Global-warming report mailed to Utahns
But U. scientist, Sierra Club dispute its findings
The report from Sutherland should make it to residents' mailboxes this week, said the institute's Katie Christensen. The report is titled "Scientific Consensus on Global Warming: Results of an International Survey of Climate Scientists."
It was written by Joseph Bast and James M. Taylor and provided to the Sutherland Institute by the Heartland Institute, in Chicago. The authors said they compiled information from a survey by German environmental scientists Dennis Bray and Hans von Storch.
A Sutherland Institute summary of the report says that a survey of more than 530 climate scientists from 27 countries, carried out in 1996 and 2003, found that most of them don't believe that computer models accurately verify climate conditions, and that "most believe the science is too unsettled to form a basis for public policy."
Heartland contacted the network asking if other institutes could use the booklet that it had produced on global warming. Mero said the scientists who carried out the survey are "the real deal" and that the information is important.
The Sutherland Institute typically involves itself in issues of family policy, education policy and health care. However, Mero said, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. made global warming a policy issue for Utah, and the institute is concerned that the global-warming debate could lead to governmental intrusions where they might not be warranted.
But Thomas Reichler, assistant professor of meteorology at the University of Utah, disputes the idea that scientists have not formed a consensus that global warming is real and caused by humans.
The survey that the institute is distributing was done in 2003. "Our knowledge has changed" since then, he said. "I think we are even more certain that global warming is happening than we were four years ago."
At one time, scientists debated the meaning of information returned by satellites and balloon-borne instruments and models, which seemed to give differing results on the question of global warming.
Climate scientists have spent much time on the question and have discovered the causes for differences. Those causes include calibration of different instruments and differences between satellite orbits and platforms.
Recent comments
The public definitely has the right to be informed about all aspects...
Boxorox | Aug. 19, 2007 at 9:17 a.m.
Monte Carlo methods are used in many areas of science. They'...
Stu | Aug. 19, 2007 at 2:54 a.m.
Hey, you global warming deniers gotta do your thing. Science is not...
sphenodon | Aug. 18, 2007 at 12:33 p.m.
