Global warming: Evidence is much more than hot air
State Sen. Jerome Delvin states that the Western Climate Initiative constitutes "foolish environmental policies" prompted by "faulty and often-discredited climate change research" ("Hot air over global warming," Sept. 3 guest column). While we have no comments about the merits of the WCI, Delvin's dim view of science stems from a highly selective sampling of available evidence.
Science is built on evidence, expressed through peer-reviewed papers in which conclusions are scrutinized by other experts before publication. Scientists have published thousands of papers on a wide range of relevant subjects in Earth system science.
Every major scientific body that has assessed this vast array of papers has concluded that the Earth is warming and that humans are at least partly responsible. The largest assessment, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, stated in 2007 that evidence of global warming is "unequivocal."
By contrast, Delvin cites, as an authority, a widely discredited petition for which signers needed only to claim to be scientists. In what other realm is expert opinion sought by consulting a loosely controlled petition, rather than by directly asking known experts? Most signatories claimed no expertise in climate science, and an investigation by Scientific American magazine of some who did claim expertise found that only a tiny minority actually had such expertise and still agreed with the statement they signed.
Delvin also claims that climate models "have never been validated through observable data." That is simply untrue. In 1991, when Mount Pinatubo erupted, scientists predicted the amount of global cooling that would result; the predictions turned out to be remarkably accurate. Simulations in 1990 and again in 1995 of the rate of global warming were also remarkably accurate, according to the scientists who scrutinized them for the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Delvin's statement that "We have had 10 years of global cooling since 1998" is a red herring. The year 1998 was exceptionally warm the world over because of a large El Niño event, but the whole of the past decade stands out as exceptionally warm by historical standards. In fact, the past decade includes eight of the 10 warmest years of the past century and just continues to strengthen the case for global warming.
The evidence shows that global warming is real, serious and far more than a lot of hot air, as politicians from both parties recognize. Our children and grandchildren will have to deal with the consequences of climate change. Their job will be easier if we act quickly and decisively to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions based on the abundance of warming signs already before our eyes.
From: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/378606_climaterebut11.html
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