for action echo a United Nations-sponsored worldwide plan, called the Kyoto Protocol. It requires signatories to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions based upon the notion that the Earth is dangerously warming. The historical record -- both man and nature's -- doesn't support this view. It is true that, according to thermometer measurements, the Earth was warmer by some 0.6 degrees Celsius at the end of the 20th Century than it was in the second half of the 19th.
    [Show full text]
  • The Kyoto Protocol and Global Warming
    The Kyoto Protocol and Global Warming Sallie Baliunas • The Lavoisier Group Inc • May 2002 1 About the Author SALLIE BALIUNAS, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astro- physics and deputy director of Mount Wilson Observatory, received her MA and PhD degrees in astrophysics from Harvard University. She is co-host of the Website www.TechCentralStation.com, a senior scientist and chair of the Science Advisory Board at the George C Marshall Institute, and past contributing editor to World Climate Report. Her awards include the Newton-Lacy-Pierce Prize of the American Astronomical Society, the Petr Beckmann Award for Scientific Freedom, and the Bok Prize from Harvard University. The author of over 200 scientific articles, Dr Baliunas served as technical consultant for a science-fiction television series, Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict. Her research interests include solar variability, magnetohydrodynamics of the sun and sun-like stars, exoplanets, and the use of laser electro-optics for the correction of turbulence due to the earth’s atmosphere in astronomical images. 2 The Kyoto Protocol and Global Warming ORE than one million years ago, the early tool-making hominid species Homo erectus controlled fire as a means Mfor bettering the chances of the species’ survival. Homo sapiens, the modern successor of Homo erectus, continues in the hominid legacy of attempting to control, and thereby outlast, the havoc of nature. Early use of fire meant protection from harsh weather and predators, besides safer food. The evolution from fire to fossil fuels to nuclear energy is a path of improving human health and welfare arising from efficient and effective access to energy.
    [Show full text]
  • Hockey Stick’ Global Warming’S Latest Brawl
    spotlight No. 281 – February 25, 2006 BREAKING THE ‘HOCKEY STICK’ Global Warming’s Latest Brawl S U M M A R Y : Evidence from throughout the world shows that the plan- et was relatively warm 1,000 years ago during the Medieval Warm Period and relatively cold 500 years ago during the Little Ice Age. When the 1°C (1.8°F) of global warming of the past 100 years is considered in the context of climate variability of the last 1,000 years, the recent warming looks quite natural and nothing out of the ordinary. In 2001, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change prominently featured an important graph of north- ern hemispheric temperatures over the past 1,000 years, and the plot resem- bled a hockey stick. This same graph was recently highlighted in testimony to the North Carolina Legislative Commission on Climate Change. In this graph, the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age disappeared, and after 900 years of nearly steady temperatures, warming dominates the most recent 100 years. The new “hockey stick” depiction makes the recent warming look high- ly unnatural, thereby lending credence to the argument that human activities are the driving force behind global warming. The fights over the hockey stick have been among the most vicious in the two decades of heated debate over global warming. n recent months the issue of global warming has become a focus of at- tention for North Carolina policy makers. In 2005 the General Assembly established a commission on climate change to determine if the state can iadopti policies that would generate net benefits in mitigating possible global warming.
    [Show full text]
  • Climate of Fear: How the Most Privileged Voices in America Have Made Climate Change Denial Mainstream Duncan B
    Fordham University Masthead Logo DigitalResearch@Fordham Student Theses 2015-Present Environmental Studies Spring 5-12-2016 Climate of Fear: How the Most Privileged Voices in America Have Made Climate Change Denial Mainstream Duncan B. Magidson Fordham University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://fordham.bepress.com/environ_2015 Recommended Citation Magidson, Duncan B., "Climate of Fear: How the Most Privileged Voices in America Have Made Climate Change Denial Mainstream" (2016). Student Theses 2015-Present. 30. https://fordham.bepress.com/environ_2015/30 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Environmental Studies at DigitalResearch@Fordham. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Theses 2015-Present by an authorized administrator of DigitalResearch@Fordham. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Climate of Fear: How the Most Privileged Voices in America Have Made Climate Change Denial Mainstream Source: C-SPAN.org Duncan Magidson Senior Thesis Environmental Studies Spring 2016 !1 Abstract Climate change is a serious threat to the continued existence of human civilization. Despite this, the United States has yet to pass meaningful legislation to cub greenhouse gas emissions. Although tackling environmental issues once had a broad bipartisan support, the issue of climate change has driven a wedge between Democratic and Republican voters and politicians. Consequently, the United States finds itself deadlocked in the political sphere, unable to come together on any real strategies to adapt to the realities of a changing world. The driving force behind the lack of American action on climate change is the persistence of denial. Climate change denial appeals to those who hold a privileged position in American society.
    [Show full text]
  • Global Temperature Change
    Global Temperature Change George H. Holliday, PhD., P.E., BCEE, ASME Life Fellow Holliday Environmental Services, Inc. Abstract This study was initiated to review the existing technical literature regarding the possibility of anthropogenic carbon dioxide releases causing climate change. The literature search demonstrates no peer reviewed evidence exists, except computer climate simulations, supporting the concept of man-generated carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases causing increased global temperature. Most reports contain statements, without technical support or reference, regarding the need to control carbon dioxide e.g., “The use of these fossil fuels results in the release of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is widely believed to contribute to global climate change.” (USDOE, 2007). On the contrary, the existing technical literature report cyclic variations in climate temperature change for about 2 million years. In part, this conclusion is supported, by oxygen-28 to oxygen-16 gas ratios from analyses of ice cores covering a period of 250,000 years. The literature search leads to the conclusion anthropogenic carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions do not result in climate temperature increases. Introduction The earth’s climate forever changes in a predicable cyclic manner, apparently dictated by solar activity, Bond et al. (2001). We know Romans recorded climate warming between 200 BC and 600 AD, Lamb (1977a). In Europe, between 600 and 1300 AD, the Medieval Warming occurred. The Little Ice Age (1300 to 1850 AD) is dramatically documented by tax records of the abandonment of Greenland by the Norse population in about 1300 after nearly 300 years of moderate temperatures, when farming prospered.
    [Show full text]