Richard Lindzen

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Richard Siegmund Lindzen, Ph.D., (born February 8, 1940) is a Harvard trained atmospheric physicist and the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lindzen is known for his research in dynamic meteorology, especially planetary waves. He has published over 200 books and scientific papers. He was the lead author of Chapter 7 (physical processes) of the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC on global warming (2001). He has been a critic of some anthropogenic global warming theories and the political pressures surrounding climate scientists.

Career

Lindzen has published papers on Hadley circulation, monsoon meteorology, planetary atmospheres, hydrodynamic instability, mid-latitude weather, global heat transport, the water cycle, and their roles in climate change, ice ages, seasonal atmospheric effects.[1]

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Science and Economic Advisory Council of the Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy.[2] Educated at Harvard University (Ph.D., '64, S.M., '61, A.B., '60), he moved to MIT in 1983, prior to which he held positions at the University of Chicago (1967–1972) and Harvard University (1972–1983).[3] He is known for pioneering the study of ozone photochemistry,[4] and advised several student theses on the subject.[5]

In 2001 Lindzen served on an 11-member panel organized by the National Academy of Sciences.[6] The panel's report, titled Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions,[7] has been widely cited. Lindzen subsequently publicly criticized the report summary for leaving out doubts about the weight that could be placed on 20 years of temperature records.[8]

Lindzen worked on Chapter 7 of IPCC Working Group 1 (of the 2001 IPCC Report), which considers the physical processes that are active in real world climate; he had already been a contributor to Chapter 4 of the "IPCC Second Assessment", "Climate Change 1995". He described the 2001 full IPCC report as an admirable description of research activities in climate science[9] although he criticised the Summary for policymakers. Lindzen stated in May 2001 that the IPCC summary did not support the full document: see IPCC,[10] had been amended to make far more definite conclusions,[11] and emphasised that the summary was not written by scientists alone. However, the NAS panel on which Lindzen served (see above) disagreed, saying that the summary was the result of a dialogue between scientists and policymakers.[12][13]

Professor Lindzen is a recipient of the American Meteorological Society's Meisinger and Charney Awards, and American Geophysical Union's Macelwane Medal. He is a corresponding member of the NAS Committee on Human Rights, a member of the NRC Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, and a Fellow of the AAAS1. He was a consultant to the Global Modeling and Simulation Group at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Industry links

According to a 1995 article in Harper's Magazine which was very critical of Lindzen and other global warming skeptics, Lindzen charged "oil and coal interests $2,500 a day for his consulting services; [and] his 1991 trip to testify before a Senate committee was paid for by Western Fuels and a speech he wrote, entitled 'Global Warming: the Origin and Nature of Alleged Scientific Consensus,' was underwritten by OPEC."[14] In Aug 2006, according to Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam, Lindzen said that he had accepted $10,000 in expenses and expert witness fees, from "fossil-fuel types" in the 1990s and had not received any money from these since. [15]

According to a 2007 PBS Frontline report, "Dr. Lindzen is a member of the Advisory Council of the Annapolis Center for Science Based Public Policy, which has received large amounts of funding from ExxonMobil and smaller amounts from Daimler Chrysler, according to a review [of] Exxon's own financial documents and 990s from Daimler Chrysler's Foundation. Lindzen has also been a contributor to the Cato Institute, which has taken $90,000 from Exxon since 1998, according to the website Exxonsecrets.org and a review Exxon financial documents. He is also a contributor for the George C. Marshall Institute." [14]

Views on global warming

In an article for the Wall Street Journal (June 11 2001), Lindzen stated that "there is no consensus, unanimous or otherwise, about long-term climate trends and what causes them" and "I cannot stress this enough -- we are not in a position to confidently attribute past climate change to carbon dioxide or to forecast what the climate will be in the future. That is to say, contrary to media impressions, agreement with the three basic statements tells us almost nothing relevant to policy discussions."[16]

In September 2003 Lindzen wrote an open letter to the mayor of Newton, Massachusetts (Lindzen's home),[17] his views on global warming and the Kyoto Accord. He says "... [T]he impact of CO2 on the Earth's heat budget is nonlinear. What this means is that although CO2 has only increased about 30% over its pre-industrial level, the impact on the heat budget of the Earth due to the increases in CO2 and other man influenced greenhouse substances has already reached about 75% of what one expects from a doubling of CO2, and that the temperature rise seen so far is much less (by a factor of 2-3) than models predict (assuming that all of the very irregular change in temperature over the past 120 years or so—about 1 degree F—is due to added greenhouse gases—a very implausible assumption).".

The November 10 2004 online version of Reason magazine reported that Lindzen is "willing to take bets that global average temperatures in 20 years will in fact be lower than they are now."[18] James Annan, a scientist involved in climate prediction, contacted Lindzen to arrange a bet. Annan and Lindzen exchanged proposals for bets, but were unable to agree. Lindzen's final proposal was a bet that if the temperature change were less than 0.2 °C (0.36 °F), he would win. If the temperature change were between 0.2 °C and 0.4 °C the bet would be off. And if the temperature change were 0.4 °C or greater, Annan would win. He would take 2 to 1 odds.[19]

Of the Kyoto Accord, he claims there is no "controversy over the fact that the Kyoto Protocol, itself, will do almost nothing to stabilize CO2. Capping CO2 emissions per unit of electricity generated will have a negligible impact on CO2 levels" {{citation}}: Empty citation (help)

Lindzen is author (in 2001) of the "iris hypothesis", which suggested increased sea surface temperature in the tropics would result in reduced cirrus clouds and thus more infrared radiation leakage from Earth's atmosphere.[20] This suggested infrared radiation leakage was hypothesized to be a negative feedback which would have an overall cooling effect. The consensus view is that increased sea surface temperature would result in increased cirrus clouds which would have the effect of warming the sea surface further and thus there would be positive feedback.

Media appearances

He frequently speaks out against the IPCC position that significant global warming is very likely caused by humans (see global warming) although he accepts that the warming has occurred, saying global mean temperature is about 0.6 degrees Celsius higher than it was a century ago.[9]

Lindzen was one of several scientists who appeared in The Great Global Warming Swindle, a documentary that aired in the UK in March, 2007 on Channel 4. The film was critical of the IPCC and many scientific opinions on climate change. The film has been criticized for misuse of data and out of date research, for using misleading arguments, and for misrepresenting the position of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.[21][22][23][24]

He wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in April, 2006, in which he wrote: "In Europe, Henk Tennekes was dismissed as research director of the Royal Dutch Meteorological Society after questioning the scientific underpinnings of global warming. Aksel Winn-Nielsen, former director of the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization, was tarred by Bert Bolin, first head of the IPCC, as a tool of the coal industry for questioning climate alarmism. Respected Italian professors Alfonso Sutera and Antonio Speranza disappeared from the debate in 1991, apparently losing climate-research funding for raising questions."[25]

Views on health risks of smoking

Lindzen has claimed that the risks of smoking, including passive smoking, are overstated. In 2001,[26] Newsweek journalist Fred Guterl reported, after an interview with Lindzen, "He'll even expound on how weakly lung cancer is linked to cigarette smoking. He speaks in full, impeccably logical paragraphs, and he punctuates his measured cadences with thoughtful drags on a cigarette."[26]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Publications". Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  2. ^ "Global Warming Skeptics: A Primer". Environmental Defence. December 19, 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ "Lindzen, Richard S." Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  5. ^ "Theses advised by Prof. Richard S. Lindzen" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  6. ^ "Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions: Committee on the Science of Climate Change". National Academies Press. 2001. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  7. ^ "Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions". National Academies Press. 2001. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  8. ^ Lindzen, Richard S. (June 11, 2001). "Scientists' Report Doesn't Support the Kyoto Treaty" (PDF). The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  9. ^ a b Lindzen, Richard S. (February 23,2004). "Canadian Reactions To Sir David King". The Hill Times. Retrieved 2007-04-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Lindzen, Richard S. (May 1, 2001). "Testimony of Richard S. Lindzen before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee" (PDF). Lavoisier Group. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  11. ^ Solomon, Lawrence (December 22,2006). "The Deniers -- Part V: The original denier: into the cold". National Post. Retrieved 2007-04-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ The NAS panel said on the matter that "The committee finds that the full IPCC Working Group I (WGI) report is an admirable summary of research activities in climate science, and the full report is adequately summarized in the Technical Summary. The full WGI report and its Technical Summary are not specifically directed at policy. The Summary for Policymakers reflects less emphasis on communicating the basis for uncertainty and a stronger emphasis on areas of major concern associated with human-induced climate change. This change in emphasis appears to be the result of a summary process in which scientists work with policy makers on the document. Written responses from U.S. coordinating and lead scientific authors to the committee indicate, however, that (a) no changes were made without the consent of the convening lead authors (this group represents a fraction of the lead and contributing authors) and (b) most changes that did occur lacked significant impact."
  13. ^ "Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions: Summary". National Academies Press. 2001. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  14. ^ a b Oriana Zill de Granados. "The Doubters of Global Warming". PBS. Retrieved 2007-11-24.
  15. ^ MIT's inconvenient scientist - The Boston Globe
  16. ^ Lindzen, Richard S. (June 11, 2001). "Scientists' Report Doesn't Support the Kyoto Treaty" (PDF). The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  17. ^ TCS Daily : Technology - Commerce - Society
  18. ^ Bailey, Ronald (November 10, 2005). "Two Sides to Global Warming". Reason Magazine. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  19. ^ Bailey, Ronald (June 8, 2005). "Betting on Climate Change". Reason Magazine. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  20. ^ Lindzen, R.S., M.-D. Chou, and A.Y. Hou (2001). "Does the Earth have an adaptive infrared iris?" (PDF). Bull. Amer. Met. Soc. 82: 417–432. doi:10.1175/1520-0477(2001)082<0417:DTEHAA>2.3.CO;2.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ Houghton, John. "The Great Global Warming Swindle: Critique by John Houghton" (PDF). The John Ray Initiative. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
  22. ^ http://www.amos.org.au/BAMOS_GGWS_new.pdf
  23. ^ "The Great Global Warming Swindle: open letter to Martin Durkin". Climate of Denial. 2007-04-24. Retrieved 2007-04-28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ BAS Statement about Channel 4 programme on Global Warming
  25. ^ Lindzen, Richard S. (April 12, 2006). "Climate of Fear". OpinionJournal.com. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  26. ^ a b Fred Guterl (2001-07-23). "The Truth About Global Warming; The forecasts of doom are mostly guesswork, Richard Lindzen argues--and he has Bush's ear". Newsweek. Retrieved 2007-04-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

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