Alexander Cockburn

Living in upside down land



Alexander Cockburn writes for Counterpunch, The Nation, and the Los Angeles Times. He is a climate change skeptic and some of his claims are the complete opposite of reality. Cockburn wrote the following in a recent article:

Geologists are particularly skeptical. Peter Sciaky, a retired geologist, writes to me thus:

"No environmental conference, such as Kyoto, has ever invited a geologist, a paleontologist, a paleoclimatologist. It would seem beneficial for any scientific investigatory to include such scientific disciplines.
....*snip* ....
I do not know a single geologist who believes that it is a man-made phenomenon."

No geologists, paleontologist or peleoclimatologist believe in man-made global warming!??!? Well the two biggest geological societies are the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the 45,000+ member strong American Geophysical Union (AGU). The USGS claims that the IPCC is the "The most authoritative report on this issue". And it might be hard to imagine why a USGS geologist would be excluded from environmental meetings when their Earth Surface Dynamics Program "focuses on understanding the likely consequences of climate change, especially by studying how climate has changed in the past." The AGU released an official statement in 2003 saying that:

Human activities are increasingly altering the Earth's climate. These effects add to natural influences that have been present over Earth's history. Scientific evidence strongly indicates that natural influences cannot explain the rapid increase in global near-surface temperatures observed during the second half of the 20th century.

It looks like Cockburns expert witness is in upside down land. But just in case the society representing 45,000+ people (and all of the papers published by the AGU) aren't good enough lets look at how many geos and paleos there are at the blog realclimate.org:

• Michael E. Mann Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics from Yale University
• Caspar Ammann Ph.D. Paleoclimatology
• Eric Steig PhD in Geological Sciences at the University of Washington
• Thibault de Garidel Ph.D. in Geosciences at CEREGE, Université Paul Cézanne (a.k.a. Aix-Marseille III)
• Raymond S. Bradley is Director of the Climate System Research Center (www.paleoclimate.org) at the University of Massachusetts. Ph.D paleoclimatology

No shortage of paleos and geos there. In fact they are in the majority and not the minority. Lets take a sample at one more place. One February 2, 2007 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution made a group of scientists available to comment on many of the subjects covered in the summary report issued by the International Panel on Climate Change on February 2, 2007. Their name and department is listed below:

Dr. Scott Doney, Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry
Dr. Sarah Das, Geology & Geophysics
Dr. Andrey Proshutinsky, Physical Oceanography
Dr. Peter Winsor, Physical Oceanography
Dr. Karen Bice, Geology & Geophysics
Dr. Scott Doney, Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry
Dr. Dan McCorkle, Geology & Geophysics
Dr. William Curry, Geology & Geophysics
Dr. Lloyd Keigwin, Geology & Geophysics
Dr. Jerry McManus, Geology & Geophysics
Dr. Delia Oppo, Geology & Geophysics
Ruth Curry, Physical Oceanography
Dr. Terry Joyce, Director, WHOI Ocean & Climate Change Institute
Dr. Ray Schmitt, Physical Oceanography
Dr. Jeff Donnelly, Geology & Geophysics
Dr. Olivier Marchal, Geology & Geophysics

It looks like once again Cockburn is living in upside down land. Seriously, could these skeptics get any worse?

Update #1: Special thanks to N. Johnson for notifying me that some of the names were repeated on the official WHOI roster due to expertise in multiple fields. The duplicate names have been removed.

Update #2: And lets not forget chapter 6 of the IPCC's fourth assessment report which is titled "Palaeoclimate" that has over 50 authors. There are two lead coordinating authors and they are Eystein Jansen and Jonathan Overpeck. Jansen is a professor in the Dept. of Geology at University of Bergen. His Ph.D. is in marine geology. The other lead coordinating author Jonathan Overpeck is a Professor of Geosciences who specializes in paleoclimatology. Again it would seem that Cockburns key witness is in upside down land. I think I'll let the readers analyze the rest.


Sources:
Counterpunch, June 9 / 10, 2007, Sources and Authorities, Dissidents Against Dogma, ALEXANDER COCKBURN
WHOI media release Scientific Experts Available to Respond to International Climate Report