“The Great Climate Debate” at Rice University: The Science is NOT Settled (Richard Lindzen and Gerald North to Revisit the IPCC ‘Consensus’)

On Wednesday evening January 27th a discussion of the latest developments in climate change science will be held on the campus of Rice University (directions below for those nearby). This discussion/debate is cosponsored by the Shell Center for Sustainability and the Center for the Study of Environment and Society at Rice. Here is the flyer:

Defending the IPCC consensus regarding natural-versus-anthropogenic climate change is Gerald R. North, Distinguished Professor of the Physical Section, Department of Atmospheric Sciences and the Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M University.

Richard S. Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts of Technology, will challenge the IPCC consensus, arguing that real-world climate sensitivity lies below the iconic range of 2c–4.5C. Questions about ‘Climategate’ and the newly emerged  ‘Himalayangate’ (the latter exposed by Dr.…

Houston Chronicle: Climate Alarmism and Policy Activism, but no Economic Analysis

“With overwhelming scientific evidence that the threat of global climate change is real and accelerating, it’s imperative that the United States, the second-biggest producer of carbon dioxide, take a leading role in crafting solutions. [Waxman-Markey] offers an opportunity to begin exercising that leadership.”

The Houston Chronicle editorial page is one of the most biased in the nation when it comes to climate alarmism and associated public-policy activism. And it maintained that unenviable reputation with last Sunday’s op-ed, Cap-and-Trade-Off.

The 559-word piece is disappointing both for what it did say and for what was left unsaid.

First, some facts in the piece were out of date. (Okay, someone clocked out early for the long weekend; me too.)  The bill was not under debate as stated in the first sentence; it was voted out of committee.…

“EPA Recognizes Peril of Greenhouse Gases” (Houston Chronicle headline on endangerment finding indicative of alarmist bias)

Headlines are meant to sell papers, but the above scream from atop Page 1 of today’s Houston Chronicle deserves critical comment. A fair and accurate (but less sexy) headline would have been: “EPA Declares Peril of Greenhouse Gases.” Just changing one word–from “recognizes” to “declares”–makes all the difference.

The Chronicle, particularly the editorial page, has been a bastion of climate alarmism rather than informed skepticism, or what a lot of us simply call climate realism. (Eric Berger, the “sci-guy” at the Chronicle, is more of a straight shooter on day-to-day global-warming reporting.)

The science is not settled in favor of climate alarmism. But this conclusion requires some background and explanation.…

Opposite Views on Climate Feedbacks (and perhaps the answer lies in the middle)