I have decided to break into my mini-critique of the school of environmental thought known as Ecological Modernisation (i.e. seeking solve the potential problem of perpetual growth on a finite Planet!) to address the above question. This is because, at the end of yesterday’s post, I referred to the UN’s latest computer-based projections for global human population by 2100AD, which got me thinking… No-one questions whether the people at the UN know where babies come from! They are quite happy to accept that uncertainties in population projections (which range from 6 to 15 billion by 2100AD) are a consequence of uncertainty in trends in education, female emancipation, contraception use, fertility and mortality rates! If so, why will people not accept the same logic when it comes to global climate models? For sure they are complex; but so is the human brain! The effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) – even at very low concentrations – are very well understood; and have been for over 100 years. Climate models proved their accuracy in the early 1990’s when they were re-run using data from the Mt Pinatubo eruption and correctly predicted the size and duration of the reduction in global average temperatures it caused. However, they are only this accurate because they take into account all the factors affecting the climate, which include pollution, water vapour, and solar activity; and by a process called sensitivity analysis, it has been proven that they are only accurate when they treat CO2 as the primary driver of change. As Clive Hamilton has recently pointed out, in Requiem for a Species, the wide range of results reported by the probabilistic models now in use, “…is not due to uncertainties about how much warming is associated with a given concentration of greenhouse gases… but to the difficulty in forecasting the… world’s greenhouse gas emissions” (page 6). Therefore, anybody who says models are unreliable or uncertain is just trying to obscure the fact that we are extremely certain about the consequences of burning fossil fuels. The only thing we have yet to decide is how quickly we are going to stop doing it. Killing-off climate change denial is a Herculean task; analogous to trying to kill the multi-headed monster of Greek mythology. Unfortunately, this particular monster is very real, very strong, and very persistent. However, we must hope that — emboldened by the facts that: (1) the current warming is unprecedented in 100’s of millions of years; (2) the frequency of extreme weather events of all kinds (hot, cold, wet and dry) has increased as was predicted; and (3) the Arctic is warming faster than was predicted — climate scientists will now prevail over the defenders of profligate consumption (and the inadvertent enemies of reason); and win over public opinion. Despite the fact that the battle may have already been won in the court of scientific and political opinion (denialists will obviously dispute this), I believe that the public must be won over as well (despite the ever-present problem of issue fatigue), because what the politicians have achieved so far is just not good enough; even they do not seem to be taking the problem seriously enough. However, if their timidity is due to fear of an electoral backlash if they state the problem clearly enough, they need to get over it because this problem is not going to go away; and will only get worse if we delay tackling it.
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I agree with Rick, properly written computer models can and should be trusted, there is nothing wrong with them. Personally, I think the lack of trust in them comes from that one-off time when the Uni of East Anglia had some of its stuff hacked, but that is a one-time-only thing. It is very, very, rare for computer models to be wrong, and even so, at the end of the day, they are nothing more than one more tool for scientists to make decisions. They are not by any means a stand alone thingy; once presented they also require judicious and careful study and understanding
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Climategate was a complete scam (and a criminal one at that). The emails released appear to show evidence of scientific fraud (but this disappears if you read them in their original context). The only “illusion” surrounding the MBH98 Hockey Stick graph is the one that says it was (and is) “rigged”… All of the apprarently “dodgy” things said in the leaked emails can (and have been) legitimately explained. Those, like atomic physicist Richard Muller and chartered accountant Andrew Montford, who continue to get “over-heated” about this whole thing are either stubbornly refusing to accept these explanations; and/or are so blinded by their prima facie, prejudicial, need for AGW to be false that they cannot take them on board when given to them. (In my humble opinion)
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I agree with you here Rick, to stick to a one-off issue when it comes to AGW is ludicrous, it’s too big an issue to be bogged down over a few simple emails, I’d rather forget that day and just carry on with the debate from as many different angles as possible. Funny though, Lord Monckton once said that he had access to the REM statements which clearly showed many changes had been made in order to make things “look” right. Nobody has ever questioned him on how he had gotten hold of such info (REM statements) which in my opinion proves he had the “original codes” and which he could only have gotten his hands on through down right theft or by assisting in the theft or perhaps by having some knowledge of those involved in such theft.
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I could not possibly comment (just in case legal action is pending over my previous posts regarding him) 🙂
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🙂
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