Congress has asked the U.S. National Academy of Sciences to conduct special studies through the year 2010 – focused on climate change. Here’s National Academy of Sciences president, Ralph Cicerone, speaking at a March 2009 summit centered on America’s climate choices.
Ralph Cicerone: This is a study that was requested by the United States Congress basically to analyze the latest information on climate and to give some policy guidance to the federal government on what actions they should take to deal with climate change to limit its scope and to adapt to whatever does happen.
Cicerone said the urgency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels is clear.
Ralph Cicerone: It’s really long overdue because the United States has wasted a lot of time in getting started. Probably what’s going to be required is a series of actions, a lot of them having to do with energy efficiency and energy technology that are not going to happen in one month.
EarthSky asked, what’s the most important thing about climate change people today should know?
Ralph Cicerone: That it’s real. We’ve seen the big signs. Now we’re trying to figure out better what’s happening in everybody’s individual geographical region and then to try and limit it. It’s going to take from everybody. That’s the big message: how much understanding and cooperation and commitment it’s going to take from everybody.
Our thanks to:
Ralph Cicerone
President
National Academy of Sciences
Washington, DC
Image Credit:
There is no “urgency” to curb the use of “fossil” fuels. None whatsoever. There is no global warming, manmade or otherwise. If you will look at our United States Constitution, sworn to be upheld by every elected official in the government, you will find no powers granted to control environment or the economy.
And that is what it is about. Power. the envronment is fine. The economy would be fine if left alone and private property rights were respected by those in power. People will manage their own property to their own best advantage. And as Adam Smith said: “The invisible hand” will work in a way that will benefit all. The other side of the page is what was called the “tragedy of the commons.” Basically, if everyone owns it, no one cares and it goes to hell. That is reality.
Dr David Evans was a consultant to the Australian Greenhouse Office from 1999 to 2005.
I DEVOTED six years to carbon accounting, building models for the Australian Greenhouse Office. I am the rocket scientist who wrote the carbon accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia’s compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, in the land use change and forestry sector.
FullCAM models carbon flows in plants, mulch, debris, soils and agricultural products, using inputs such as climate data, plant physiology and satellite data. I’ve been following the global warming debate closely for years.
When I started that job in 1999 the evidence that carbon emissions caused global warming seemed pretty good: CO2 is a greenhouse gas, the old ice core data, no other suspects.
2. There is no evidence to support the idea that carbon emissions cause significant global warming. None. There is plenty of evidence that global warming has occurred, and theory suggests that carbon emissions should raise temperatures (though by how much is hotly disputed) but there are no observations by anyone that implicate carbon emissions as a significant cause of the recent global warming.
The pattern of global warming fits the role of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Water vapor is a very effective greenhouse gas, and large amounts of water vapor typical of low latitudes mask the effect of other greenhouse gases. This leads to a maximum of global warming where the air has least water vapor, such at high latitudes and high altitudes.
If solar variation were the dominant effect, on the other hand, the warming would be a maximum in low latitudes, where the annual averaged solar radiation reaches a maximum.
—— N Phillips, retired Principal Scientist, NOAA.