Thoughts of a Lapsed Physicist

The attached article by Dana Milbank in the June 12, 2013 Washington Post was the direct trigger for this post, on a topic that was on my list of things to discuss.  It is a harbinger of the future (NYC and GCC).

I first referred to climate change publicly in a speech I gave at the University of Delaware in 1982 entitled ‘Values in Energy Decision Making: Some Personal Perspectives’.  It was just a few years after Jim Hansen first began publishing on the issue of global warming and climate change and undertook to alert the world to the possibilities.  We all owe him a big thanks.  (Note:  the 1982 speech referred to above will be discussed in future blogs on nuclear power, energy conservation, and the role of values in energy policy.)

My current thoughts on global warming and climate change are reflected in the attached power point presentation, an invited Earth Day-related talk to a citizen’s group in northern Virginia (Global Warming and Climate Change).  It was an opportunity for me to review some of the rapidly growing literature on the subject and the latest scientific testimony to Congress. While not being a climate scientist, and recognizing that a few scientists still question the validity of human-induced global warming, I personally have no doubts, based on my reading of the literature as a scientist, that global warming is occurring due to human activities and is having serious impacts.  One such impact is on precipitation patterns which is touched upon in my earlier blog on ‘Water and Energy’.  Some have identified global warming and associated climate change as the most important issue facing the global community, which may be all too true notwithstanding that the world faces many other difficult-to-solve problems as well.