Re: [asa] Climate change not all man-made, NOAA report says

I actually know (from my church) Marty Hoerling, the NOAA scientist quoted in the?story at:
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1453831
I am confident he would be pretty ticked off if AGW denialists claimed him in support of their position.

If you read the parts of the story where they are quoting Marty, you find statements like:

"Most of the warming [worldwide] is the consequence of human influences," said Martin Hoerling, a NOAA climate scientist. But he said the question remains, "What does that mean for my backyard?"

Policy-makers need to know whether natural changes or pollution is causing local conditions such as the current drought from California across to Texas, the report notes.

"All regions are not participating [in warming] at the same rate as the global temperature is changing," Mr. Hoerling said. Some in the West are warming rapidly, and some not at all (the southeastern United States and Atlantic Canada).

So he is saying that "most" of the?worldwide?warming is due to human influences, but that?its?effects?vary from region to region?and they are trying to understand the reasons for this regional variation.? Not anything that should give aid and comfort to the denialists, just science trying to understand the complex relationships between *regional* climates and global changes and other factors.

The National Post article seems slightly slanted toward creating a "doubt about understanding of climate change" impression from this.? The propaganda trick seems to be taking the valid point that there is?much still?to learn?about *regional* climate changes, and using that to create the impression of similar doubt about the (scientifically more clear-cut) issue of *global* change.? And their headline is misleading in a similar way.
Sort of like when people use controversy in some specific area of?evolutionary studies to cast doubt on the big picture of common descent.

Dr. Allan H. Harvey, Boulder, CO (ASA member)
"Usual disclaimers here"

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Received on Thu Apr 2 11:44:02 2009