“Global warming is not a crisis” Intelligence2 Debate

On Wednesday of this week, Intelligence Squared had a debate about global warming. The debate topic was "Global warming is not a crisis." Six experts, three in favor and three opposed, debated the issues before a live audience. You can read a transcript of the debate by clicking here. It should eventually be in podcast form on this site.

Before the debate, the audience was polled on whether they agreed with the statement, "Global warming is not a crisis." The result was:

• Agree = 30%
• Disagree = 57%
• Unsure 13%

After the debate was over:

• Agree 46%
• Disagree 42%
• Unsure 12%

(Maybe this explains why Al Gore still refuses to debate his documentary. )

The debate was moderated by Brian Lehrer and the participants were:

SPEAKERS FOR THE MOTION:

Michael Crichton is a writer and filmmaker, best known as the author of Jurassic Park and the creator of "ER."  Crichton graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College,  received his MD from Harvard Medical School, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.  He has been a visiting instructor at Cambridge University and MIT.  Crichton's 2004 bestseller, State of Fear, challenged extreme anthropogenic warming scenarios.

Richard S. Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at MIT since 1983, previously held professorships at Harvard, where he received his A.B., S.M. and Ph.D., and the University of Chicago.  He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the recipient of various awards.  He is the author or co-author of three books and over 200 papers.  His current research is on climate sensitivity, atmospheric convection and the general circulation of the atmosphere.

Philip Stott is an Emeritus Professor and biogeographer from the University of London, UK. Although a scientist, for the past ten years he has also employed modern techniques of deconstruction to grand environmental narratives, like “global warming.”  Stott was editor of the internationally-important Journal of Biogeography for 18 years. He broadcasts widely on TV and radio, and writes regularly on environmental issues for The Times of London , among other publications.

SPEAKERS AGAINST THE MOTION:

Brenda Ekwurzel works on the national climate program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).  Prior to joining UCS, she was on the faculty of the University of Arizona.  Doctorate research was at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and post-doctoral research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Gavin Schmidt is a climate scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. His publications include studies of past, present and potential future climates. Scientific American cited him as a top 50 Research Leader in 2004, and he has worked on education and outreach with the American Museum of Natural History, the College de France and the New York Academy of Sciences, among others. He is a contributing editor at RealClimate.org.

Richard C. J. Somerville is Distinguished Professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego.  He is a theoretical meteorologist and an expert on computer simulations of the atmosphere.  Among many honors, Somerville is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Meteorological Society.  He has received awards for both his research and his popular book, The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change.

There is some good debate with lively retorts. I liked Crichton's Einstein anecdote. The Nazis had lined up 200 scientists to say Einstein was wrong on a scientific matter. Someone asked how does it feel to have 200 scientists against you. He responded that it only takes one to prove me wrong.

There were also some rather strange moments, like when Somerville claimed that the NAS study on gw science said there has been no significant change in global temperature for the past 1,300 years. The report says that temperature data before the 1600s was too sketchy for making definitive conclusions for earlier eras but that there was a 2 to 1 chance that something like the Medieval warm period happened, as previously suspected.

Anyway, I hope to listen to the event when it is a podcast.