UAH Christy - Global Warming Skeptic
#1
02-19-2007, 06:28 AM
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Huntsville, AL
Posts: 5,613
UAH Christy - Global Warming Skeptic
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twinci...l/16717414.htm
John Christy has seen what happens when there is not enough energy available for people to use for their daily needs. "Life is brutal and short," says Christy, a renowned atmospheric scientist who spent a hard decade in the '70s as a Baptist missionary in Africa teaching science in rural villages.
That may be why Christy is not ready to embrace the dangers of global warming as enunciated in the United Nations' recent definitive report on climate change, which found hazardous conditions were caused by man.
"There's another side to this," according to Christy, a professor and director of the earth systems laboratory at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He does not subscribe to the view that climate change is a crisis.
"When people think about the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, I hope they also think about the enhancements to life that energy has given them."
. . .
For more than a decade, Christy was one of those scientists who had data that seemed to fly in the face of physics theories undergirding global warming studies. That position earned him the title of skeptic, one that he didn't reject. While he now accepts that excess carbon dioxide has changed the atmosphere, he insists he hasn't really changed his mind about the damage this might cause or its extent. He derides a culture that seems hysterical about it.
. . .
The operative term is "had data". Subsequent analysis of his data revealed it too was showing warming although not as fast as the models predicted. But John Christy lives in Huntsville, my town too.
Honest people can have different opnions about a subject and that is OK provided they see the data the same way. Upon being shown the error in his data, Christy acknowledged the problem and now sees a warming trend in the lower atmospheric data. This is good and differentiates a scientists from a 'true believer.'
Now I agree with Christy that energy is important to the quality of life. Where we disagree is the emphasis upon energy efficiency. Near as I can tell, at least from his public pronouncements, is he has no interest in energy efficiency but asserts a blanket approval of all energy use. Yet his experience in a primitive economy is real . . . just he doesn't appear to recognize the importance of energy efficiency in advanced or primitive economies.
Bob Wilson
Originally Posted by By_Kitta_MacPhearson_Newhouse_News_Service
John Christy has seen what happens when there is not enough energy available for people to use for their daily needs. "Life is brutal and short," says Christy, a renowned atmospheric scientist who spent a hard decade in the '70s as a Baptist missionary in Africa teaching science in rural villages.
That may be why Christy is not ready to embrace the dangers of global warming as enunciated in the United Nations' recent definitive report on climate change, which found hazardous conditions were caused by man.
"There's another side to this," according to Christy, a professor and director of the earth systems laboratory at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He does not subscribe to the view that climate change is a crisis.
"When people think about the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, I hope they also think about the enhancements to life that energy has given them."
. . .
For more than a decade, Christy was one of those scientists who had data that seemed to fly in the face of physics theories undergirding global warming studies. That position earned him the title of skeptic, one that he didn't reject. While he now accepts that excess carbon dioxide has changed the atmosphere, he insists he hasn't really changed his mind about the damage this might cause or its extent. He derides a culture that seems hysterical about it.
. . .
Honest people can have different opnions about a subject and that is OK provided they see the data the same way. Upon being shown the error in his data, Christy acknowledged the problem and now sees a warming trend in the lower atmospheric data. This is good and differentiates a scientists from a 'true believer.'
Now I agree with Christy that energy is important to the quality of life. Where we disagree is the emphasis upon energy efficiency. Near as I can tell, at least from his public pronouncements, is he has no interest in energy efficiency but asserts a blanket approval of all energy use. Yet his experience in a primitive economy is real . . . just he doesn't appear to recognize the importance of energy efficiency in advanced or primitive economies.
Bob Wilson
#2
02-19-2007, 07:24 AM
Re: UAH Christy - Global Warming Skeptic
"Subsequent analysis of his data revealed it too was showing warming although not as fast as the models predicted."
Is this perhaps because the effects of aerosols on clouds at different tropospheric heights was not carefully accounted in the (earlier) models? I understand that there has been substantial progress in that area.
If Dr. Christy has modified or withdrawn any of his earlier statements concerning atmospheric temperature trends measured by sondes and orbiting sounders, those statements do seem not appear by google searching. However, his statements dismissing current directional climate change are to be found in many places.
I reckon that the cure to life being brutal and short, if there is one, involves aggressive action on renewables and efficiency. Burning fossil fuels *conservatively*, to fill in the gaps (there will be gaps), and while recognizing that the burning is likely to have unwelcome consequences.
Proceeding as if those consequences can be wished away may indeed make life more brutal and short, particularly for those benefitting the least from the way we are now conducting the energy business.
My response to the connected issues of atmospheric changes and the impending shortage of fossil fuels other than coal and tar sands: Some person or groups are going to make a huge amount of money in this century by innovating in renewables and efficiency. It may or may not occur primarily in the US. It seems less likely to occur where 'doubters' and CO2 'cheerleaders' are not held to high standards of accountability.
You must have caught me in a bad mood or something...
DAS
Is this perhaps because the effects of aerosols on clouds at different tropospheric heights was not carefully accounted in the (earlier) models? I understand that there has been substantial progress in that area.
If Dr. Christy has modified or withdrawn any of his earlier statements concerning atmospheric temperature trends measured by sondes and orbiting sounders, those statements do seem not appear by google searching. However, his statements dismissing current directional climate change are to be found in many places.
I reckon that the cure to life being brutal and short, if there is one, involves aggressive action on renewables and efficiency. Burning fossil fuels *conservatively*, to fill in the gaps (there will be gaps), and while recognizing that the burning is likely to have unwelcome consequences.
Proceeding as if those consequences can be wished away may indeed make life more brutal and short, particularly for those benefitting the least from the way we are now conducting the energy business.
My response to the connected issues of atmospheric changes and the impending shortage of fossil fuels other than coal and tar sands: Some person or groups are going to make a huge amount of money in this century by innovating in renewables and efficiency. It may or may not occur primarily in the US. It seems less likely to occur where 'doubters' and CO2 'cheerleaders' are not held to high standards of accountability.
You must have caught me in a bad mood or something...
DAS
#3
02-19-2007, 10:41 AM
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Huntsville, AL
Posts: 5,613
Re: UAH Christy - Global Warming Skeptic
Hi Doug,
Not a bad mood as much as like you, I've been less than thrilled with some of the claims by the global-warming skeptics, which includes some local UAH professors. One of his cohorts had claimed that 'temperatures went down in Huntsville' by citing the recorded airport temperatures. Yet everyone in Huntsville knows the old airport is now a park with model rocket, model airplane and sports fields as well as the local baseball stadium. The airport had moved from the middle of Huntsville, an urban heat island, to the middle of some cotton fields half-way to Decatur or about 15 miles out of town during this temperature recorded time.
I had read last year in Nature that Christy had conceded that his weather balloon data was flawed and subsequently agreed that warming was happening. It isn't easy to admit a mistake and he is just as human as anyone else. But he did so, grudgingly, by claiming 'not as much as the models predicted.'
I have not met the man although there seems to be some rule in Huntsville that everyone meets everyone else at least once every 10-20 years. From what I can tell, his missionary work in a primitive economy made a significant impression on him. What I don't know and am willing to give him a little slack, is what he thinks about energy efficiency. The attitude in the article suggests he thinks it is 'either or' whereas I think the right answer is to maximize what we can get from what we have.
Bob Wilson
Not a bad mood as much as like you, I've been less than thrilled with some of the claims by the global-warming skeptics, which includes some local UAH professors. One of his cohorts had claimed that 'temperatures went down in Huntsville' by citing the recorded airport temperatures. Yet everyone in Huntsville knows the old airport is now a park with model rocket, model airplane and sports fields as well as the local baseball stadium. The airport had moved from the middle of Huntsville, an urban heat island, to the middle of some cotton fields half-way to Decatur or about 15 miles out of town during this temperature recorded time.
I had read last year in Nature that Christy had conceded that his weather balloon data was flawed and subsequently agreed that warming was happening. It isn't easy to admit a mistake and he is just as human as anyone else. But he did so, grudgingly, by claiming 'not as much as the models predicted.'
I have not met the man although there seems to be some rule in Huntsville that everyone meets everyone else at least once every 10-20 years. From what I can tell, his missionary work in a primitive economy made a significant impression on him. What I don't know and am willing to give him a little slack, is what he thinks about energy efficiency. The attitude in the article suggests he thinks it is 'either or' whereas I think the right answer is to maximize what we can get from what we have.
Bob Wilson
Last edited by bwilson4web; 02-19-2007 at 11:24 AM.
#4
02-20-2007, 05:05 AM
Pretty Darn Active Enthusiast
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Finger Lakes Region NY
Posts: 264
Re: UAH Christy - Global Warming Skeptic
When I bought the house I now live in, it was a disaster: no insulation, and a grossly inefficient furnace. I had the house insulated after re-wiring the house myself, and had a high-efficiency furnace installed. I now use only one third the natural gas that I used that first winter when I moved in to the house. I don't begrudge anyone the right to keep their home warm in the winter, but everyone should conserve energy, especially when the savings are easily achieved, and are "low hanging fruit," with easily achievable savings in both energy and money.
It's the same on the road, why go down the road getting 12 mpg when you can do the same thing in comfort and get 50 mpg?
Harry
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