Friday, June 25, 2010

NASA Astronaut Legends Skeptical of AGW Alarm


Four NASA Astronaut Legends; Buzz Aldrin (Gemini 12, Apollo 11), Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17), Phil Chapman (Apollo 14) and Walter Cunningham (Apollo 7), all skeptical of "man-made" global warming (AGW) alarm.



"I think the climate has been changing for billions of years. If it's warming now, it may cool off later. I'm not in favour of just taking short-term isolated situations and depleting our resources to keep our climate just the way it is today. I'm not necessarily of the school that we are causing it all, I think the world is causing it." - Buzz Aldrin
Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin, B.S. Mechanical Engineering, West Point (1951), Sc.D. Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1963), Astronaut, Gemini 12, Apollo 11, NASA (1963-1971), Presidential Medal for Freedom (1969), NASA Distinguished Service Medal (1970)



"I don't think the human effect is significant compared to the natural effect. Not that the planet hasn't warmed. We know it has or we'd all still be in the Ice Age but it has not reached a crisis proportion and, even among us skeptics, there's disagreement about how much man has been responsible for that warming." - Harrison Schmitt
Harrison H. (Jack) Schmitt, B.S. Science, California Institute of Technology (1957), Ph.D. Geology, Harvard University (1964), Geologist, USGS (1957-1961), Teaching Fellow, Harvard University (1961), Project Chief, Astrogeology Center, USGS (1961-1965), Astronaut, Apollo 17, NASA (1965-1975), Johnson Space Center Superior Achievement Award (1970), Arthur S. Fleming Award (1973), NASA Distinguished Service Medal (1973), Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Scholar, California Institute of Technology (1973-1974), Chief, Scientist-Astronauts, NASA (1974), Assistant Administrator for Energy Programs, NASA (1974-1975), Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (1977), NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal (1982), Adjunct Professor of Engineering Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison (1994-Present)



"All those urging action to curb global warming need to take off the blinkers and give some thought to what we should do if we are facing global cooling instead." - Phil Chapman
Philip K. Chapman, B.S. Physics and Mathematics, Sydney University (1956), M.S. Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1964), Sc.D. Instrumentation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1967), Physicist, Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition (1958-1959), Engineer, Canadian Aviation Electronics Limited (1960-1961), British Polar Medal (1961), Physicist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1962-1967), Astronaut, Apollo 14 Mission Scientist, NASA (1967-1972)



"I believe in global climate change, but there is no way that humans can influence the temperature of our planet to any measurable degree with the tools currently at their disposal. Any human contribution to global temperature change is lost in the noise of terrestrial and cosmic factors." - Walter Cunningham
Walter Cunningham, B.A. Physics with honors, University of California, Los Angeles (1960), M.A. Physics with distinction, University of California, Los Angeles (1961), Doctoral Candidate, Institute of Geophysics And Planetary Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles (1963), Advanced Management Program, Harvard Business School (1974), Physicist, RAND Corporation (1960-1963), Astronaut, Apollo 7, NASA (1963-1971), NASA Exceptional Service Medal (1968), Chief, Skylab Branch of the Astronaut Office, NASA (1968-1971), AIAA Haley Astronautics Award (1969), Associate Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Society, Member, American Geophysical Union, Member, Sigma Pi Sigma, Member, Sigma Xi, Founding Director, Earth Awareness Foundation, NASA Distinguished Service Medal (2008)


Papers:
Global Warming: Facts versus Faith (PDF) (Walter Cunningham)

References:
Buzz Aldrin calls for manned flight to Mars to overcome global problems (The Daily Telegraph, UK)
Ex-Astronaut: Global Warming Is Bunk (Fox News)
Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh (The Australian)
In Science, Ignorance is not Bliss (Launch Magazine)

Videos
Constitutional Constraints on Regulation Related to Climate and Energy (24min) (Harrison Schmitt)
Failure to Communicate: Obstacles in the Way of Communicating the Real Facts Regarding Global Warming (17min) (Walter Cunningham)

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Searching for Climate Patents?

A recent peer-reviewed paper "Expert credibility in climate change" was published in the PNAS, apparently demonstrating the computer illiteracy of it's authors and PNAS reviewers. Their "results" were obtained by searching Google Scholar using the search terms: "author:fi-lastname climate". By default Google Scholar is set to search both "articles and patents" yet no mention of searching only for articles is in the paper. So why were they searching for climate patents and how is a patent that contains the search word "climate" a relevant "climate publication"?