Re: [Phys-L] "Climate science is not settled"
It would seem that the big talking point is the idea that the man made
influence is small compared to the natural variability. This was not given
a proper context. Certainly it is small compared to a catastrophic meteor
strike, or a huge volcanic eruption. The year to year air temperature
variability is certainly larger, but the influence of human induced climate
change is undernath the "random noise" and it is all in one direction. The
melting of all existing glaciars is inevitable as long as we have the heavy
CO2 load in the atmosphere. It is already happening. The increase of the
acidity of the oceans is increasing, with strong effects on marine life, and
we know that the ocean temperatures have increased.
The other statement was that the CO2 would remain for centuries. That is
questionable since the primary mechanism for permanent CO2 removal is the
permanent burial of organic material containing carbon. With the reduction
of forest lands the removal of CO2 has been reduced. Yes, the biggest sink
for CO2 is the oceans, but they are approaching saturation and eventually
will not be able to remove as much. I would think the CO2 would more likely
remain for millenia, but perhaps there are others who have better data on
this.
The paragraph did agree that human induced climate change is happening. The
main problem with the statement is that it can be easily taken out of
context, especially as the context was not well specified. As to climate
science not being settled, all scientific questions have some degree of
unsettlement. Again this will be taken out of context with the "not
settled" quote separated from the certainty of human induced climate change
quote. Of course this is what students do with NTN1. They all know and
believe that things at rest tend to stay at rest, but they mostly do not
believe that things tend to stay in motion when not acted upon by unbalanced
forces.
John M. Clement
Houston, TX
> Hi,
>
> I hope that I do not open a Pandora's box with this:
> <http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/ne
> ws/10.1063/PT.5.8071>
>
> Physics Today cites a WSJ commentary by Dr. Steve Koonin:
> ""Climate science is not settled." It is interesting to read
> what the readers of PT have to say.
>
> Regards,
>
> Antti
>
>
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