Saturday, August 4, 2012

NASA's Top Climate Scientist Says Change Is Here, And Hot

These scientific findings are piling up.


James E. Hansen directs the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
 
When I testified before the Senate in the hot summer of 1988, I warned of the kind of future that climate change would bring to us and our planet. I painted a grim picture of the consequences of steadily increasing temperatures, driven by mankind’s use of fossil fuels.

But I have a confession to make: I was too optimistic.
My projections about increasing global temperature have been proved true. But I failed to fully explore how quickly that average rise would drive an increase in extreme weather.
Even the famous skeptic Bill Muller is convinced, as he wrote in The New York Times:
Call me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.
My total turnaround, in such a short time, is the result of careful and objective analysis by the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, which I founded with my daughter Elizabeth. Our results show that the average temperature of the earth’s land has risen by two and a half degrees Fahrenheit over the past 250 years, including an increase of one and a half degrees over the most recent 50 years.
Moreover, it appears likely that essentially all of this increase results from the human emission of greenhouse gases. 
These findings are stronger than those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations group that defines the scientific and diplomatic consensus on global warming.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, what alternative universe are you living in? James Hansen’s climate predictions have been so far off base as to be comical, as a google search of “james hansen predictions” will show. Muller is also not without controversy
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/31/best_barnum/

You have yet to provide a single example of an observable event which cannot be attributed to other causes other than man made global warming due to carbon emissions that would stand the test of the scientific method.

You may benefit from brushing up on the definition of science.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps with enough exnaysayers speaking out like this common sense will tell the 1st quarter return addicts that we need to immediately start building our economy on an infrastructure for power and transportation that does not spew toxins into our air, water and soil.

Cold kills said...

Once the weather cools off, people and the media will forget all about the global warming nonsense. It is becoming a seasonal issue which is brought up every summer and forgotten about every winter.

According to the state climatology office, Madison has an average of 7500 heating degree days per year and only 600 cooling degree days. Also, the measured warming has not been due to higher daytime temperatures but rather due to it not getting as cold at night. This results in a much more kindler and gentler climate which we should all welcome and encourage. If our actions are actually responsible for this result, we are certainly doing something right.

70 Degrees in March 2012 said...

@cold- such a simplistic response. My response- What winter are you talking about?

Anonymous said...

COLD KILLS? Kinder and gentler? - ask the cherry farmers or the apple growers if the winter was kinder. How about those farmers growing corn thus summer? Was it kind to them?

Anonymous said...

So, Mr. Cold Kills, how did today's high winds treat you?

Still want to call this climate gentler?

In case you haven't noticed, the climate is also changing rainfall patterns. Instead of farmer's rain, we get more intense storms, and more dry days between them. That is threatening our country's farm productivity, and with it our international economic importance.

when the facts dispute the theory, the theory is wrong... said...

A look at James Hansen’s predictions actually show that “Temperatures have actually been lower than Hansen’s lowest 1988 forecast, which assumed that humans quit emitting CO2 after the year 2000.”
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/hansen-lies-to-the-washington-post/

"I think Muller’s own data demolishes his silly CO2 theory...How could BEST not find a cooling trend when a lot other people can?"
http://tomnelson.blogspot.com/2012/08/from-hours-great-blog-that-new-to-me.html

Anonymous said...

Should we wait for absolute evidence before action? Sounds like some on here need thousands of research papers proving a point before action is taken.

ALGORE IS RIGHT!!! said...

It is summer!
It is hot!
It is hot because of global warming!
Global warming caused by CARBON DEFUCKNOXIDE!!!!!
WHAT DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND???!!!!
Stop questioning science!!!
Science is science and cannot be questioned!!!!
If you question science then you are not scientific!!!
You are just a stupid denier!!!
Just like the nazi deniers!!!
Yes, exactly the same!!!
Denier, denier, denier!!!
Deniers that deny Science!!
Science which cannot be denied or questioned!!
If you question science then you are a denier!!
A Nazi denier!!
And probably a white, skin head, supremacist, nazi denier who denies science!!!
Who else could deny science??!!
Science and global warming and Carbon Dioxide and climate catastrophe and the planet dying!!!
Stupid denier !!
stupid!
stupid!
stupid!