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The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has adopted a new position statement on
climate change that recognizes the increasing alteration of the Earth's climate
by human activities. "Scientific evidence strongly indicates that natural
influences cannot explain the rapid increase in global near-surface temperatures
observed during the second half of the 20th century," the statement says.
"We're not reporting on startling new science," said Marvin Geller,
an atmospheric scientist at Stony Brook University in New York and chair of
the committee that drafted the statement, at a press conference on Monday in
Washington, D.C. But the new statement, he said, reflects the current scientific
understanding of the effects of humans on the climate, as is reported in the
peer-reviewed science literature. "Human-induced global warming is happening,"
Geller said, "and now we need to do something."
According to Geller, the AGU statement is consistent with the reports issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the National Academies of Science, and also with the Bush administration's climate change science plan released this year. It is also consistent with the most reputable science out there, he said.
The unprecedented increase in greenhouse gas concentrations has, and will continue,
to change the global climate — that is a certainty, the statement says.
It also expresses confidence that climate change will mean higher sea levels,
melting glaciers and more droughts and floods. What is less certain is the impact
of climate change on a regional, rather than global, scale. For example, while
the scientists are confident that mid-continent temperatures will rise, mid-ocean
surface temperatures may not be as affected.
Another point that should be made, Geller said, is that scientists have not
defined any single threshold for when greenhouse gas concentration becomes dangerous.
The scientists notably left out any language about abrupt climate change because
the trigger mechanisms are not well established. "But the more you push
on something, the more likely it is to break," Geller said.
The statement calls upon the scientific community to increase the research to
further understanding of climate change and future impacts, and to educate policy-makers
and the public about the changes. Scientists need to use their best knowledge
to determine what's happening and how to deal with it.
The new position statement replaces the society's previous statement on climate
change that was adopted in 1998 and reaffirmed in 2002. Whereas the previous
statement dealt primarily with greenhouse gases and the associated climatic
effects, this one mentions other human influences as well. It reflects the evolution
of scientific thinking about climate change, he said. The scientists involved
in the rewrite said that because so much information is published about climate
change, it was time to take another look at their position. AGU alone publishes
roughly 90 peer-reviewed papers per month that deal with climate change.
When asked at the press conference how AGU's new statement might affect the
Bush administration's overall climate policy, Geller answered, "I don't
know." The statement suggests several ways to mitigate the impacts humans
have on the environment, including slowing greenhouse gas emissions, improving
land management practices and removing carbon from the atmosphere. The scientists
said that their job is to present the most accurate scientific information available.
"We all hope our statements are useful in formulating policy," said
Bob Dickinson, an atmospheric scientist at Georgia Tech and current AGU president.
But the scientists were reluctant to say any more.
Part of scientists' job is to differentiate between research that has undergone
rigorous scientific peer review processes from that that has been published
by "any Joe with a computer," Geller said. The researchers recognize
that there will always be nay-sayers, but they hope to help policy-makers sort
through the vast amount of information out there to arrive at the best scientific
conclusions. They stressed the importance of broad scientific assessments.
AGU is an international scientific society with more than 41,000 members. Part
of AGU's mission is to inform the public on issues that affect them, and to
make the best science available to the public and to policy-makers, Dickinson
said. The AGU governing council unanimously passed the new position statement
at its meeting last Friday at the AGU annual fall meeting in San Francisco.
Megan Sever
Links:
American
Geophysical Union's Climate Change Position Statement
Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change
"Climate
Change Report Reexamined," Geotimes, Aug. 28, 2003
AGI
Government Affairs Climate Change Overview
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