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American Physical Society declares "global warming" unproven

Posted 18 Jul 2008 in global warming, science

* UPDATE * Since some readers missed my earlier update at the bottom of this post, and due to the inflammatory nature of questioning the theory of anthropogenic climate change (a.k.a. man-made global warming), I’m bumping this one to the top.

After Viscount Monckton published an article questioning the core calculation of the IPCC’s greenhouse gas theory, the APS quickly issued a denial seemingly to quash debate:

“The following article has not undergone any scientific peer review. Its conclusions are in disagreement with the overwhelming opinion of the world scientific community. The Council of the American Physical Society disagrees with this article’s conclusions.”

The disclaimer at the top of the article now reads:

“The following article has not undergone any scientific peer review, since that is not normal procedure for American Physical Society newsletters. The American Physical Society reaffirms the following position on climate change, adopted by its governing body, the APS Council, on November 18, 2007: ‘Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth’s climate.’”

UK’s The Register details Monckton’s reply to APS President Arthur Bienenstock:

“If the Council has not scientifically evaluated or formally considered my paper, may I ask with what credible scientific justification, and on whose authority, the offending text asserts primo, that the paper had not been scientifically reviewed when it had; secundo, that its conclusions disagree with what is said (on no evidence) to be the “overwhelming opinion of the world scientific community”; and, tertio, that “The Council of the American Physical Society disagrees with this article’s conclusions”? Which of my conclusions does the Council disagree with, and on what scientific grounds (if any)?”

My initial post follows…
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This is just too good. The American Physical Society is not only asserting that man-made global climate change is unproven, they’re accusing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of intentionally distorting their evidence.

The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science. The leadership of the society had previously called the evidence for global warming “incontrovertible.” …

The APS is opening its debate with the publication of a paper by Lord Monckton of Brenchley, which concludes that climate sensitivity — the rate of temperature change a given amount of greenhouse gas will cause — has been grossly overstated by IPCC modeling. A low sensitivity implies additional atmospheric CO2 will have little effect on global climate.

Larry Gould, Professor of Physics at the University of Hartford and Chairman of the New England Section of the APS, called Monckton’s paper an “expose of the IPCC that details numerous exaggerations and “extensive errors”

In an email to DailyTech, Monckton says, “I was dismayed to discover that the IPCC’s 2001 and 2007 reports did not devote chapters to the central ‘climate sensitivity’ question, and did not explain in proper, systematic detail the methods by which they evaluated it. When I began to investigate, it seemed that the IPCC was deliberately concealing and obscuring its method.”

The Science and Public Policy Institute is saying basically the same thing.

Mathematical proof that there is no “climate crisis” appears today in a major, peer-reviewed paper in Physics and Society, a learned journal of the 10,000-strong American Physical Society, SPPI reports.

Christopher Monckton, who once advised Margaret Thatcher, demonstrates via 30 equations that computer models used by the UN’s climate panel (IPCC) were pre-programmed with overstated values for the three variables whose product is “climate sensitivity” (temperature increase in response to greenhouse-gas increase), resulting in a 500-2000% overstatement of CO2’s effect on temperature in the IPCC’s latest climate assessment report, published in 2007.

Climate Sensitivity Reconsidered demonstrates that later this century a doubling of the concentration of CO2 compared with pre-industrial levels will increase global mean surface temperature not by the 6 °F predicted by the IPCC but, harmlessly, by little more than 1 °F. …

Never one to let mere facts get in the way of his agenda, panic-meister Al Gore is now proposing a complete elimination of fossil fuels by 2018.

“Our dangerous reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all these problems – economic, environmental, national security,” Gore said. “The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels.”
[...]
He shied away from specifics during the speech, not mentioning the trillion-dollar price tag of ending carbon-based electricity. Instead, Gore urged the US to institute a carbon tax that could be offset by reducing the payroll tax on employers.

“We should tax what we burn, not what we earn,” he said.

Underpinning Gore’s remarks, however, was a finely tuned sense of the economic anxiety that dominates American life 13 weeks before the next presidential election.

Indeed, Gore’s been relying on the apprehension borne of his fables to sell his “global warming” snake oil to the world for some time now, and he’s been laughing all the way to the bank. I think these recent developments will be lost on Saint Chicken Little, much like the inconvenient results of those Florida recounts.

“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.” – H. L. Mencken

Global warming? Climate change? Tell him, Inigo.

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UPDATE: Michelle Malkin is on top of this and posted the spin-control “clarification” issued by the APS as well as some tasty eco-hypocrisy being displayed today at Al Gore’s big energy sermon in Washington, D.C.

Posted by FullMetalPatriot
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT

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