Global warming/climate change
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"There appears to be a concerted and systematic effort by some individuals to undermine and discredit the scientific process that has led many scientists working on understanding climate to conclude that there is a very real possibility that humans are modifying Earth's climate on a global scale. Rather than carrying out a legitimate scientific debate through the peer-reviewed literature, they are waging in the public media a vocal campaign against scientific results with which they disagree."
from An open letter to Ben Santer
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The Carbon War by Jeremy Leggett. The site has several pages promoting the book (now available in the states) including A chronology of 'Carbon Club' manipulations.
Beating the Heat: Why and How We Must Combat Global Warming ( Berkeley Hills Books, 2000) by John J. Berger contains a chapter on myths and mythmakers. Also has background information on climate change and on climate-safe energy sources.
It is often claimed that efforts to control global warming will cause massive job losses. In The Trade-Off Myth: Fact and Fiction About Jobs and the Environment (Island Press, 1999) Eban Goodstein shows that such efforts will probably have little impact on the total number of jobs.
The Heat Is on: The Climate Crisis, the Cover-Up, the Prescription, by Ross Gelbspan , Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1998. Gelbspan concentrates on refuting the claims of the "science skeptics"; Robert Balling, Richard Lindzen, Patrick Michaels, S. Fred Singer and Sherwood Idso. Includes "A Scientific Critique of the Greenhouse Skeptics" written by several leading climate scientists. Related web sites:
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NEW RealClimate is a new blog by real scientists that conters global warming myths
Exxonsectrets.org looks at climate skeptic groups and individuals.
Environmental Defense analysis of an ad From ExxonMobile about climate change.(PDF)
Misconceptions, myths cloud global warming picture
Common misconceptions about climate change
Tim Lambert has an interesting post on the "Oregon petition"
Global Warming Basics from the NRDC
Chris Mooney reports on the film The Day After Tomorrow. Although the film is the product of a pair of crackpots it is being used to attack environmental scientists and activists.
Ken Miles posts on an interview with Fred Singer. Scroll down to "A very sad site"
Tim Lambert criticises climate "skeptic" Ross McKitrick, and continues the critisism here.
Myths About Past Temperatures In Greenland And England
Wild weather ignites climate change debate is a debate between Plimmer and Robert Watson
The Pentagon's report on climate change has recieved considerable attention, including Apocalyptic Pentagon report on global warming could spur action on Capitol Hill by Amanda Griscom and Code Red by Arianna Huffington
“Mediarology”: The Roles of Citizens, Journalists, and Scientists in Debunking Climate Change Myths by Stephen Schneider
In Future Scientists of America, Unite! Chris Mooney describes the blandly titled Science in Policy. The group looks at a number of issues including climate change, tozxins, endangered species and forests.
The Wall Street Journal and the climate looks at an editorial in the WSJ
Review of the climate chapter in The Skeptical Environmentalist
Climate Change Alert by Patrick Doherty and The Pentagon's Weather Nightmare by David Stipp note that the Pentagon is taking climate change more seriously than the Whitehouse is.
Chris Mooney takes a look at the interesting parallels between Tobacco and Climate Science
In Smoke Signals: Global-warming activists can learn from the anti-smoking campaign Audrey Schulman argues that those atrying to counter the climate change "skeptics" can learn from anti-smoking campaigns.
The American Geophysical Union has issued a press release countering a favorite anti-global warming claim: Cosmic Rays Are Not the Cause of Climate Change, Scientists Say The full paper can be found here.
James Schlesinger, former secretary of DOE, has become a spokesperson for the global warming opponents. David Appell responds to some of his comments here.
In Never Mind That Boiling Kettle... Carl Zimmer finds fault with the critics, including Gregg Easterbrook, of a recent study published in Nature that showed that global warming will lead to massive species extinction. UPDATE: Zimmer has added a look at past extinctions in response to climate change.
The AGU has issued an updated statment on climate change:
In Abuses of Skepticism Chris Mooney takes on those who use claims of skepticism to deny such things as human caused climate change.
Contrary to what the denialists keep clamming, the science of global warming keeps getting stronger. NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) has issued a press release titled “No Doubt” Human Activity Is Affecting Global Climate, Top Scientists Conclude announcing a paper appearing in the December 5, 2003 issue of Science.("Modern Global Climate Change "by Thomas Karl and Kevin Trenberth). UPDATE: The CATO institute has issued a particularly objectionable response to the paper: Is Science Behind the Times? by Patrick J. Michaels
Everyone who reads Science -- the journal of the lobbying organization the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) -- knows that it only accepts one side of the global warming story in its "Compass" and "Perspectives" sections, and in its more opinionated, mainline articles. Anyone who writes otherwise for those sections gets a quick rejection. That's understandable because global warming is scheduled to pay U.S. scientists about $4.2 billion next year, and the AAAS is just doing its job keeping the customers happy.
IPCC SRES REVISITED: A RESPONSE is a responce to an article by Castles and Henderson that criticised the IPCC
In Hot Words: A claim of nonhuman-induced global warming sparks debate David Appell takes a look at the famous Baliunas and Soon paper
According to Quark Soup the latest attack on global warming science ,a report by McIntyre and McKitrick that has been touted by the usual global warming denialists, is deeply flawed. UPDATE: The authors of the original paper have issued a preliminary rebuttal.now avalable in HTML
Global Warming does not end in a question mark from Exposing the Right
The controversy over the Soon and Baliunas paper in Climate Research continues. Hans von Storch, recently appointed as Editor-in-Chief, resigned after the journal refused to run an editorial criticising the decision to publish the paper. Two other editors also resigned. While the Wall Street Journal covered the story, it has received little coverage elsewhere. (UPDATE: the story has recived some more coverage, but still not much.)
In Leading Climate Scientists Reaffirm View that Late 20th Century Warming Was Unusual and Resulted From Human Activity a number of scientists take issue with papers by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas that were widley promoted by industry friendly groups and media.
Climate Change: Myths and Realities by Eileen Claussen
Foes of global warming theory have energy ties By JEFF NESMITH COX NEWS SERVICE
OP-ED SCIENCE A MYTH: GLOBAL WARMING IS HAPPENING
Activists' briefings: Climate change
I've heard from the US EPA
Global Warming: Fact vs. Myth from Environmental Defense
What's wrong with srill waiting for greenhouse.
TEN POPULAR MYTHS About Global Climate Change from The Sierra Club of Canada
TEN POPULAR MYTHS About the Kyoto Protocol from The Sierra Club of Canada
The global warming FAQ by Tom Rees
Scott Church's page global warming skeptics.
Alternate Views a response to a lecture by Robert C. Balling, Jr.
The Science of Climate Change a joint statement by several scientific societies. "The balance of the scientific evidence demands effective steps now to avert damaging changes to Earth's climate." In Science May 18, 2001, page 1261.
Common Questions about Climate Change from the World Meteorological Organization
Nat'l Academy Press, Climate Change Science:
Special insert--An open letter to Ben Santer includes three responses to an editorial by Frederick Seitz that appeared in the Wall Street Journal. The editorial has benn frequently cited by the opponents of global warming science.
The Global Warming Debate By James Hansen
THE ANTI-KYOTO PETITION PROJECT
AN EASTERBROOK DONNYBROOK Grist Magazine takes a look at an Gregg Easterbrook op/ed on global warming.
In Who's the Chump Jeremy Giller of Grist Magazine busts an ad from the Greening Earth Society.
Corporate Propaganda Disputes Global Warming
What the Skeptics Don't Tell You
GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE: INFORMATION, MISINFORMATION, AND DISINFORMATION by Dr. Michael Swords
Global warming: Distorting education under corporate capitalism
The American Geophysical Union has issued a Position Statement on Climate Change and Greenhouse Gasses, "AGU recommends the development and evaluation of strategies such as emissions reduction, carbon sequestration, and adaptation to the impacts of climate change. AGU believes that the present level of scientific uncertainty does not justify inaction in the mitigation of human-induced climate change and/or the adaptation to it." (Even this mild statement has produced howls of protests from the "brownlash", causing the AGU to issue this response.)
A New Disinformation Campaign from Rachel's Environment and Health Weekly
The Debate with Industry - Countering The Sceptics from Greenpeace
Science and Nonscience Concerning Human-Caused Climate Warming by J. D. Mahlman (Annu. Rev. Energy Environ. 1998. 23: 83-105)
Global Warming and Corporate PR by Sharon Beder
Using Phony Science to Discredit Global Warming from Environmental Defense.
The Wall Street Journal Blurs the Lines Between Science, Opinion, & Politics on Global Warming by Joseph E. Armstrong
Michael Tobis wrote a review of the global warming material in Dixy Lee Ray's Environmental Overkill: "In the Global Warming chapter, there are quite a few factual errors that would not have escaped any responsible effort at verification."
Why does atmospheric CO2 rise? by Jan Schloerer
Two pages from the Union of Concerned Scientists
A favorite ploy of the anti-environmentalists is to bring up predictions of a coming ice age made in the 1970's. According to this report no such predictions were ever made by scientists.
Myths on the Greenhouse Effect
Global Warming Is Good for You! from the Houston Press
Media goofed on Antarctic data / Global warming interpretation irks scientists
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"Greenhouse Wars" in the July 19, 1997 New Scientist looks at some of the claims of the greenhouse skeptics.
In "Consensus science, or consensus politics? (Nature, Vol 412, 12 July, 2001, pages 112-114) Mark Schrope takes a look at claims that the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports have been slanted by politics. An accompanying editorial, "Shooting the messenger", (page 103) strongly criticizes the critics of the IPCC. "To this end, they have championed specious scientific findings and worked to establish a bogus scientific debate between their own 'experts'-many of whom are not even atmospheric scientists-and the consensus view of climate researchers."
Temperature measurements calculated from satellite measurements have been the last refuge of the global warming naysayers. But several criticisms of the measurements have been raised. Here are two articles that summarize the controversy, which is sure to continue. "Global Climate Date and Models: A Reconciliation"' by James Hansen et al., Science, vol. 281, pages930-932 (August 14, 1998) "Until now the MSU data have been the principle refuge for those who deny the reality of global. We believe that warming trends of both the surface and troposphere are now sufficiently clear that the issue should no longer be whether global warming is occurring, but what is the rate of warming, what is its practical significance, and what should be done about it." And "Falling satellites, rising temperatures?" By Dian J. Gaffen, Nature, vol 394, pages 615-616 (August 13, 1998).
"Uncertainties in projects of human-caused climate warming" (Science, Vol. 278, November 21, 1997, pages 1416-1417). J. D. Mahlman's look at what is likely and unlikely to happen as a result of climate change. "It is clear that much is known about the climate system and about how that knowledge is expressed through the use of physically based coupled models of the atmosphere, ocean, ice, and land surface systems. This knowledge makes it obvious that human caused greenhouse warming is not a problem that can rationally be dismissed or ignored."
For a critique (now somewhat dated) of issues raised by global warming skeptics see "Response to Skeptics of Global Warming", William W Kellogg, Bulletin American Meteorological Society, Vol. 74, 1991, pp 499-511.
For a look at the controversy about the IPCC report see "Attacks on IPCC Report Heat Controversy Over Global Warming", Toni Feder, Physics Today, August 1996, pp 55-57
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NEW Correcting myths from McIntyre and McKitrick
And now for something completely different
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Written by Jim Norton
Visit my anti-environmental myths home page.
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