Evaluating Uncertainty and Public Perception of Developments in Climate Change Modeling
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Response to Request for Input from Commissioner Allison Herron Lee, Securities and Exchange Commission
Response to Request for Input from Commissioner Allison Herron Lee, Securities and Exchange Commission on Climate Risk Disclosures Benjamin Zycher Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute June 10, 2021 Estimation of climate “risks” by public companies would be futile, politicized, distorted by an imperative to avoid regulatory and litigation threats, and largely arbitrary, and thus would not serve the traditional goal of the provision of material information to investors. Submitted by webform: https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/ruling-comments This comment letter responds to a request for input from Securities and Exchange Commissioner Allison Herren Lee on the topic of climate “risk” disclosures by public companies.1 It is organized as follows: Summary I. Climate Uncertainties and Choices Among Crucial Assumptions. II. The Evidence on Climate Phenomena and the Effects of Climate Policies in the EPA Climate Model. III. Observations on the Materiality of Climate “Risks.” IV. Additional Observations and Conclusions. 1 See https://www.sec.gov/news/public-statement/lee-climate-change-disclosures#. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) educational organization and does not take institutional positions on any issues. The views expressed in this testimony are those of the author. 2 Summary • No public company and few, if any, government administrative agencies are in a position to evaluate climate phenomena, whether ongoing or prospective, with respect to which the scientific uncertainties are vastly greater than commonly asserted. • The range of alternative assumptions about central parameters is too great to yield clear implications for the climate “risks” facing specific public companies, economic sectors, and geographic regions. -
Keeling Curve: Result, Interpretation & Global Monitoring
International Journal for Empirical Education and Research Keeling Curve: Result, Interpretation & Global Monitoring Augustyn Ostrowski Faculty of Geography & Geology Jagiellonian University Email: [email protected] (Author of Correspondence) Poland Abstract The Keeling Curve is a graph of the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere based on continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory on the island of Hawaii from 1958 to the present day. The curve is named for the scientist Charles David Keeling, who started the monitoring program and supervised it until his death in 2005. Keywords: Mauna Loa Measurements; Results and Interpretation; Global Monitoring; Ralph Keeling. ISSN Online: 2616-4833 ISSN Print: 2616-4817 35 1. Introduction Keeling's measurements showed the first significant evidence of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. According to Dr Naomi Oreskes, Professor of History of Science at Harvard University, the Keeling curve is one of the most important scientific works of the 20th century. Many scientists credit the Keeling curve with first bringing the world's attention to the current increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Prior to the 1950s, measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations had been taken on an ad hoc basis at a variety of locations. In 1938, engineer and amateur meteorologist Guy Stewart Callendar compared datasets of atmospheric carbon dioxide from Kew in 1898-1901, which averaged 274 parts per million by volume (ppm), and from the eastern United States in 1936-1938, which averaged 310 ppmv, and concluded that carbon dioxide concentrations were rising due to anthropogenic emissions. However, Callendar's findings were not widely accepted by the scientific community due to the patchy nature of the measurements. -
STATEMENT to the COMMITTEE on SCIENCE, SPACE and TECHNOLOGY of the UNITED STATES HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES Hearing on Climate S
STATEMENT TO THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Hearing on Climate Science: Assumptions, Policy Implications and the Scientific Method 29 March 2017 Judith A. Curry Climate Forecast Applications Network Georgia Institute of Technology [email protected] Major points: • Scientific progress is driven by the creative tension spurred by disagreement, uncertainty and ignorance. • Progress in understanding the climate system is being hampered by an institutionalized effort to stifle this creative tension, in the name of a ‘consensus’ that humans have caused recent climate change. • Motivated by the mandate from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the climate community has prematurely elevated a scientific hypothesis on human-caused climate change to a ruling theory through claims of a consensus. • Premature theories enforced by an explicit consensus building process harm scientific progress because of the questions that don’t get asked and the investigations that aren’t undertaken. As a result, we lack the kinds of information to more broadly understand climate variability and societal vulnerabilities. • Challenges to climate research have been exacerbated by: o Unreasonable expectations from policy makers o Scientists who are playing power politics with their expertise and trying to silence scientific disagreement through denigrating scientist who do not agree with them o Professional societies that oversee peer review in professional journals are writing policy statements endorsing the consensus and advocating for specific policies • Policymakers bear the responsibility of the mandate that they give to panels of scientific experts. The UNFCCC framed the climate change problem too narrowly and demanded of the IPCC too much precision – where complexity, chaos, disagreement and the level of current understanding resists such precision. -
Statement of Undisputed Facts
SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIVIL DIVISION ) MICHAEL E. MANN, PH.D., ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) Case No. 2012 CA 008263 B v. ) Judge Alfred S. Irving, Jr. ) NATIONAL REVIEW, INC., et al., ) ) Defendants. ) ) STATEMENT OF UNDISPUTED MATERIAL FACTS IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT STEYN’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT Defendant Mark Steyn submits the following Statement of Undisputed Material Facts in support of his Motion for Summary Judgment. Mark Steyn’s July 15, 2012 Blog Post 1. On July 15, 2012, Mark Steyn posted a blog titled “Football and Hockey” on National Review’s online blog “The Corner” (“the Steyn Post”) to National Review Online. See Mark Steyn, Football and Hockey, National Review Online, July 15, 2012, https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/football-and-hockey-mark-steyn/. 2. The Steyn Post states, in full: In the wake of Louis Freeh’s report on Penn State’s complicity in serial rape, Rand Simberg writes of Unhappy Valley’s other scandal: I’m referring to another cover up and whitewash that occurred [at Penn State] two years ago, before we learned how rotten and corrupt the culture at the university was. But now that we know how bad it was, perhaps it’s time that we revisit the Michael Mann affair, particularly given how much we’ve also learned about his and others’ hockey-stick deceptions since. Mann could be said to be the Jerry Sandusky of climate science, except that instead of molesting children, he has molested and tortured data in the service of politicized science that could have dire economic consequences for the nation and planet. -
A Rational Discussion of Climate Change: the Science, the Evidence, the Response
A RATIONAL DISCUSSION OF CLIMATE CHANGE: THE SCIENCE, THE EVIDENCE, THE RESPONSE HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION NOVEMBER 17, 2010 Serial No. 111–114 Printed for the use of the Committee on Science and Technology ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.science.house.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 62–618PDF WASHINGTON : 2010 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing 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 COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HON. BART GORDON, Tennessee, Chair JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois RALPH M. HALL, Texas EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER JR., LYNN C. WOOLSEY, California Wisconsin DAVID WU, Oregon LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas BRIAN BAIRD, Washington DANA ROHRABACHER, California BRAD MILLER, North Carolina ROSCOE G. BARTLETT, Maryland DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois VERNON J. EHLERS, Michigan GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma DONNA F. EDWARDS, Maryland JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois MARCIA L. FUDGE, Ohio W. TODD AKIN, Missouri BEN R. LUJA´ N, New Mexico RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas PAUL D. TONKO, New York BOB INGLIS, South Carolina STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas JIM MATHESON, Utah MARIO DIAZ-BALART, Florida LINCOLN DAVIS, Tennessee BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky ADRIAN SMITH, Nebraska RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri PAUL C. BROUN, Georgia BARON P. HILL, Indiana PETE OLSON, Texas HARRY E. MITCHELL, Arizona CHARLES A. WILSON, Ohio KATHLEEN DAHLKEMPER, Pennsylvania ALAN GRAYSON, Florida SUZANNE M. -
Oversensitive How the Ipcc Hid the Good News on Global Warming
OVERSENSITIVE HOW THE IPCC HID THE GOOD NEWS ON GLOBAL WARMING Nicholas Lewis and Marcel Crok Foreword by Professor Judith Curry The Global Warming Policy Foundation GWPF Report 12 GWPF REPORTS Views expressed in the publications of the Global Warming Policy Foundation are those of the authors, not those of the GWPF, its Trustees, its Academic Advisory Council members or its Directors. THE GLOBAL WARMING POLICY FOUNDATION Director Dr Benny Peiser Assistant Director Philipp Mueller BOARD OF TRUSTEES Lord Lawson (Chairman) Baroness Nicholson Lord Donoughue Lord Turnbull Lord Fellowes Sir James Spooner Rt Rev Peter Forster Bishop of Chester Sir Martin Jacomb ACADEMIC ADVISORY COUNCIL Professor David Henderson (Chairman) Professor Richard Lindzen Adrian Berry Professor Ross McKitrick Sir Samuel Brittan Professor Robert Mendelsohn Sir Ian Byatt Professor Sir Alan Peacock Professor Robert Carter Professor Ian Plimer Professor Vincent Courtillot Professor Paul Reiter Professor Freeman Dyson Dr Matt Ridley Christian Gerondeau Sir Alan Rudge Dr Indur Goklany Professor Nir Shaviv Professor William Happer Professor Philip Stott Professor Terence Kealey Professor Henrik Svensmark Professor Anthony Kelly Professor Richard Tol Professor Deepak Lal Dr David Whitehouse OVERSENSITIVE How the IPCC hid the good news on global warming Nicholas Lewis and Marcel Crok Foreword by Professor Judith Curry ISBN 978-0-9573880-7-9 c Copyright 2014 The Global Warming Policy Foundation Contents Contents 1 Foreword 3 About the authors 5 Executive summary 7 Introduction -
Amicus Curiae Dr
Nos. 14-CV-101 & 14-CV-126 IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COURT OF APPEALS ________________________________ COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE, ET AL., Defendants-Appellants, and NATIONAL REVIEW, INC., Defendant-Appellant, v. MICHAEL E. MANN, PH.D., Plaintiff-Appellee. ________________________________ On Appeal from the Superior Court of the District of Columbia Civil Division, No. 2012 CA 008263 B ________________________________ BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE DR. JUDITH A. CURRY IN SUPPORT OF APPELLANTS’ PETITIONS FOR REHEARING OR REHEARING EN BANC ________________________________ John J. Vecchione (D.C. Bar. #431764) Counsel of Record R. James Valvo, III CAUSE OF ACTION INSTITUTE 1875 Eye Street, NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20006 (202) 499-4232 [email protected] Counsel for Amicus Curiae January 25, 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ................................................................................... iii INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE ............................................................................ 1 INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT ........................................ 2 ARGUMENT ............................................................................................................. 3 I. SCIENTIFIC NORMS AND FIRST AMENDMENT JURISPRUDENCE BOTH EMBRACE THE VIEW THAT ROBUST DEBATE IS CRUCIAL TO TRUTH, PROGRESS, AND DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE. ................................................ 3 II. THIS COURT SHOULD NOT ALLOW DR. MANN TO USE LAWSUITS AS ANOTHER WEAPON TO HARASS AND SILENCE HIS -
Berkeley Earth Temperature Averaging Process
Berkeley Earth Temperature Averaging Process Robert Rohde, Richard Muller (chair), Robert Jacobsen, Saul Perlmutter, Arthur Rosenfeld, Jonathan Wurtele, Don Groom, Judith Curry, Charlotte Wickham Abstract A new mathematical framework is presented for producing maps and large-scale averages of temperature changes from weather station thermometer data for the purposes of climate analysis. The method allows the inclusion of short and discontinuous temperature records, so that nearly all digitally archived thermometer data can be used. The framework uses the statistical method known as Kriging to interpolate data from stations to arbitrary locations on the Earth. An iterative weighting process is used to reduce the influence of statistical outliers. Statistical uncertainties are calculated by subdividing the data and comparing the results from statistically independent subsamples using the Jackknife method. Spatial uncertainties from periods with sparse geographical sampling are estimated by calculating the error made when we analyze post-1960 data using similarly sparse spatial sampling. Rather than “homogenize” the raw data, an automated procedure identifies discontinuities in the data; the data is then broken into two parts at those times, and the parts treated as separate records. We apply this new framework to the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) monthly land temperature dataset, and obtain a new global land temperature reconstruction from 1800 to the present. In so doing, we find results in close agreement with prior estimates made by the groups at NOAA, NASA, and at the Hadley Center / Climate Research Unit in the UK. We find that the global land mean temperature increased by 0.89 ± 0.06 C in the difference of the Jan 2000-Dec 2009 average from the Jan 1950-Dec 1959 average (95% confidence for statistical and spatial uncertainties). -
Joshua P. Howe (Editor)
Isis Joshua P. Howe (Editor). Making Climate Change History. Documents from Global Warming's Past. --Manuscript Draft-- Manuscript Number: Full Title: Joshua P. Howe (Editor). Making Climate Change History. Documents from Global Warming's Past. Corresponding Author: Evan Hepler-Smith Duke University Durham, NC UNITED STATES Order of Authors Secondary Information: Powered by Editorial Manager® and ProduXion Manager® from Aries Systems Corporation Book Review Joshua P. Howe (Editor). Making Climate Change History. Documents from Global Warming's Past. Foreword by Paul S. Sutter. (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classics.) xvi +340 pp., notes, index. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017. $24.00 (paper), ISBN 9780295741390. Making Climate Change History is a compilation of historical documents tracing the accumulation of scientific evidence regarding anthropogenic global warming and its consequences, as well as political controversy and (in)action based on the warnings of climate scientists. The bulk of the sources originate in American settings and perspectives. Ample historical scholarship tells this story; editor Joshua Howe mentions Spencer Weart’s The Discovery of Global Warming (Harvard, rev. ed. 2008), Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway’s Merchants of Doubt (Bloomsbury, 2010), Jacob Hamblin’s Arming Mother Nature (Oxford, 2013), and Howe’s own Behind the Curve (University of Washington, 2014), among others. Howe presents the collection as the sources behind such stories and raw material for readers to fashion their own interpretive histories of climate change. The book is in six parts, each introduced by a short essay providing historical context and a series of questions to guide readers’ historical engagement with the sources. Part 1, “The Scientific ‘Prehistory’ of Global Warming,” runs from Joseph Fourier’s 1824 paper on the temperature of the earth through Guy Stewart Callendar’s 1938 article correlating the emission of carbon dioxide from fuel combustion with a long-term increase in atmospheric temperature. -
Our Faustian Bargain
Our Faustian Bargain J. Edward Anderson, PhD, Retired P.E.1 1 Seventy years Engineering Experience, M.I.T. PhD, Aeronautical Research Scientist NACA, Principal Research Engineer Honeywell, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, 23 yrs. University of Minnesota, 8 yrs. Boston University, Fellow AAAS, Life Member ASME. You can make as many copies of this document as you wish. 1 Intentionally blank. 2 Have We Unwittingly made a Faustian Bargain? This is an account of events that have led to our ever-growing climate crisis. Young people wonder if they have a future. How is it that climate scientists discuss such an outcome of advancements in technology and the comforts associated with them? This is about the consequences of the use of coal, oil, and gas for fuel as well as about the science that has enlightened us. These fuels drive heat engines that provide motive power and electricity to run our civilization, which has thus far been to the benefit of all of us. Is there a cost looming ahead? If so, how might we avoid that cost? I start with Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727).2 In the 1660’s he discov- ered three laws of motion plus the law of gravitation, which required the concept of action at a distance, a concept that scientists of his day reacted to with horror. Yet without that strange action at a distance we would have no way to explain the motion of planets. The main law is Force = Mass × Acceleration. This is a differential equation that must be integrated twice to obtain position. -
Hurricanes and Climate Change
Special Report: Hurricanes and Climate Change Judith Curry Climate Forecast Applications Network Version 2 4 September 2019 Contact information: Judith Curry, President Climate Forecast Applications Network Reno, NV 89519 404 803 2012 [email protected] http://www.cfanclimate.net 1 Hurricanes and Climate Change Judith Curry Climate Forecast Applications Network Executive summary . 4 1. Introduction . 5 2. Hurricane terminology, structure and mechanisms . 6 2.1 Hurricane processes 2.2 Factors contributing to landfall impacts 2.2.1 Wind damage 2.2.2 Storm surge 2.2.3 Rainfall 3. Historical variability and trends . 12 3.1 Global 3.2 Atlantic 3.3 Pacific 3.4 Conclusions 4. Detection and attribution . 26 4.1 Detection 4.2 Sources of variability and change 4.3 Natural multi-decadal climate modes 4.4 Attribution – models 4.5 Attribution – physical understanding 4.6 Conclusions 5. Landfalling hurricanes . 43 5.1 Continental U.S. 5.2 Caribbean 5.3 Global 5.4 Water – rainfall and storm surge 5.5 Hurricane size 5.6 Damage and losses 5.7 Conclusions 6. Attribution: recent U.S. landfalling hurricanes . 58 6.1 Detection and attribution of extreme weather events 6.2 Sandy 6.3 Harvey 6.4 Irma 6.5 Florence 6.6 Michael 6.7. Conclusions 2 7. 21st century projections . 66 7.1 Climate model projections 7.2 2100 – manmade climate change 7.3 2050 – decadal variability 7.3 Landfall impacts 8. Conclusions . 78 References . 80 3 Executive summary This Report assesses the scientific basis for projections of future hurricane activity. The Report evaluates the assessments and projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and recent national assessments regarding hurricanes. -
Water, Energy, and Environment – a Primer
Chapter 10 Policy considerations The purpose of this chapter is to focus on policy issues associated with the water–energy–environment nexus. At first blush this is more than an imposing task since the provision of water and energy services is essential to all human activities. Providing a policy environment that touches all the necessary bases for successful provision of these services is obviously complicated and inevitably contentious, as policy studies and political history clearly document. So how to proceed? I choose to begin with a definition of ‘policy’: ‘A policy is a deliberate system of principles to guide decisions and achieve national outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent …’ (62) For example, as stated by UK Prime Minister Theresa May on 19 February 2018, it is the policy of the United Kingdom to ‘… have an education system at all levels which serves the needs of every child.’ (63) Policy development in areas related to water, energy, and environment was a primary focus of my career in government, and I draw upon that experience in the discussion that follows. © 2019 The Author. This is an Open Access book chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits copying and redistribution for non-commercial purposes with no derivatives, provided the original work is properly cited (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). This does not affect the rights licensed or assigned from any third party in this book. The chapter is from the book Water, Energy, and Environment: A Primer, Allan R.