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Well Known Skeptic says Climate Model Predictions are Flawed

July 27, 2012; 12:15 PM

A well known climate change skeptic states that predictions by climate models are flawed and that no actions (in regards to climate change mitigation) are needed until more data is gathered.

Dr. Richard Lindzen who is an Alfred P. Sloan Professor of meteorology in MIT's department of Earth, Atmosphere and Planetary recently spoke to Sandia National Laboratory's Climate Change and national Security Speaker Series. Lindzen was also a lead author of Chapter 7, 'Physical Climate Processes and Feedbacks,' of the IPCC Third Assessment Report on climate change.

In his speech, Dr. Lindzen stated that climate models are no more valuable than answering a test when you have the questions in advance.

In regards to climate scientists, Lindzen said that their data and their methods did not support their claims.

In the Physorg.com story about the speech Lindzen also states the following.........

For 30 years, climate scientists have been "locked into a simple-minded identification of climate with greenhouse-gas level. ... That climate should be the function of a single parameter (like CO2) has always seemed implausible. Yet an obsessive focus on such an obvious oversimplification has likely set back progress by decades," Lindzen said.

"There is little evidence that changes in climate are producing extreme weather events...."

Real-world observations do not support IPCC models, he said: "We've already seen almost the equivalent of a doubling of CO2 (in radiative forcing) and that has produced very little warming."

He discounted mainstream opinion that climate change could hurt national security, saying that "historically there is little evidence of natural disasters leading to war, but economic conditions have He discounted mainstream opinion that climate change could hurt national security, saying that "historically there is little evidence of natural disasters leading to war, but economic conditions have proven much more serious.

Lindzen also showed a graph that demonstrated that more energy consumption leads to higher literacy rate, lower infant mortality and a lower number of children per woman.

Lindzen also said a 0.8 of a degree C change in temperature in 150 years is a small change. Questioned about five-, seven-, and 17-year averages that seem to show that Earth's surface temperature is rising, he said temperatures are always fluctuating by tenths of a degree.

I will add the while it is true that most of the fluctuations that we see from month to month and year to year are no more than tenths or hundred's of a degree there is clearly an upward trend which has accelerated especially over the past 20 years. It adds up with time.

The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com