Prominent-scientists-push-to-revise-physics-society-climate-statement

Eighty prominent scientists, researchers and environmental business leaders – many of them physicists – have called on the American Physical Society (APS), the nation's leading physics organization, to revise its policy statement on climate change. The century-old APS is the premier scholarly group in the U.S. dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of the knowledge of physics.

The signers of an open letter to the APS Council, the governing body of APS, are current and past members of APS. They disagree with the current APS policy statement on climate change, which contains such language as, "Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth's climate,” and “The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring.”

The group of 80 scientists and academic leaders is urging APS to revise its statement on climate change to read as follows:

"Greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, accompany human industrial and agricultural activity. While substantial concern has been expressed that emissions may cause significant climate change, measured or reconstructed temperature records indicate that 20th [and] 21st century changes are neither exceptional nor persistent, and the historical and geological records show many periods warmer than today. In addition, there is an extensive scientific literature that examines beneficial effects of increased levels of carbon dioxide for both plants and animals.

Studies of a variety of natural processes, including ocean cycles and solar variability, indicate that they can account for variations in the Earth’s climate on the time scale of decades and centuries. Current climate models appear insufficiently reliable to properly account for natural and anthropogenic contributions to past climate change, much less project future climate.

The APS supports an objective scientific effort to understand the effects of all processes – natural and human – on the Earth’s climate and the biosphere’s response to climate change, and promotes technological options for meeting challenges of future climate changes, regardless of cause.

This is a far cry from what we are reading in the very unscientific mainstream media. As a matter of fact, it would be a great surprise if the major media even report the challenge of these courageous scientists to the APS status quo.

When asked for a comment on the open letter, APS Executive Officer Kate Kirby issued the following statement: "The APS president Cherry Murray has formed an ad hoc committee to examine the APS statement. The committee will advise Dr. Murray and the APS council on whether any changes to the statement are necessary."

The current APS policy statement on climate change was issued in November 2007. But since then, a growing body of evidence has been emerging that challenges the facts and conclusions of the APS statement. It remains to be seen if APS will consider all of the available evidence and recent research. Much of this new information would be embarrassing to politicians, including the President of the United States, because it will show that global warming as a result of human activity is a myth.

The Administration and congressional leaders are in the heat of a legislative battle over health care, but they are also pushing a radical climate change or “cap-and-trade” bill that would dramatically increase the cost of energy for U.S. consumers and businesses. If APS reviews its statement in light of recent, more accurate research, its council may be inclined to adopt the revised statement on climate change from the open letter. But will APS leaders have the courage to do so in the face of intimidation by political leaders who don’t want to change their policies? It wouldn’t be the first time that political power trumped science.

This open letter is just one more piece of evidence that the theory of man-made global warming is losing credibility. Is anyone in Washington listening, or will misguided members of Congress enact their big-government “cap-and-trade" legislation without so much as a healthy debate about whether man-made global warming theory is even scientifically valid?

http://www.examiner.com/x-7422-Cobb-County-Conservative-Examiner~y2009m8d14-P...


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