[Rantman] Scientists scold Congress in letter today.. The importance of addressing climate change.

[Richard Pauli]

There is a very big chance that mainstream media will ignore this very 
important letter -  sent today to every member of Congress by a group of 
climate scientists

RP.     Feb 2011 <http://www.climatemanifesto.com/>

********

http://theprojectonclimatescience.org/2011/02/the-importance-of-science-in-addressing-climate-change/
*==========================================================*
**
*To the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate:*
As you begin your deliberations in the new 112^th Congress, we urge you 
to take a fresh look at climate change.  Climate change is not just an 
environmental threat but, as we describe below, also poses challenges to 
the U.S. economy, national security and public health.
Some view climate change as a futuristic abstraction. Others are unsure 
about the science, or uncertain about the policy responses. We want to 
assure you that the science is strong and that there is nothing abstract 
about the risks facing our Nation. Our coastal areas are now facing 
increasing dangers from rising sea levels and storm surges; the 
southwest and southeastare increasingly vulnerable to drought; other 
regions will need to prepare for massive flooding from the extreme 
storms of the sort being experienced with increasing frequency.  These 
and other consequences of climate change all require that we plan and 
prepare. Our military recognizes that the consequences of climate change 
have direct security implications for the country that will only become 
more acute with time, and it has begun the sort of planning required 
across the board.
The health of Americans is also at risk. The U.S. Climate Impacts 
Report, commissioned by the George W. Bush administration, states: 
"Climate change poses unique challenges to human health. Unlike health 
threats caused by a particular toxin or disease pathogen, there are many 
ways that climate change can lead to potentially harmful health effects. 
There are direct health impacts from heat waves and severe storms, 
ailments caused or exacerbated by air pollution and airborne allergens, 
and many climate-sensitive infectious diseases."
As with the fiscal deficit, the changing climate is the kind of daunting 
problem that we, as a nation, would like to wish away. However, as with 
our growing debt, the longer we wait to address climate change, the 
worse it gets. Heat-trapping carbon dioxide is building up in the 
atmosphere because burning coal, oil, and natural gas produces far more 
carbon dioxide than is absorbed by oceans and forests. No scientist 
disagrees with that.  Our carbon debt increases each year, just as our 
national debt increases each year that spending exceeds revenue.  And 
our carbon debt is even longer-lasting; carbon dioxide molecules can 
last hundreds of years in the atmosphere.
*The Science of Climate Change*
It is not our role as scientists to determine how to deal with problems 
like climate change. That is a policy matter and rightly must be left to 
our elected leaders in discussion with all Americans.  But, as 
scientists, we have an obligation to evaluate, report, and explain the 
science behind climate change.
The debate about climate change has become increasingly ideological and 
partisan. But climate change is not the product of a belief system or 
ideology. Instead, it is based on scientific fact, and no amount of 
argument, coercion, or debate among talking heads in the media can alter 
the physics of climate change.
Political philosophy has a legitimate role in policy debates, but not in 
the underlying climate science. There are no Democratic or Republican 
carbon dioxide molecules; they are all invisible and they all trap heat.
The fruits of the scientific process are worthy of your trust.  This was 
perhaps best summed up in recent testimony before Congress by Dr. Peter 
Gleick, co-founder and director of the Pacific Institute and member of 
the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.  He testified that the scientific 
process "is inherently adversarial -- scientists build reputations and 
gain recognition not only for supporting conventional wisdom, but even 
more so for demonstrating that the scientific consensus is wrong and 
that there is a better explanation. That's what Galileo, Pasteur, 
Darwin, and Einstein did. But no one who argues against the science of 
climate change has ever provided an alternative scientific theory that 
adequately satisfies the observable evidence or conforms to our 
understanding of physics, chemistry, and climate dynamics."
*National Academy of Sciences*
What we know today about human-induced climate change is the result of 
painstaking research and analysis, some of it going back more than a 
century. Major international scientific organizations in disciplines 
ranging from geophysics to geology, atmospheric sciences to biology, and 
physics to human health -- as well as every one of the leading national 
scientific academies worldwide -- have concluded that human activity is 
changing the climate. This is not a "belief." Instead, it is an 
objective evaluation of the scientific evidence.
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) was created by Abraham 
Lincoln and chartered by Congress in 1863 for the express purpose of 
obtaining objective expert advice on a range of complex scientific and 
technological issues. Its international reputation for integrity is 
unparalleled. This spring, at the request of Congress, the NAS issued a 
series of comprehensive reports on climate change that were unambiguous.
The NAS stated, "Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human 
activities . . . and in many cases is already affecting a broad range of 
human and natural systems."  This conclusion comes as no surprise to the 
overwhelming majority of working climate scientists.
*Climate Change Deniers*
Climate change deniers cloak themselves in scientific language, 
selectively critiquing aspects of mainstream climate science. Sometimes 
they present alternative hypotheses as an explanation of a particular 
point, as if the body of evidence were a house of cards standing or 
falling on one detail; but the edifice of climate science instead rests 
on a concrete foundation. As an open letter from 255 NAS members noted 
in the May 2010/Science/magazine, no research results have produced any 
evidence that challenges the overall scientific understanding of what is 
happening to our planet's climate and why.
The assertions of climate deniers therefore should not be given 
scientific weight equal to the comprehensive, peer-reviewed research 
presented by the vast majority of climate scientists.
The determination of policy sits with you, the elected representatives 
of the people. But we urge you, as our elected representatives, to base 
your policy decisions on sound science, not sound bites. Congress needs 
to understand that scientists have concluded, based on a systematic 
review of all of the evidence, that climate change caused by human 
activities raises serious risks to our national and economic security 
and our health both here and around the world. It's time for Congress to 
move on to the policy debate.
*How Can We Move Forward?*
Congress should, we believe, hold hearings to understand climate science 
and what it says about the likely costs and benefits of action and 
inaction.  It should not hold hearings to attempt to intimidate 
scientists or to substitute ideological judgments for scientific ones. 
We urge our elected leaders to work together to focus the nation on what 
the science is telling us, particularly with respect to impacts now 
occurring around the country.
Already, there is far more carbon in the air than at any time in human 
history, with more being generated every day. Climate change is underway 
and the severity of the risks we face is compounded by delay.
We look to you, our representatives, to address the challenge of climate 
change, and lead the national response. We and our colleagues are 
prepared to assist you as you work to develop a rational and practical 
national policy to address this important issue.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
John Abraham, University of St. Thomas 
<http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/jpabraham/>
Barry Bickmore, Brigham Young University 
<http://geo-new.byu.edu/employee-profiles/barry-bickmore/>
Gretchen Daily,* Stanford University 
<http://www.stanford.edu/group/CCB/Staff/gretchen.htm>
G. Brent Dalrymple,* Oregon State University 
<http://www.coas.oregonstate.edu/index.cfm?fuseaction=content.search&searchtype=people&detail=1&id=460>
Andrew Dessler, Texas A&M University <http://atmo.tamu.edu/profile/ADessler>
Peter Gleick,* Pacific Institute 
<http://www.pacinst.org/about_us/staff_board/gleick/>
John Kutzbach,* University of Wisconsin-Madison 
<http://ccr.aos.wisc.edu/Personnel/kutzbach_john.php>
Syukuro Manabe,* Princeton University 
<http://www.princeton.edu/aos/people/faculty/manabe/>
Michael Mann, Penn State University 
<http://www.meteo.psu.edu/%7Emann/Mann/> 	Pamela Matson,* Stanford 
University 
<http://pangea.stanford.edu/research/matsonlab/members/Matson.htm>
Harold Mooney,* Stanford University 
<http://fsi.stanford.edu/people/haroldamooney/>
Michael Oppenheimer, Princeton University 
<http://www.princeton.edu/step/people/faculty/michael-oppenheimer/>
Ben Santer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 
<http://www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/about/staff/Santer/index.php>
Richard Somerville, Scripps Institution of Oceanography 
<http://www.sio.ucsd.edu/Profile/rsomerville>
Kevin Trenberth, National Center for Atmospheric Research 
<http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/trenbert.html>
Warren Washington, National Center for Atmospheric Research 
<http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/ccr/warren/>
Gary Yohe, Wesleyan University 
<http://www.wesleyan.edu/templates/dept/econ/skeleton_faculty.htt?function=f1&department=ECON&faculty=gyohe>
George Woodwell,* The Woods Hole Research Center 
<http://www.whrc.org/about/cvs/gmwoodwell.html>

*Member of the National Academy of Sciences



<http://www.climatemanifesto.com/>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/rantman/attachments/20110201/a3982460/attachment-0001.html>