Global Warming -- The Current Status: The Science, the Scandal, the Prospects for a Treaty

Global Warming -- The Current Status: The Science, the Scandal, the Prospects for a Treaty
Speaker/Performer: Richard Muller, Professor, Dept. of Physics, UC Berkeley
Abstract:
Recent events in the field of climate change have confused both the public and many "experts." I will try to elucidate what has been happening. Two out of three climate groups show no global warming for the past 13 years. What does that mean? Why does the third group (led by Jim Hansen) disagree? Why was there no treaty at Copenhagen? (It wasn't political, but technical!) Why do we hear so little about the Copenhagen follow-up meeting, this December in Cancun? What really happened in the Climategate scandal? How serious are the mistakes that embarrassed the IPCC (e.g. their claim that the Himalayas might melt in a few decades, subsequently retracted)? How reliable are the predictions of future global warming? (Pretty reliable, in my opinion.) I will attempt to give a non-partisan analysis.

------
Richard A. Muller began his career as a graduate student under Nobel laureate Luis Alvarez doing particle
physics experiments and working with bubble chambers. His work has included attempting to understand the ice ages, dynamics at the core-mantle boundary, patterns of extinction and biodiversity through time, and the processes associated with impact cratering. "His "Physics for Future Presidents" series of lectures, in which Muller teaches a synopsis of modern qualitative (i.e. without resorting to complicated math) physics, has been published in book form.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[meinLiebsterFeind]

Good video -- thanks for posting!

[grindupBaker]

Interesting information. I didn't notice Prof. Muller mention that global warming is an increase, or not, in the heat content of the oceans. Average surface temperature is a proxy whose quality will depend on the measurement accuracy and the time scale averaged, since it takes ~600 times as much energy to heat full oceans by 1 degree as to heat land, air & near surface waters. So surface is a veneer that is flakey except in the very long term.

[William Foster]

Seems there are a lot of comments from climate change denialists + crazy religios + good solid thickos

[FSFA11223]

Professor Muller,

Your presentation is good and includes much of the "true" science in an unbiased method. I have studied this topic for 30 years with 20 years of actural field studies and analysis. Do you have your speaker notes available? Thanks again for providing a good lecture. Prof. Taylor,

[copycoonie]

cbrhawk...your an in denial idiot at best....you try to sound intelligent and imformed on this subject but you fail.Please go back to watching Fox news and listening to Rush.

[Viracocha711]

Dude you are the biggest troll to hit this video...You really have no clue at all what you are talking about & you most certainly DO NOT READ THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE! What a fucking JOKE!!

[cbrhawk1]

Unhappy that your argument based on popularity doesn't float with me? I actually read the papers, bud. You don't. You read something from the media and don't bother to check the papers they are citing. Almost always, they misrepresent what the papers actually say.

My advice to you is to stop listening to the media and buy a subscription to nature or science magazines and subscribe to E&E for some balance in the debate. Actually READ the papers, and you'll find most aren't alarming.

[Viracocha711]

LOL!! Your backtracking says all that needs to be said! Go find someone else to bother.

[cbrhawk1]

Climatologists do not have the reputation for fixing problems or making predictions as doctors do. Even with something as precise as medicine, I would still seek several opinions on something as important as cancer since misdiagnosis is common.

Also, the agreement isn't 100%. It's not 99.1%. It's not 97%. The amount of scientists who explicitly believe in catastrophic warming is very, very low. The media overblows it. Scientists merely agree on the Earth getting warmer, nothing else.

[Viracocha711]

WOW!! Your comments are laughable!