Articles by Andrew Dessler
Andrew Dessler is an associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University; his research focuses on the physics of climate change, climate feedbacks in particular.
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Scientists do not have a financial incentive to settle the climate debate
An argument often heard in the fruitlooposphere* is that the scientific community has financial incentive to push the consensus view that humans are responsible for climate change. The idea is that toeing the consensus line translates into more research funding.
There is, of course, never any evidence presented with this argument. Rather, it is presented as "common sense": "Well, of course they're just trying to get more funding ..."
So let's apply a little common sense and see how the argument fares.
First, consider that the scientific community has been saying for several years that our understanding of the climate system is quite good. Not perfect, mind you, but good enough that many scientists feel we should be taking action now to reduce our greenhouse-gas emissions. Based on the strength of this conclusion, many politicians have started saying "the science is settled."
Does that sound like a recipe for getting lots of research funding? Saying that we have a pretty good understanding of the climate system?
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Today: Christopher Castro
In previous editions of the "Inhofe 400," we found one skeptic whose only qualification for being a "climate expert" was to have written an op-ed and another who argues that climate change must not be happening because God would never allow it.
We also found some economists who don't seem to doubt that humans are causing the climate to change.
Today's "skeptic," Prof. Christopher L. Castro, is a bonafide atmospheric scientist, so he clearly has relevant expertise on his resume.
I emailed Prof. Castro about being on this list, and he replied:
Since I'm asked about this often, my "official" position on global warming is given in my series of lectures I present in NATS 101 (accessible via my website link). You are free to quote my position from that if you like.
I went on his website and found these quotes from this lecture (MS PowerPoint file, slides 3 and 4):
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