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LIZ ROLL/FEMA.ORG
What Superstorm Sandy left behind.
San Antonio Meteorologists talk climate change
Published: January 16, 2013
The group now wants the AMS to adopt tighter certification standards to weed out human-caused climate change deniers. "A certification from [the AMS] says this person has their stamp or their approval," said Forecast the Facts campaign director Daniel Souweine. "When some of these meteorologists go out there and say wildly inaccurate things about climate change, it seems like an empty certification."
Where do our local weather guys stand on the idea of human-caused climate change? Read the full Q&As below.
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All interviews were conducted by Michael Barajas and edited lightly for grammar and length.
BILL TAYLOR, KENS 5
Is the planet undergoing significant climate change?
Yes, in the sense that it's undergoing a warming. You really can't argue with that. The temperature has gone up globally, and there are some ramifications to that. You might get some more intense hurricanes. You might see more glacial melt. There might be some repercussions of a warming planet. So, if that's all under the umbrella of a warming planet, then yes.
Are humans causing it?
That's what I disagree with. From what I've read, and there's a lot of solid science on the other end of this issue that really doesn't get as much exposure unfortunately, I disagree with it being human caused. I really fall into a category that says climate change is part of the natural earth process; that this is a cycle our planet is undergoing. There's a lot of research that indicates the sun cycles, which is a 12-year cycle, has a lot to do with our planet's temperatures. I say, if we occupy less than 30 percent of this planet spinning on its access at a thousand miles per hour while orbiting the sun at 65,000 miles per hour, I just can't draw a line that what we do on this planet has any effect on it. I did this story at Kens, and this is going back 15 years, and a local geologist put it this way: “We're like ants on a bowling ball. There's a ton of us, but we can't do anything to it.” I've always ascribed to that.
I didn't do the research myself; I'm just a TV weather guy. Richard Lindzen is one I really respect and read, and he's a meteorology department head at MIT. And he says while you have a warming earth, and while you have increasing greenhouse gases and emissions from human beings, you cannot draw the conclusion that we're causing it.
Why is this issue so controversial?
It's a vicious debate, and it started a long time ago. The machine of this belief system of human caused global warming was under way 20, 30 years ago. It truly is a machine. You saw the university that got busted with the emails, where scientists were telling each other what to say. It's a very protective, secretive almost, club. And if you're not agreeing with them, you're wrong. And you're close-minded. And that to me is so wrong because this is science. And for it to be science it must be open and tested. They have literally shut the door on scientists who believe otherwise. It's a shame. So why is there controversy? I know there's a lot of money invested in alternative means of energy for us. Whether that's part of it, I dunno. But anytime science becomes political, it's bad. Anytime politicians take over and start talking science, it never goes well.
