Working Paper: Global Warming: What Is It All About?

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These slides were used by Professor Lindzen in a Climate Science Seminar sponsored by NCEE and the Office of the Science Advisor on December 9, 2008. His abstract for the presentation is as follows:
While global warming is is frequently presented as a single phenomenon that one either believes in or denies, the real situation is, unsurprisingly, much more complex. There are, in fact, certain aspects of the issue on which a substantial measure of agreement exists: namely, that global mean temperature has increased a few tenths of a degree since the 19^th Century, and that increases in atmospheric CO2 have contributed some part of this warming. He examines some approaches to determining exactly how much of observed warming is actually due to anthropogenic greenhouse forcing, and how explicit feedbacks are involved in these results. However, the connection of this warming to catastrophic projections is extremely tenuous he argues. Moreover, proposed mitigation policies have little relevance to warming regardless of the level of warming expected. Understanding these ‘disconnects’ not only helps one to assess the overall situation rationally, but also permits one to see how the issue is being improperly exploited in his view.
Dr. Lindzen is the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at MIT. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has authored or co-authored over 200 professional journal articles.

Keywords
Subject:	8. Other Analyses and Reports	Media:	Air

Paper Information
Author(s):	Richard Lindzen	Institution Issuing Paper:	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Status:	Final version working paper
Series Title:	Climate Science Seminars	Primary Content:	Empirical
Paper Date:	12/09/2008
Electronic Copy Paper #: File Description: PDF 4.5 MB File Attachment:

Working Paper: Global Warming: What Is It All About?

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