Today, the Center for American Progress hosted a press conference call with renowned scientists to set the record straight on global warming. Michael Mann, a leading climate scientist and professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University whose hacked personal emails have recently become the source of media attention was joined by NASA climate scientist Dr. Gavin Schmidt, Princeton’s Dr. Michael Oppenheimer, and CAP Senior Fellow Dr. Joseph Romm to discuss the overwhelming scientific understanding of the danger posed by unmitigated global warming pollution, and that the stolen emails reveal nothing that changes our extensive understanding of climate science.
Read full transcript of the call, here.
Listen to audio of the call, here.
Professor Michael Mann said:
"Decades of research [has been conducted.] There is a very robust consensus that humans are warming the planet and changing the Earth’s climate."
"There are a handful of people and organizations who have tried to cloud the debate…they have engaged in this 11th-hour smear campaign, where they have stolen personal emails from scientists, mined them for single words or phrases that can be taken out of context to twist their words, and I think this is rather telling…Those advocating inaction don’t have the science on their side, so they turn to this last minute smear campaign."
Dr. Michael Oppenheimer said:
"From my point of view, the most important issue is whether anything has been added to or subtracted from the scientific picture of global warming that’s emerged gradually over several decades of careful analysis by thousands of experts . The answer is simple. From a scientific point of view, nothing has changed. It remains true that Earth has warmed more than 1 degree farenheit degrees over last century largely due to the buildup of human-made greenhouse gases…it remains the case that the projections of future climate change are every bit of discouraging as they were before the recent flap began."
Dr. Gavin Schmidt said:
"When you add up what [humans] have done, and what impact that is likely to have, we end up with scenarios for climate change in the future that put our planet in a position it hasn’t been in for, maybe, million of years."
Dr. Joseph Romm said:
"As NOAA’s climate monitoring chief pointed out in October, the last ten years are the warmest ten year period in the modern record. Even if you analyze the trend during those years, the trend is positive, which means warming."
"These observations are unequivocal, and the question is, what will happen in our future, and that is still in our hands…the latest science tells us one thing with high confidence: if we stay on our current emissions path, of more and more emissions, then greenhouse gases will stay on high levels."
Read full transcript of the call, here.
Listen to audio of the call, here.
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