Yet ANOTHER Climate expert is not happy with Gore & Co. Is the House of Cards ready for a fall?

Question

Roy W. Spencer is a principal research scientist for University of Alabama in Huntsville. In the past, he served as Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Spencer is a recipient of NASA's Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement.

He is principally known for his satellite-based temperature monitoring work, for which he was awarded the American Meteorological Society's Special Award. He is also a supporter of intelligent design and is skeptical of the scientific consensus that human activity is primarily responsible for global warming.

In 2006 Spencer criticized Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth saying, "For instance, Mr. Gore claims that the Earth is now warmer than it has been in thousands of years. Yet the latest National Academies of Science (NAS) report on the subject has now admitted that all we really know is that we are warmer now than we were during the last 400 years, which is mostly made up of the 'Little Ice Age.'"

Al Gore likes to say that mankind puts 70 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every day. What he probably doesn't know is that mother nature puts 24,000 times that amount of our main greenhouse gas -- water vapor -- into the atmosphere every day, and removes about the same amount every day. While this does not 'prove' that global warming is not manmade, it shows that weather systems have by far the greatest control over the Earth's greenhouse effect, which is dominated by water vapor and clouds.

Contrary to popular accounts, very few scientists in the world - possibly none - have a sufficiently thorough, "big picture" understanding of the climate system to be relied upon for a prediction of the magnitude of global warming. To the public, we all might seem like experts, but the vast majority of us work on only a small portion of the problem.

Answer 1

I freaking hate these people who say that people who don't believe in man made global warming just don't care about the planet, WTF have you done, cut back on driving as much, yea me too at 4 dollars a gallon. I have switch to CFL and ive been recycling for more then 10 years, you know the logical things that help are planet. IT doesn't matter where all in gonna die its to late. the north pole is gonna melt next summer and the north west passage is open for the first time in history, o wait no its first time in recorded history since 1978 but o no there has been several times that poeple have gone through the northwest passage several times in history one recently in 2000. so when next summer comes and the north pole hasn't melted then it will be the next and then the next and then the next until they say that they have been saying it wouldn't melt the whole time.

Answer 2

Vote Green!  The Earth wasn't born yesterday, but they sure were!

It's just a bunch of San Fran loony tunes thinking about the fact that within 100 years they will be dust, and pretending the planet's in peril.

Answer 3

I can guarantee the guy backing this scam is not going to stop until either he dies or he gets tossed in the slammer for fraud and all his assets get confiscated to recover what the government and the public have been defrauded of. He is about 90 years old, lives on the properties and estates belonging to his grandfathers trust fund, owns nothing in his own name yet lives more affluently than any monarch today or in history. Pays no taxes even though the trust fund he supervises is worth several trillion dollars in properties and assets all around the world.

h**l if the nation could just collect taxes on what he consumes every year the national debt could be retired in less than 10 years and the income and social security taxes on all others could be stopped.

Answer 4

What do you mean 'yet another'?  Like Christy, Spencer is a long-time AGW skeptic.  This is nothing new.

Are you going to ask questions about Lindzen, Ball, Singer, etc. and pretend they're new 'skeptics' too?  Because that will get old fast.

To address Spencer's points here - while we're only 100% certain this is the hottest the planet has been in 400 years, scientists agree that there is a high probability the Earth is warmer than it's been in thousands of years, as Gore stated.

Regarding  water vapor - no duh.  Even Gore knows that basic info.  Who cares?  Feedback, not forcing.

Looks to me like the deniers are getting desperate, rehashing old information and pretending it's news.

Answer 5

"Yet ANOTHER"?

Spencer has always been a contrarian on AGW.  So there's nothing in your post which would indicate any change at all in the strength of the consensus view. Thus, the so called "house of cards" is definitely not showing any signs of weakness.

Now if you can find 200 or 300 respected climate scientists who have changed their views from agreeing with AGW to disagreeing with it, then you might have something worth posting.

Here's some links to help educate yourself about why the natural CO2 emissions vs. human emissions comparison is just a canard:

http://www.skepticalscience.com/human-co...

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/12...

Answer 6

This is not new.  

No scientist on either side of the debate gives any credence to "An Inconvenient Truth"

Nothing has changed.

Answer 7

The science of global warming is still quite solid, thank you.  Yes, there are a few skeptics, and you can trot them out one by one.  There are a few "scientists" who say the Earth is 6000 years old, too.

Here's the official position of the National Academy of Sciences, which goes WAY beyond what you claim:

The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to begin taking steps to prepare for climate change and to slow it. Human actions over the next few decades will have a major influence on the magnitude and rate of future warming. Large, disruptive changes are much more likely if greenhouse gases are allowed to continue building up in the atmosphere at their present rate. However, reducing greenhouse gas emissions will require strong national and international commitments, technological innovation, and human willpower."

That's 1800 of the nation's best scientists, many with Nobel Prizes, compared to your few "skeptics".

EVERY major scientific organization has issued an official statement that this is real, and mostly caused by us.

Answer 8

Nice info...but...problem is the idiots and the greedy.

There will always be that one last hold out thinking he know's everything and simply won't let himself be changed from his point of view. Why else does the Flat Earth society stick around ? A harmless jab there for fun..but you will always have the uneducated, or those that sit in their ivory towers or just are too stubborn to admit they are wrong. Some might even violently hold to their beliefs since their otherwise useless life would have no other meaning than to fight for mother earth....even though Mother Earch has been doing it for herself for quite a long time without help.

On the other hand...the greedy have jumped on a band wagon, including Al Gore, that is making them lots of money, and I imagine they will fight tooth and nail to keep people confused to keep what they have.

Answer 9

Well one thing is sure: United States are mainly responsible for climate change and global warming phenomenon.

Answer 10

Doesn't Roy Spencer realize that with all his expertise criticizing the Gore 'movement' is controversial?  Imagine...forcing the more knowledgable of the greenie-crowd to rethink and reconsider their stance...must be creating a lot of headaches for people not used to thinking on their own.