Saturday, March 13, 2010

COP: My Challenge to the UCS Signers

Edwin X Berry, PhD

Will the 2000 signers of the UCS declaration appear to defend their statement at the International Conference on Climate Change in Chicago on May 16-18?

Some 2000 scientists signed the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) declaration calling for "swift and deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions."

Yet, these same scientists have yet to prove there is any danger whatsoever from human emissions of carbon dioxide. Worse, they ignore the direct challenge to them by thousands of climate scientists, most recently in the "Open Letter to UN Secretary-General" of December 8, 2009, which states as follows: We the undersigned, being qualified in climate-related scientific disciplines, challenge the UNFCCC and supporters of the United Nations Climate Change Conference to produce convincing OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE for their claims of dangerous human-caused global warming and other changes in climate. Projections of possible future scenarios from unproven computer models of climate are not acceptable substitutes for real world data obtained through unbiased and rigorous scientific investigation.

"Specifically, we challenge supporters of the hypothesis of dangerous human-caused climate change to demonstrate that:

1. Variations in global climate in the last hundred years are significantly outside the natural range experienced in previous centuries;
2. Humanity's emissions of carbon dioxide and other 'greenhouse gases' (GHG) are having a dangerous impact on global climate;
3. Computer-based models can meaningfully replicate the impact of all of the natural factors that may significantly influence climate;
4. Sea levels are rising dangerously at a rate that has accelerated with increasing human GHG emissions, thereby threatening small islands and coastal communities;
5. The incidence of malaria is increasing due to recent climate changes;
6. Human society and natural ecosystems cannot adapt to foreseeable climate change as they have done in the past;
7. Worldwide glacier retreat, and sea ice melting in Polar Regions , is unusual and related to increases in human GHG emissions;
8. Polar bears and other Arctic and Antarctic wildlife are unable to adapt to anticipated local climate change effects, independent of the causes of those changes;
9. Hurricanes, other tropical cyclones and associated extreme weather events are increasing in severity and frequency;
10. Data recorded by ground-based stations are a reliable indicator of surface temperature trends.

"It is not the responsibility of 'climate realist' scientists to prove that dangerous human-caused climate change is not happening. Rather, it is those who propose that it is, and promote the allocation of massive investments to solve the supposed 'problem', who have the obligation to convincingly demonstrate that recent climate change is not of mostly natural origin and, if we do nothing, catastrophic change will ensue. To date, this they have utterly failed to do."

Therefore, we challenge you signers of the UCS declaration to appear at the International Conference on Climate Change in Chicago on May 16-18, to defend your quaint climate beliefs in the presence of the world's best climate scientists.

Should you not appear at this conference, the whole world will know that your signatures are valueless and that no one, especially your students, should put any credibility on your climate declarations.

Until you convince the many scientists who completely disagree with you, you do not have an ethical right to proclaim to your students or the public that your climate beliefs are supported by science.

Edwin X Berry, PhD
Atmospheric Physicist

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