Guest column by Kenneth Haapala, President, The Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)“It is one thing to impose drastic measures and harsh economic penalties when an environmental problem is clear-cut and severe. It is quite another to do so when the environmental problem is largely hypothetical and not substantiated by careful observations. This is definitely the case with global warming.” - Frederick Seitz, 17th president of the United States National Academy of SciencesThis paper … [Read more...]
The changing climate of science
Have mathematical models replaced good old-fashioned scientific testing? An understanding of the big picture in a field of study helps to frame and give essential perspective to that field. Take the field of natural science for instance. A big-picture look at the overall operation of the natural science profession has traditionally been seen in the “scientific method,” which consists of observation, hypothesis and testing. Rigorous testing of a hypothesis eventually leads to a … [Read more...]
Freeman Dyson’s brief case against dangerous CO2-driven warming
At a lecture at Boston University a few years ago, Freeman Dyson, one of the world's top physicists, who replaced Albert Einstein at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, put very simply one of the most basic arguments against the notion that CO2-driven global warming is likely to be disastrous: In humid air, the effect of carbon dioxide on radiation transport is unimportant, because the transport of radiation is already blocked by the much larger greenhouse effect of water vapor. … [Read more...]
