by Bill Schlesinger
There are always buyers and sellers, but the price of stocks is said to be determined by the best collective knowledge of the current and future value of a company in the marketplace.
Similarly, predictions of future climate derive from the best minds that climate science can muster to study the problem. Overwhelmingly scientists say that the rise of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from human activities will warm our planet. Sure, there are natural sources of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere, but it is easy to identify the large human contributions.
Science thrives on skeptics who question dogma, but important advances in science come from further studies that refine what we know. Unfortunately, our country is now led by a climate skeptic who seeks to refine the question, not by further study, but by eliminating the scientific effort to understand climate in federal agencies (NOAA and NASA) and the effects of rising temperature on humans and their food supply (NIH and USDA). Grants for climate science research are also being cancelled at leading universities (e.g., Princeton) under the guise of protecting the public from climate change anxiety. This is the functional equivalent of an ostrich burying its head in the sand to avoid a predator.
Now, the reach of the anti-science extends to non-profit groups that advocate what we should do about climate change. These are not terrorists, and their voices need to be heard, for they often apply economic analyses about the costs of action or inaction. Without these voices, how would we know that the cost of electricity from solar is cheaper than the cost of electricity supplied by a new coal-fired power plant? Environmental groups interpret science for the public. These voices should not be silenced.
There is much to be learned about Earth’s climate. It will be a sad day when we can’t study the causes and impacts of global warming and when we can’t talk about it with informed conversation. Unfortunately, that day is close upon us.
Climate change is not a hoax; resist.
Further Reading
Schlesinger, W.H. and E.S. Bernhardt. 2020. Biogeochemistry: an analysis of global change. Academic Press/Elsevier, San Diego
Schlesinger, W.H. 2017. https://blogs.nicholas.duke.edu/citizenscientist/seven-documented-reasons-why-you-should-care-about-climate-change/
Schlesinger, W.H. 2011. Climate Change. Interpretation 65(4):378-390.
