May 22, 2008
ICECAP, The Heartland Institute
The publication Nature - Not Human Activity - Rules the Climate is a Summary for Policymakers of the Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change with contributions by 25 scientists and edited and published by Dr. Fred Singer and the Heartland Institute. It has a forward authored by Dr. Frederick Seitz in February 2008. Dr. Seitz was President Emeritus, Rockefeller University, Past President, National Academy of Sciences, Past President, American Physical Society and Chairman, Science and Environmental Policy Project. Dr. Seitz sadly passed away on March 2, 2008. The NIPCC is being presented in briefings throughout Europe over the next month.
After the Introductioon (Section 1), the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change focuses on two major issues: 1) The very weak evidence that the causes of the current warming are anthropogenic (Section 2) and 2) The far more robust evidence that the causes of the current warming are natural (Section 3).
The NIPCC then addresses the following issues: 3) Computer models are unreliable guides to future climate conditions (Section 4), 4) Sea-level rise is not significantly affected by rise in greenhouse gases (Section 5), 5) The data on ocean heat content have been misused to suggest anthropogenic warming. The role of greenhouse gases in the reported rise in ocean temperature is largely unknown (Section 6), 6) Understanding of the atmospheric carbon dioxide budget is incomplete (Section 7), 7) Higher concentrations of CO2 are more likely to be beneficial to plant and animal life and to human health than lower concentrations (Section 8), 8) The economic effects of modest warming are likely to be positive and beneficial to human health (Section 9) and 9) the Conclusion: Our imperfect understanding of the causes and consequences of climate change means the science is far from settled. This, in turn, means proposed efforts to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions are premature and misguided. Any attempt to influence global temperatures by reducing such emissions would be both futile and expensive (Section 10).
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