Kevin Trenberth
Kevin E. Trenberth | |
|---|---|
| Born | 8 November 1944 Christchurch, New Zealand |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sc.D 1972) |
| Known for | Climate models IPCC Lead Author 1995, 2001, 2007 Diagram showing the Earth's energy balance[1] |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Meteorologist Atmospheric Scientist |
| Institutions | New Zealand Meteorological Service University of Illinois National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) |
Kevin E. Trenberth is head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He was a lead author of the 2001 and 2007 IPCC Scientific Assessment of Climate Change (see IPCC Fourth Assessment Report) and serves on the Scientific Steering Group for the Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) program. In addition, he serves on the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme, and has made significant contributions to research into El Niño-Southern Oscillation.
He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2000, awarded the Jule G. Charney Award from the American Meteorological Society and the NCAR Distinguished Achievement Award in 2003.
Global warming
Trenberth has long attributed global warming to fossil fuels:
The latest 2001 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report reaffirms in much stronger language that the climate is changing in ways that cannot be accounted for by natural variability and that "global warming" is happening. Global mean temperatures have risen and the last decade is the warmest on record. The major cause of warming in the last three decades is from human effects changing the composition of the atmosphere primarily through use of fossil fuels. While changes in particulate pollution mostly causes cooling, increases in long-lived greenhouse gases dominate and cause warming. The long lifetime of several greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide lasts for over a century) suggests that we can not stop the changes, although we can slow them down. Moreover, the slow response of the oceans to warming, means that we have not yet seen all of the climate change we are already committed to. Major climate changes are projected under all likely scenarios of the future and the rates of change are much greater than occur naturally, and so are likely to be disruptive.[2]
Trenberth has been accused of misrepresenting the effect of global warming on hurricane activity by Dr Christopher Landsea.[3] However, the IPCC stated in the Fourth Assessment Report that increases in average hurricane strength have been observed and are consistent with global warming but that no clear trend has been observed in the numbers of hurricanes.[4]
Climagate Scandal
Professor Trenberth is involved in the climategate scandal, on which was found that on his emails he affirmed that "we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't...Our observing system is inadequate"
The full text follows: "The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't. The CERES data published in the August BAMS 09 supplement on 2008 shows there should be even more warming: but the data are surely wrong. Our observing system is inadequate."
He answer that "his critics are missing the point he's making in it by not reading the article cited in his e-mail. That article, called "An Imperative for Climate Change Planning," actually says that global warming is continuing, despite random temperature variations that would seem to suggest otherwise. It says we don't have an observing system adequate to track it, but there are all other kinds of signs aside from global mean temperatures -- including melting of Arctic sea ice and rising sea levels and a lot of other indicators -- that global warming is continuing,"
See also
References
- ^ "FAQ 1.1 Fig 1 - Estimate of the Earth's annual and global mean energy balance", IPCC AR4 WG I (PDF), IPCC, 2007, p. 96
- ^ IPCC 2001, UCAR
- ^ An Open Letter to the Community from Chris Landsea
- ^ "IPCC WG1 AR4 Report — Chapter 3: Observations: Surface and Atmospheric Climate Change" (PDF). IPCC WG1 AR4 Report. IPCC. 2007. pp. p239 (pdf page 5 of 102). Retrieved 2008-11-19.
{{cite web}}:|pages=has extra text (help) - ^ http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/23/hacker.climate/
- ^ http://www.huntingtonnews.net/national/091128-smith-nationalleakedemails.html
External links
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