CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Dr Cory Franklin
May 21, 2014

President Barack Obama recently warned the country about climate change, referencing the recently released National Climate Assessment, mandated by Congress and published every four years as a guide to policymakers. In doing so, he called out skeptics: “Unfortunately, inside of Washington, we’ve still got some climate deniers who shout loud, but they’re wasting everybody’s time on a settled debate. … Climate change is a fact. … Rising sea levels, drought, more wildfires, more severe storms — those are bad for the economy. … Climate change is not some far-off problem in the future. It’s happening now.”

Global warming and its dire consequences may very well come to pass. But with due respect to the president, his experts and everyone complaining about wasted time: The rigid tone, blind appeal to authority and constant use of the terms “denier” and “settled debate” do not reflect true scientific thought or serve the public well.

Science is about explaining nature. The scientist’s role is not to tell the public what to believe. It is to clarify ideas, as efficiently as possible, so the public can understand the questions at hand.

The climate debate isn’t settled; it has hardly begun. The Earth has warmed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit over the last century. Most of this rise has been in the last 50 years, coincident with higher atmospheric carbon dioxide levels produced by increased fossil fuel consumption. But future atmospheric warming depends on poorly understood feedback loops, and future warming estimates vary significantly. Climate scientists should explain to the public the strengths and limitations of their methods and data; any scientific journal editor would demand as much. Instead, too many scientists simply seek to silence critics.

….Unlike history, physical science, particularly climate science, is a discipline that is validated differently — through future observation. And the further one ventures into the future, the more uncertain prediction becomes. Tomorrow’s weather is easier to predict than next week’s. There is more error inherent in predicting what the climate will be in 2100 than what it will be in 2050. Someone skeptical of science’s ability to predict climate 100 years hence should never be painted with the same brush as people who deny the existence of a crematorium at Auschwitz. That is arrant nonsense.

Rather than argue their time is being wasted, those claiming the debate is settled would be well-served by a little humility. When addressing deference to authority in science, Albert Einstein, a scientific authority of some renown, humbled himself by saying, “Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.”

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