Articles by Andrew Dessler

How a conservative think tank’s foray into climate policy stirred up a media hornet’s nest

A conservative think tank attempted to engage the debate over climate policy recently, only to see that attempt explode in its face. The tangled episode, with its combustible mix of sensationalist journalism, public outrage, and the threatened intervention of the federal government, is rich with lessons about the current state of climate politics — lessons […]

Oceanus is for more than just middle-schoolers

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has an online magazine, Oceanus. Over the past few years, they've published many stories (at the middle school level and up) on numerous aspects of the ocean/climate system. There's some great material there (e.g., this article on solar effects on climate or this one on the oceanic sink for carbon dioxide). Check it out here.

Just as misleading as the old round

Because of the enormous credibility of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's reports, and because they suggest that human-induced climate change is a very real risk, opponents of action on climate change must attack the IPCC or completely cede the scientific high ground in the debate.

With the release of the latest IPCC report, a whole new crop of specious skeptical arguments has arisen. Here's a good example, which appeared in this week's Weekly Standard:

One possible reason for the timing is that there appear to be some significant retreats from the 2001 IPCC report. The IPCC has actually lowered its estimate of the magnitude of human influence on warming, though we shall have to wait for the full report in May to understand how and why. Only readers with detailed knowledge of the 2001 report would notice these changes, which is why most news accounts failed to report them.

As with most skeptical arguments, there is a grain of truth here, sitting under a mountain of deception.

Op-ed on the IPCC and climate change

An op-ed I wrote with my colleague Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech appeared last Sunday in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The editorial can be found here.

Update [2007-3-16 11:55:39 by Andrew Dessler]: The link no longer appears to work. The text of the op-ed is reproduced below: