{"id":4901,"date":"2010-03-05T17:40:09","date_gmt":"2010-03-06T01:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=4901"},"modified":"2018-02-02T19:20:41","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T19:20:41","slug":"climate-scientists-respond-to-ipcc-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2010\/03\/05\/climate-scientists-respond-to-ipcc-critics\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Scientists Respond to IPCC Critics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Snowstorm at Donner Pass, January 2010 (Photo: Gretchen Weber)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we all know, climate scientists have been on the hot seat lately.\u00a0Among other recent incidents, they’ve drawn fire for the leaked East Anglia emails<\/a> and for the now-retracted assertion<\/a> in a 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change<\/a> that Himalayan glaciers might be gone by 2035.\u00a0 In both cases, researchers admitted missteps and expressed regret. But they say neither incident invalidates the mass of evidence that the Earth is warming and that human activity is a likely cause.<\/p>\n

On a call with journalists this week, three leading scientists defended the IPCC, its processes, and climate science in general.\u00a0 Fielding questions were Penn State glaciologist Richard Alley<\/a>, Scripps Institute climate scientist Richard Somerville<\/a>, and Chris Field<\/a>, director of the Carnegie Institute Department of Global Ecology at Stanford.<\/p>\n

“There are errors, and you can find errors on both sides,” said Alley, referring to the fact that previous IPCC reports had underestimated sea-level rise.\u00a0 “It\u2019s done by humans. It\u2019s not perfect.\u00a0 But these errors in no way impact our fundamental understanding that we\u2019re adding CO2 to the air, that this is turning up the Earth\u2019s thermostat,” he said.<\/p>\n

Somerville made a similar point about the false Himalayan prediction in the 2007 report.<\/p>\n

“I liken what\u2019s happened here to the occasional error that happens a bank statement or a phone book,” he said, noting that the 2007 report was 3,000 pages long.<\/p>\n

Just because a bank makes a mistake on your statement, he argued, “That’s not a reason to distrust banks.”<\/p>\n

The scientists defended the IPCC standards and review process, but supported the IPCC’s recent announcement that it will seek an outside review<\/a> for future studies in efforts to avoid mistakes in the future.\u00a0 It’s not clear yet what the independent review process will look like.<\/p>\n

“The best thing we can do to push errors to the minimum is to have more eyes looking and to have more expertise and more transparency,” said Field.<\/p>\n

There’s no question that errors such as the one about the Himalayan glaciers have provided fodder for critics of climate science and may have contributed to a recent decline in public concern about (and belief in<\/a>) global warming.\u00a0During their call this week, the climate researchers bemoaned the fact the urgency of their findings isn’t getting through.<\/p>\n

“The fact is that we don\u2019t have forever to decide to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases,” Somerville said. “That\u2019s not something you can procrastinate for ever. Mother Nature imposes a time scale and it\u2019s measured in a few years, not a century.”<\/p>\n

Scientists are being forced to defend their work against attacks that are based on policy, not science, Somerville said.\u00a0The IPCC has a mandate to be policy-neutral, and its goal is to provide information that is policy-relevant but not policy-prescriptive, he said.<\/p>\n

“And yet, when you take apart the criticisms that have been made of IPCC and climate science in general, you\u2019ll find, I believe, that in many cases they are motivated by policy concerns rather than scientific concerns,” he said.\u00a0 “And so I think you’ll find individuals and organizations who have strong views on carbon taxes or government participation in free markets or ceding sovereignty of one country by signing international agreements – all kinds of things like that that are disguised as concerns about the science.”<\/p>\n

There’s an interesting conversation<\/a> happening at Yale Environment 360<\/a> about the future of the IPCC.\u00a0 Robert T. Watson, chair of the IPCC from 1997 to 2002, argues in an essay<\/a> that while there’s room for improvement in terms of implementation, the IPCC’s procedures are sound.\u00a0\u00a0 On the other side, University of Colorado Environmental Studies Professor Roger A. Pielke argues<\/a> for sweeping reform, citing, among other criteria, a need for a mechanism for resolving allegations of error and a policy pertaining to real and perceived conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the wake of heated criticism, the IPCC announces an independent review of future studies. Is that enough?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11413,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[301,435,646,684],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-4901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-business","tag-ipcc","tag-policy","tag-beliefs","tag-yale-360"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"\nClimate Scientists Respond to IPCC Critics | Climate Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2010\/03\/05\/climate-scientists-respond-to-ipcc-critics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Climate Scientists Respond to IPCC Critics | Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the wake of heated criticism, the IPCC announces an independent review of future studies. 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