250 Members of the US National Academy of Sciences are Signatories to This
Letter. (May 7, 2010)|
|
|
|
|
|
|
News & Views item - May 2010 |
250 Members of the US National Academy of Sciences are Signatories to This
Letter. (May 7, 2010)
Today's issue of Science published the letter reproduced here in its entirety. Among those who signed are 11 Nobel Laureates, and from Australia, the president of the Australian Academy of Science, Kurt Lambeck who was elected last year as a foreign associate of the Academy.
Australia's Chief Scientist, Professor Penny Sackett, told the ABC: "Even if each one of us on the face of the earth stopped emitting greenhouse gases tomorrow, not another ounce into the atmosphere, the temperature would still rise. I would say that every delay makes it harder for ourselves in the future. I'd like us to also think about how much more difficult it makes it for the next generation. We certainly need every technique that we can muster, and that will mean climate legislation in countries around the world. There are many other things we can, and now I would say the urgency of doing those things is even stronger." And she is reported by The Sydney Morning Herald as viewing Australia as moving too slowly in bringing its greenhouse gas emissions under control, exposing the nation to high risks and financial costs: "Any action that is delayed puts us at higher risk of dangerous climate change."
The ABC also spoke to Professor Lambeck who told the broadcaster that he was aware of personal attacks on individual scientists, and that was totally unacceptable from either side: "It's a call really for rational debate on scientific issues. That's really what it's about - to get the facts out, to be able to debate the pros and cons of arguments, and not have that discussion deflected by extreme views."
_________________________________________________________
We are deeply disturbed by the recent escalation of political assaults on scientists in general and on climate scientists in particular. All citizens should understand some basic scientific facts. There is always some uncertainty associated with scientific conclusions; science never absolutely proves anything. When someone says that society should wait until scientists are absolutely certain before taking any action, it is the same as saying society should never take action. For a problem as potentially catastrophic as climate change, taking no action poses a dangerous risk for our planet.
Scientific conclusions derive from an understanding of basic laws supported by laboratory experiments, observations of nature, and mathematical and computer modeling. Like all human beings, scientists make mistakes, but the scientific process is designed to find and correct them. This process is inherently adversarial—scientists build reputations and gain recognition not only for supporting conventional wisdom, but even more so for demonstrating that the scientific consensus is wrong and that there is a better explanation. That's what Galileo, Pasteur, Darwin, and Einstein did. But when some conclusions have been thoroughly and deeply tested, questioned, and examined, they gain the status of "well-established theories" and are often spoken of as "facts."
For instance, there is compelling scientific evidence that our planet is about 4.5 billion years old (the theory of the origin of Earth), that our universe was born from a single event about 14 billion years ago (the Big Bang theory), and that today's organisms evolved from ones living in the past (the theory of evolution). Even as these are overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific community, fame still awaits anyone who could show these theories to be wrong. Climate change now falls into this category: There is compelling, comprehensive, and consistent objective evidence that humans are changing the climate in ways that threaten our societies and the ecosystems on which we depend.
|
(i) The planet is warming due to increased concentrations of heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere. A snowy winter in Washington does not alter this fact.
(ii) Most of the increase in the concentration of these gases over the last century is due to human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.
(iii) Natural causes always play a role in changing Earth's climate, but are now being overwhelmed by human-induced changes.
(iv) Warming the planet will cause many other climatic patterns to change at speeds unprecedented in modern times, including increasing rates of sea-level rise and alterations in the hydrologic cycle. Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide are making the oceans more acidic.
(v) The combination of these complex climate changes threatens coastal communities and cities, our food and water supplies, marine and freshwater ecosystems, forests, high mountain environments, and far more.
Much more can be, and has been, said by the world's scientific societies, national academies, and individuals, but these conclusions should be enough to indicate why scientists are concerned about what future generations will face from business-as-usual practices. We urge our policy-makers and the public to move forward immediately to address the causes of climate change, including the un restrained burning of fossil fuels.
We also call for an end to McCarthy-like threats of criminal prosecution against our colleagues based on innuendo and guilt by association, the harassment of scientists by politicians seeking distractions to avoid taking action, and the outright lies being spread about them. Society has two choices: We can ignore the science and hide our heads in the sand and hope we are lucky, or we can act in the public interest to reduce the threat of global climate change quickly and substantively. The good news is that smart and effective actions are possible. But delay must not be an option.
_______________________________________________
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: petergleick@pacinst.org
|
|
