Showing posts with label climate's changed before. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate's changed before. Show all posts

Tuesday, 24 February 2009

Chris Schoneveld

Dutch Geologist Dr. Chris Schoneveld, a retired exploration geophysicist, has become an outspoken skeptic regarding the human influence on climate over the past four years.

List cites a comment to a media article and there's also a blog comment
He has a profile page here: http://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/ChrisSchoneveld
And a long message/letter:

Arguments Condensed

Quotes:

  • "There has never been a UN-organized conference on climate change where skeptics were invited for the sake of balance to present their case"
  • "As long as the causes of the many climate changes throughout the Earth's history are not well understood, one cannot unequivocally separate natural causes from possibly manmade ones."
  • "Who are the geologists that the IPCC is relying on? Is the IPCC at all concerned about the frequency and recurrence of ice ages? Who are the astronomers that advise the IPCC on other cause of possible climate change (sun spots or earth’s elliptical orbit, tilt and wobble of its axis) so as to ascertain that we are not just experiencing a normal trend related to interglacial warming or variation in solar radiation?"

Sunday, 22 February 2009

Philip Stott

UK Professor Emeritus of Biogeography Philip Stott of the University of London
List cites this EPW blog post

He also has a blog

Arguments Condensed
  • climate's changed before
  • We know very little about climate
  • It hasn't warmed since 1998 (although specifically he says "since at least 2001")

Quote

  • "But, finally, we must return to basic science. Climate is the most complex, coupled, non-linear, semi-chaotic system known. The claim by UK MPs that they can manage climate predictably is the ultimate folie de grandeur. In such a system, both doing something (i.e., emitting gases) and not doing something (i.e., not emitting gases) at the margins are equally unpredictable as to outcomes." [ref]
  • "Interestingly, the world average surface temperature has now exhibited no ‘global warming’ since at least 2001" [ref]

Notes:

  • He argues mainly from politics, only occasionally wading into trying to justify his claims scientifically

Friday, 2 January 2009

Alan Titchmarch

Horticulturalist Alan Titchmarch, a prominent naturalist who hosts the popular "The Nature of Britain" program on the BBC, received the Royal Horticultural Society’s highest award – the Victoria Medal of Honor – for outstanding services to horticulture.

Links to the following news article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/10/06/nosplit/bvtvtitchmarsh06.xml

edit: the correct spelling is Titchmarsh I believe.

Arguments condensed:

  • Climate's changed before
  • Why no warming during the industrial revolution?
  • We’ll lose some species, but we’ll gain others.
  • Accepts manmade global warming and acting on it.

Notes:

  • In the news article he says: "Why didn’t we have global warming during the Industrial Revolution? In those days you couldn’t have seen across the street for all the carbon emissions and the crap coming out of the chimneys."
  • Also says: "I’m sure we are contributing to global warming, and we must do all we can to reduce that"

Thursday, 18 December 2008

Justin Berk

Meteorologist Justin Berk asserted that the "majority of TV meteorologists" are
skeptical of dire man-made global warming claims.


The list cites this news article (alternative source, the link on the list is broken). I have also been pointed to Justin Berk's blog - there's a recent post on global warming here. Also see an article on his other blog.

Arguments condensed

Notes:

  • Most of his blog posts are on the subject of weather with only a brief mention of climate change now and again.
  • His major argument, which seems to be his main reason for being skeptical of the theory is that warming and cooling have occured naturally in the past.
  • Some of the things he says suggest he isn't very familiar with this issue, for example: "A story yesterday in Investors Business Daily pointed out that the planet has been cooling since 1998, ice growth had begun in the northern Hemisphere last year...".

Quotes:

"Many have stated that Global Warming is a Theory, since according to the basic scientific method, it is not a proven Law. Therefore is should still be up for debate." (link)

"The stable global temperatures and increasing support for cooling in recent years has only strengthened the scientists who were forced into silence out of fear of dissent. Yup, there was a lot of pressure to keep many scientist quiet." (link)

Monday, 15 December 2008

Art Horn

Meteorologist Art Horn, currently operating The ‘Art' Of the Weather business

The list cites nothing, and that's the shortest introduction so far. Horn has actually written to the EPW according to the list.

But here's some more info:
http://www.theartofweather.com/arthorn.htm
and he has a website:
http://www.theartofweather.com/index.htm

On his FAQ page he has a topic "Is Global Warming For Real? Click here for the answer"
http://www.theartofweather.com/PageQ4.htm

There's also a news article interviewing him here where he talks about global warming:
http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=2114

Arguments condensed

Notes:

When I found the news article and started reading it I wondered why The List hadn't cited it, as it cites many news articles for other names. My guess is because at the end of the article Horn's arguments are firmly tackled by climate scientists Dr Bill Chameides and Dr Brenda Ekwurzel:

"Ekwurzel or Chameides both discounted Horn's claim that only three percent of carbon emmisions are man-made.
"The claims are common if you haven't been trained in climate science," said Ekwurzel. "He's looking at the composition of the atmosphere and drawing conclusions without understanding all the various properties of water vapor versus carbon dioxide and so on."

Quotes:

"A self-described political moderate, Horn said he first conceived of the global warming presentation to engage with the popular topic of climate change, and he started from the premise that global warming didn't exist."

"Horn said that he wasn't alone in his beliefs about global warming, citing Web sites such as icecap.us and climatescience.org"

"In addition, Horn says, only about three percent of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is man-made. The amount of man-made carbon in the atmosphere, Horn says, composes less than a tenth of the total atmosphere. According to Horn, such a small percentage couldn't possibly have an effect on global climate."

Qualifications:

  • From the article we learn that Horn has a BSc in meteorology.