Earthsky Interviews
Thomas Karl says humans changing atmosphere in ways we’ve never seen
Photo Credit: < a href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/senor_codo/352250460/ target=_blank>Senor Codo
10-05-2009 - Earth
Climate researcher Thomas Karl is the director of the National Climatic Data Center, the world’s largest archive of climate data. Karl told EarthSky that the large-scale burning of fossil fuels by humans amounts to treating our planet like a giant laboratory. Fossil fuels produce C02, which is known to be warming Earth’s atmosphere – but scientists aren’t sure how quickly.
Thomas Karl: There’s likely to be some surprises in the future. So it’s extremely important then, to monitor as an early warning system, and how we do this is we have an array of satellites, we have an array of surface-based observations from radar, to ships, buoys in the ocean, and even look at past records by drilling into ice cores.
Karl said the situation is complex, and that the data is showing changes to Earth’s climate are real. He added that these changes are already impacting people’s everyday lives.
Thomas Karl: We’ve seen an increase in temperatures. We’ve seen more heavy and extreme precipitation events. We’ve seen a reduction in the Arctic sea ice.
Karl said that, to better monitor global warming, the U.S. plans to launch a ‘next-generation’ of polar orbiting satellites. Starting in 2009, the country will replace some satellites that have been in orbit for close to fifty years. The next generation of polar-orbiting satellites is needed, said Karl.
Thomas Karl: Right now, NOAA, along with the Department of Defense and NASA, is embarking on an important mission of launching a next-generation of polar-orbiting satellites. We’ve had fifteen satellites, and these have been up in the atmosphere since 1960. The first satellite, TYROS, was launched in 1960. We’re coming up to a 50-year anniversary next year. And with each new satellite, we’ve had small improvements. We’ve been able to try and look at what’s happening on the Earth, trying to stitch together the records from these different satellites. Now, for the first time, we’re going to have a much more comprehensive satellite up there, able to measure with more accuracy, higher resolution, measuring more climate variables than ever before. This is important because we want to continue the record we built on, and we recognize that in the next five to seven years, we’ll have to fly new satellites to replace the ones that decay in orbit.
Written by Jorge Salazar
8 Responses to “Thomas Karl says humans changing atmosphere in ways we’ve never seen”
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Thomas Karl
Thomas Karl, president of the American Meteorological Society, heads climate services for NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. He is director of NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, and has authored, co-authored, or edited several books and over 150 scientific articles. Dr. Karl has also led several national and international assessments related to climate change. ... >>
NOAA has already admitted they faked data to counter a cold bias in the actual numbers. IPCC’s data is all garbaage. Ice core samples indicate CO2 levels have been as high as 2000 ppm in the past. Plant growth stops when CO2 concentration in the atmosphere drop to 150 ppm.
We hsve too small a data set to predict or even identify a trend. Our biggest danger on this planet is from allowing a few politically motivated folks to use bad data to destroy our economies. That will kill people a lot faster and in greater numbers than will any non-existent global warming. If one will take the effort to be intellectually honest, one will quickly realize the earth has been much warmer and much colder than it is right now. And that is withing recent history. Long term, the extremes have been well outside survivability for humans. Not because of us. Just because. Climate is not a constant. It has always been subject to change. And always will be. Destroying economimes and killing humans will not change any of that.
Ben, so you don’t believe that humans are changing climate. Do you believe that humans MIGHT change climate? There are 7 billion humans on Earth today. Do you believe we could change climate if there were twice as many humans? Three times as many? What if there were 50 billion people on Earth? Could we change climate then?
Yes, climate has changed in the past. That’s not the point. The point is that it is changing now. Past changes occurred on an Earth with far, far fewer than 7 billion human inhabitants.
The point is climate change will affect people on Earth in unexpected, and likely negative, ways – especially people living in developing countries. So if there’s a CHANCE that humans may be changing climate, shouldn’t we pay attention to that?
It continues to amaze me that you make assertions completely unsupported by science. Nearly all climate scientists agree that climate is changing, and we humans are playing a role.
Mr Napier;
I agree with you,Along with that, it leaves many other questions that are never addressed such as, Chemtrails,Weather manipulation, Haarp , The military industrial complex with radiation weapons, phosphorus,Depleted uranium,Rockets ,shuttles,satellite launch`s etc. All these things adding to or punching holes in the atmosphere.Manipulation of the ionosphere and magnetosphere.
Not just by the U.S but many other countries and their microwave thermal heaters,nuclear testing and such.These items never seem to make it into the mix of the discussion. Maybe large corporations that have left and leave their toxins all over the planet Aerial or terrestrial should be dealt with also.
Of course it will not be dealt with, as, its always the consumer or the guy down the street that causes all the problems. The Global warming carbon market is just that, A market ! created for monetary gain for the few,another marketing scam just like the rest created from Washington wall street.
The government coverups,lying,misinformation,disinformation,bad intel,false flags and do as i say not as i do , has made the public not trust or believe practically anything said or produced by them,the CDC,FBI,CIA,NSF,NOAA,UN,WHO,RAND,Bilderberg Group,CFR,Trilateral commision,Army,Airforce,navy,marines.We have people that wrote the book on eugenics and how to cull the population now leading the head of science for the administration, Holden I believe.Witchcraft in the whitehouse.
This is all documented.
Do I, believe we add to pollution of the planet ? absolutely ! Will a carbon market solve it ….NO.
Until all the above is solved and covered, they MAY get my trust back.
It is also my understanding that most of the planets in the solar system are heating up are we responsible for that too ?
The not so mainstream media like to call people searching for truth, “truthers” so be it ,that is the way I was taught by my loving parents,much better than being a LIAR or worse a PROFFESIONAL LIAR.
There is so much more. Trust must be earned.Those not trusted have brought in on themselves.
Think I will go look at the starry sky and make a wish and turn the solar panels to the east. Thank you
Earthsky for letting us voice our opinion.
,Norad,FCC,on and on and on.
Thank you, Racerob, for taking the time to comment.
Deborah,
“If” is the largest word in the English language. And, I must ask the following question: Why must climate change have a neagtive effect on the developing world? It is a given that increased CO2 levels will increase the rate of plant growth. A warming climate would increase agricultural output in the higher latitudes.
What I am really worried about right now is the push toward collectivism in the whole world right now. That will starve far more people than any likely climate change. And, right now the earth is cooling pretty rapidly. If this continues, will we see the replay of the dark ages with its rampant disease? Folks huddled together for warmth with low caloric availability is a recipe for disaster.
And no, we should not destroy our economies on the off chance that our activities might be causing a change in our climate. Everything effects the area aaround it. Nothing is without effect .I just don’t beleive that humans are a pathogen, nor do I beleive that any of our activities are destroying our habitat other than those that are destroying the aforementioned economies.
Ben, wow, it’s hard to argue, isn’t it, when you and I don’t believe the same basic facts about the world. For example, your assertion that ‘right now the early is cooling pretty rapidly.’ That’s just not so. Here’s a data chart over the past 150 years: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.A2.txt
You can see that – although there are fluctuations – the trend is clearly toward warming, not cooling. Do you have a comparable chart over the past 150 years showing something different? An actual data set proving your assertion that the world is cooling? If so, I’d like to see it and see the reference. This set was created at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. I’m sure you’re going to tell me this is a ‘lie’ but I still have no idea why you think that. Where’s your evidence??
“…nor do I beleive that any of our activities are destroying our habitat …”
Rain forest is disappearing mighty fast because people are cutting it down.
Deborah,
I wanted to kindly mention that the data set you referenced is derived by GISS from the USHCN and other land based temperature instruments under the larger umbrella of NCDC. This particular network and its data products are well recognized by scientists to be inaccurate due to a number of siting issues, calibration drift due to lack of maintenance, UHE (Urban Heat Effect), and a host of data integrity issues. Numerous peer reviewed papers estimate an inaccuracy of 30%, 50% or more as compared to well calibrated sources, making the GISS data set a poor reference for estimating absolute global temperatures and anomalies. Its only uncontroversial use is in relative temperature variance studies where absolute measurements are unimportant.
Perhaps one of the best references readily available for global temperatures and trends is Dr. Roy Spencer’s UAH Globally Averaged Satellite-Based Temperature series found here:
http://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/
Dr. Spencer is the former Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA and has received NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for global temperature monitoring. He remains the U.S. Science Team leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer project for NASA.
P.S. I think he would make an interesting interview as his research on climate sensitivity signatures over short term and long time cycles is drawing much attention lately in climatology circles.