Global Warming - Myth or Reality?: The Erring Ways of Climatology (Springer Praxis Books / Environmental Sciences)

To date, definitive answers to questions about ultimate causes and effects of global warming remain elusive. In __Global Warming - Myth or Reality? **.**__ Marcel Leroux seeks to separate fact from fiction and lays out the scientific cause of the sizable sceptical scientific community that challenges the accepted wisdom. The book begins with a review of the dire predictions for climate trends, followed by a discussion of the main conclusions of the three reports issued by the Intergovernmentall Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It then reviews the predictions made at the time about global temperatures, rainfall, weather and climate, whilst highlighting the mounting confusion and sensationalism of reports in the media. Lreoux takes a hard and dispassionate look at the reality of the greenhouse effect, the "evidence" from climate models, and the limitations of those models. He then postulates alternative causes of climate change and analyses the trends for global temperatures, rainfall patterns, dynmaics of weather and sea level. He argues that the case for global warming is based on climatology which, with its insufficiencies in the understanding and explanation of weather phenomena do not support this prediction. Leroux highlights a number of priorities that climatologists could consider in order to understand the processes of climate change, integrate them into deterministic climate models, and predict accurately changes of climate of the near future. The most urgent priority for climatology, the author believes , is to leave the IPCC in order that the discipline remains neutral and returns to the pursuit of its proper ends. In the global-warming debate, definitive answers to questions about ultimate causes and effects remain elusive. In Global Warming: Myth or Reality?, Marcel Leroux seeks to separate fact from fiction in this critical debate from a climatological perspective. Beginning with a review of the dire hypotheses for climate trends, the author describes the history of the 1998 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and many subsequent conferences. He discusses the main conclusions of the three IPCC reports and the predicted impact on global temperatures, rainfall, weather and climate, while highlighting the mounting confusion and sensationalism of reports in the media. After taking a hard look at the reality of the greenhouse effect, the 'evidence' from climate models, and the models' limitations, Leroux postulates alternate causes of climate change and analyzes the trends for global temperatures, rainfall patterns, and sea level. He poses the 'heretical' question if warming may be considered a benefit in some regions. Finally Leroux suggests a number of priorities for climatologists to better understand processes of climate change, to integrate them into climate models, and to predict accurately future changes in climate. This timely and controversial book lays out the scientific case of the sizable skeptical scientific community who challenge the accepted wisdom "To date, definitive answers to questions about ultimate causes and effects of global warming remain elusive. In Global Warming - Myth or Reality?, Marcel Leroux seeks to separate fact from fiction and lays out the scientific case of the sizable sceptical scientific community that challenges the accepted wisdom." "Leroux takes a hard and dispassionate look at the reality of the greenhouse effect, the 'evidence' from climate models, and the limitations of those models. He then postulates alternative causes of climate change and analyses the trends for global temperatures, rainfall patterns, dynamics of weather and sea level. He argues that the case for global warming is based on climatology which, with its insufficiencies in the understanding and explanation of weather phenomena, does not support this prediction. Leroux draws attention to a number of priorities that climatologists could consider in order to understand the processes of climate change, integrate them into deterministic climate models, and predict accurately changes of climate in the near future. The most urgent priority for climatology, the author believes, is to leave the IPCC in order that the discipline remains neutral and returns to the pursuit of its proper ends."--Jacket Introduction....Pages 1-16 Front Matter....Pages 17-17 History of the notion of global warming....Pages 19-39 Conclusions of the IPCC (Working Group I)....Pages 41-57 Science, media, politics.......Pages 59-78 Greenhouse effect — water effect....Pages 79-98 Causes of climate change....Pages 99-122 Models and climate....Pages 123-144 The general circulation of the atmosphere....Pages 145-170 Front Matter....Pages 171-171 The observational facts: Past climates....Pages 173-206 The observational facts: Present temperatures....Pages 207-241 The observational facts: Weather, rainfall, and drought....Pages 243-303 The observational facts: Climate and aerological units....Pages 305-307 The North Atlantic aerological unit....Pages 309-349 The North Pacific aerological unit....Pages 351-403 The lessons of the observation of real facts in the aerological units: Conclusion....Pages 405-412 The observational facts: Sea level and circulation....Pages 413-442 General conclusion....Pages 443-469 This book seeks to separate fact from fiction in the global-warming debate. The author begins by describing the history of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and many other conferences, and their dire predictions on global temperatures, rainfall, weather and climate, while highlighting confusion and sensationalism media reports. He then lays out the "heretical" scientific case of the sizable skeptical scientific community who challenge the accepted wisdom. 'Climate change' (or the 'greenhouse effect') is very much THE subject of the moment for scientists, the media, politicians and the general public.