Tag Archives: equilibrium climate sensitivity

Dude, Where’s My Consensus?

29 Sep

Dude-Wheres-My-Car-PS

IF mankind’s emissions of CO2 are (as claimed) driving un-natural, “dangerous” global warming, then the earth’s climate system’s degree of sensitivity to CO2 is clearly a critical piece of knowledge.

If you don’t first know how sensitive the climate is to CO2, then you can hardly be credible if you try to claim that any particular source of CO2 (like, say, man) is having an effect on the climate.

So, just how sensitive is the earth’s climate system to CO2?

Buried in a footnote (16) to the UN IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report, Summary for Policy Makers, we learn that …

“No best estimate for equilibrium climate sensitivity can now be given because of a lack of agreement on values across assessed lines of evidence and studies.”

IPCC 5th AR Summary for Policy Makers, page 11 (click to enlarge)

IPCC 5th AR Summary for Policy Makers, page 11 (click to enlarge)

Er … no best estimate for the climate’s sensitivity to CO2 can be given?

Because of a “lack of agreement”?

But I thought “the science is settled”?

Dude, where’s my “consensus”?

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