'Climate Scientist' Ratchets Up Global Warming Alarmism in Face of Record Cold Weather

'Climate Scientist' Ratchets Up Global Warming Alarmism in Face of Record Cold Weather

By P.J. Gladnick (Bio | Archive)
February 15, 2009 - 09:19 ET

You're a global warming alarmist yet we're experiencing the coldest winter in decades. What to do? What to do? Well, if you are "climate scientist" Chris Field, you go even further out on the limb and declare that the climate is warming up even faster than predicted despite evidence to the contrary right outside our doors. Here is the Reuters report about Chris Field sounding the global warming alarm bells:

The climate is heating up far faster than scientists had predicted, spurred by sharp increases in greenhouse gas emissions from developing countries like China and India, a top climate scientist said on Saturday.

"The consequence of that is we are basically looking now at a future climate that is beyond anything that we've considered seriously," Chris Field, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago.

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Field said "the actual trajectory of climate change is more serious" than any of the climate predictions in the IPCC's fourth assessment report called "Climate Change 2007."

He said recent climate studies suggested the continued warming of the planet from greenhouse gas emissions could touch off large, destructive wildfires in tropical rain forests and melt permafrost in the Arctic tundra, releasing billions of tons of greenhouse gasses that could raise global temperatures even more.

"There is a real risk that human-caused climate change will accelerate the release of carbon dioxide from forest and tundra ecosystems, which have been storing a lot of carbon for thousands of years," Field, of Stanford University and the Carnegie Institution for Science, said in a statement.

He pointed to recent studies showing the fourth assessment report underestimated the potential severity of global warming over the next 100 years.

"We now have data showing that from 2000 to 2007, greenhouse gas emissions increased far more rapidly than we expected, primarily because developing countries, like China and India, saw a huge surge in electric power generation, almost all of it based on coal," Field said.

He said that trend was likely to continue if more countries turned to coal and other carbon-intensive fuels to meet their energy needs. If so, he said the impact of climate change would be "more serious and diverse" than the IPCC's most recent predictions.

One "little" problem with this Reuters report written by Julie Steenhuysen. Chris Field is not a "top climate scientist." In fact, he isn't even a climate scientist at all. Just a wee bit of googling on the part of Steenhuysen would have revealed that Chris Field is a professor of biological sciences whose shtick is pushing something called "global ecology." Field has no more expertise in predicting future climate patterns than, say, a proctologist performing brain surgery.

—P.J. Gladnick is a freelance writer and creator of the DUmmie FUnnies blog.

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Reminds me of a story and it goes like this.....

February 15, 2009 - 09:31 ET by NavyBuckeye

"The sky is falling!!!!! The sky is falling!!!!" ....no one is listening...picks up megaphone..

"THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!!!!!!!!!"

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter” - Thomas Jefferson

"We now have data showing

February 15, 2009 - 09:38 ET by motherbelt

"We now have data showing that from 2000 to 2007, greenhouse gas
emissions increased far more rapidly than we expected, primarily
because developing countries, like China and India, saw a huge surge in
electric power generation, almost all of it based on coal," Field said.

He said that trend was likely to continue if more countries turned
to coal and other carbon-intensive fuels to meet their energy needs. If
so, he said the impact of climate change would be "more serious and
diverse" than the IPCC's most recent predictions.

Well then, this guy is preaching to the wrong group. He should be at the UN, urging them to rescind the exemptions from the Kyoto treaty that these two countries have been granted.

Or, go and preach in those countries; see if he can get them to change (or if they care).

Yeah, that'll work!

I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson

He's getting top billing over at FOX.

February 15, 2009 - 09:38 ET by supercon

http://www.foxnews.c...

Climate Warming Gases Rising Faster Than Expected

Because with a name like Obama... you know it has to be good.

At least Fox includes the

February 15, 2009 - 09:42 ET by motherbelt

At least Fox includes the whole story:

Also, highly promoted efforts to curb carbon emissions through the use of biofuels may even backfire, other researchers said.

Demand for biologically based fuels has led to the growing of more corn in the United States, but that means fields were switched from soybeans to corn, explained Michael Coe of the Woods Hole Research Center.

But there was no decline in the demand for soy, he said, meaning other countries, such as Brazil, increased their soy crops to make up for the deficit.

In turn, Brazil created more soy fields by destroying tropical forests, which tend to soak up carbon dioxide. Instead the forests were burned, releasing the gasses into the air.

The increased emissions from Brazil swamp any declines recorded by the United States, he said.

Ah yes....that pesky "Law of Unintended Consequences."

They never learn....

I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson

I can think of a couple of reasons...

February 15, 2009 - 09:57 ET by on-the-rocks

for the ratcheting up of the hysteria.

1) They smell research money from the "stimulus bill".

2) If we are going into a cooling period, they want to be able to take credit for the cooling.

(Someone else has suggested the second reason before, but I don't remember the source.)

I can always tell when Gore

February 15, 2009 - 10:01 ET by jistincase

I can always tell when Gore or some other warmer is flapping their piehole about GW. The tempeture immediatly drops into the low 20's. Every chance I get to poke fun of Goreloni and the other wise guys I do. God has a great sense of humor sometimes.

My question to the

February 15, 2009 - 09:59 ET by danbo

My question to the Biologist, Mr Fields.

With all the horrid increases in CO2? How many years of non warming and even cooling will you need to admit you're wrong?

Earth to Mr Fields. They're finding things in perma frost that supposedly never melted before. Like roots over Viking graves. Mastodons and mammoths in Siberian permafrost. How did these things get into the permafrost? Unless? Wait? Maybe? It melted before.

Hysterics ignore any inconvenient facts.

Limited Disclosure: I used to belong to the Sierra Club untill they went crazier. Worse of all, I was bribed by Exxon with free New Orleans Saints glasses with fill ups in the 70's.

excellent point!

February 15, 2009 - 20:42 ET by clinging to my guns and my religion

"They're finding things in perma frost that supposedly never melted before....Wait? Maybe? It melted before."

can we all say, "elliptical orbit"? okay, now let's try, "cyclic weather patterns". easy, huh? too bad the "goremorons" don't speak our language!

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." Edmund Burke

Now for the really bad news

February 15, 2009 - 10:21 ET by dbo

Chris Field is currently co-chair for IPCC Working Group II 5th assessment report due out in 2014. Gee...I wonder if any of their conclusions are predetermined?

Whoa! Stop raining on my parade!

February 15, 2009 - 10:44 ET by JWF

He had me. I was finally convinced. And you went an spoiled it with the whole he isn't even a climate scientist at all thing.

He said the topical RAIN forests would catch on fire. They are called tropical RAIN forest because it RAINS a lot. Huge amounts of RAIN every single day. To date in the entire history of the planet , exactly ZERO tropical RAIN forests have caught fire. But now, ohhhhhh nooooooo!

Sincerely,

a Veteran of a 1000 psychic wars.

The CO2 goes up - not the temp

February 15, 2009 - 11:01 ET by urbangreen

This article is a joke - CO2 has risen- but the temperatures in the past 10 yrs have not.

1 Historical data indicates that the temperature rise precedes the CO2 rise by about 800 yrs. virtually all the scientists agree on this. Essentially as the temperature rises, the seas warm and more CO2 is released in the atmosphere. The whole hypothesis attributing anthropogenic cause as the primary driver for warming is already on a shaky foundation.

2 Most scientists also agree that CO2 is a relatively minor greenhouse gas that comprises about 0.039% of the atmospheric gas

3 Scientists also agree that a doubling of the CO2 concentrations, gives diminishing returns relative to temperature rise. It is essentially logarithmic in nature. If the concentration of the CO2 would reach its spectra saturation point (about 0.50%) the rise in temperature would be about 1.2 C. Beyond that CO2 cannot contribute additionally to the greenhouse effect.

4 The only way that they can postulate and theorize that the rise in temperature can exceed the 1.2C (that saturation point in the Absorption spectra) is by adding multipliers known as positive feedbacks. Virtually all of the empirical data does not support a positive feedback model. Most of Nature operates on negative feedback, which counteracts thermal and chemical reactions to equilibrations points. They are banking on the prospect that the atmosphere will behave similarly to nuclear fission to support the positive feedback models. There is no reason to believe that is the case.

So essentially the IPCC scientists needed to fit their theory of CO2 warming, which was not well represented by actual measurement data, to one that one that was palatable to the relative effort spent postulating to a more extreme conclusion

To do this they had to massage, eliminate, bias and take awful liberties with existing historical data (or proxies) and make if fit the “accepted theory”.

5 Because they blindly accepted Mann’s discredited exponential Hockey Stick, (i.e. Hansen, et al), and it seemed at the time to fit their original postulate that CO2 is the primary driver for temp change, they are now stuck with that position, or stand to lose mucho funding, and let’s face it, no scientist wants to look foolish.

They are counting on what they deem to be a no harm no foul approach. So, even if they were proven wrong- no big deal.

6 No One has shown what the right temperature of the earth should be, or that any warming is shown to be detrimental. The positive effects may well overwhelm any negative results of warming; historically speaking, the warmer the climate, the better overall benefit for mankind. I doubt anyone could derive benefits from the next ice age.

I hate it when smart people come here and say smart things.

February 15, 2009 - 11:51 ET by JWF

Boy that bunches my bananas.*

You are acting like the earth's climate is a self regulating system. Like this is what has made life possible on earth and why the other planets contain no life. The earth has never gotten to an extreme either too hot or too cold that has killed off all life.

I'll say it. I have said it before. I am not scared. 76.68 degrees. That is what I consider the right temperature. All teh scientests should be consulting me cuz I am teh mr. smarty not them. 76.68 degrees. That is it. Needs to be warmer, not colder peoples. Bring on teh Gorebal warmings!

And yes, this long ago moved from scientific to political. Now it needs to move from political to laughingstock.

Sincerely,

a Veteran of a 1000 psychic wars.

* I agree with you whole heartedly sir. I just loves teh sarcasm.

Is logic not in the journalistic curriculum?

February 15, 2009 - 12:15 ET by SATerp

Besides granting this guy credentials he doesn't deserve, the article ignores the fact that 'increasing CO2' in the face of global cooling, totally disproves his wacko predictions.

Field has no more

February 15, 2009 - 13:09 ET by stratman

Field has no more expertise in predicting future climate patterns than, say, a gynecologist does in analyzing CAT scans.

You might want to rephrase this. Gynecologists, like other surgeons, do interpret CT scans of their patients. While the radiologist may be more knowledgeable overall, the GYN must be able to read a CT in the area of their interest or else risk misdiagnosis and/or performing bad surgery.

I was going to suggest an analogy (pun intended) of proctologists performing brain surgery, but that would be the correct training when operating on Leftists.

Fixed

February 15, 2009 - 17:14 ET by P.J. Gladnick

Fixed.

A few points about climate change, the UN IPCC and Al Gore

February 15, 2009 - 13:33 ET by DashRipRockIII

The UN IPCC is a political body spitting out reports that support a global political agenda. Their reports are not to be taken seriously. The main body of the report often differs from the summary given to policy makers and journalists which is frequently the only section that is read by anyone outside of the UN IPCC. Many scientists have resigned because the summary was at such odds with the main body of the report.

As for Al Gore, his film An Inconvenient Truth is full of lies. Not exaggerations. Not errors.
Lies!!!

Al Gore air-brushed out the little ice age and the medieval warming periods from his graphs in AIT. We wouldn't want people knowing that the earth was two degrees celsius warmer than it is now during the medieval warming period. Somehow man survived without the use of central cooling. Gore left off the little ice age because he wouldn't want to demonstrate that the warming trend he talks about began at the end of an ice age.

He also stated that sea lever would rise by 20 feet by the end of the century. Even the UN IPCC (harldy conservative on this issue) estimates only 4 to 36 inches.

Gore also suggested that the Aral Sea has dried up because of global warming. In actuality, it has been drained for the irrigation of cotton crops.

Gore claims that for the first time ever, a significant number of polar bears had drowned. First of all, they can swim around fifty miles. Secondly, the researchers at one of America's most respected think tanks the Competitive Enterprise Institute tracked down the study Gore was quoting and found that only four polar bears had drowned during severe storm conditions.

Furthermore, he quotes a quickly debunked paper suggesting there is a 100% consenus among scientists that athropogenic global warming is real. Here are a few scientists who must have missed the memo:

http://www.hootervil...

It is worth noting that a UK Court ruled that AIT contained many errors and should not be shown in public schools without a warning about the errors.

http://newsbusters.o...

I find it interesting that Al Gore talks the talk, but doesn't walk the walk. He jets around the world in his private plane. He rides around in gas guzzling limousines, and has a compound so wasteful of energy that it needs its own power grid. His houseboat more than likely isn't that energy efficient either. I suppose conserving energy and fighting global warming is for the little people. Let the peasants drive the small dangerous energy efficient cars, I'll drive what I want.

Al Gore was worth about $2 Million Dollars when leaving office and is worth over $100 Million now. He's laughing all the way to the global warming bank. It's a pity some are too gullible to see it. As one of my favorite SNL characters might have said "global warming has been bery bery good to him."

By the way, Gore likes to suggest that anyone who doesn't agree with him is a flat-earther. The flat-earthers were the ones who refused to debate. "The debates over, we have a consensus." Sound familiar? If anyone is a flat-earther, it's Al Gore.

Everyone who has seen An Inconvenient Truth should view The Great Global Warming Swindle in order to get a more balanced view of the true state of the science on this issue.
You may view it by visiting:

http://www.hootervil...

It is the first video listed.

Happy Viewing,
Dash RIPROCK III