This is the sixth part of my review of an interview by Alex Epstein with Professor Richard Lindzen on his "Power Hour" program. I've taken the time and trouble to transcribe much of it in order to focus on Lindzen's bizarre version of reality and to juxtapose it against history and the known science.
In this installment we consider professor Lindzen's intrinsic obtuseness regarding his pet theory, clouds and "the iris effect" vs. what the science is discovering.
Power Hour: Questioning Climate Science with Dr. Richard Lindzen October 22, 2012 | Alex Epstein
Richard Lindzen joins Alex Epstein to talk about perspectives on climate change:
- Questions about climate
- “Balance” in nature
- The goals of environmentalists
1:45 Alex: Whenever I read one of his (RL) papers I get almost emotional just by the level of clarity and diligence and utter lack of any kind of appeal to authority.
3:05 Lindzen: What bothers me about this issue is the intrinsic obtuseness of the questions. ...
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44:40 Lindzen: Remember the temperature at the equator has been pretty much the same as within a couple degrees for billions of years. How much more stable do you want it?
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That's not true. Besides his train of logic is misleading.
Equatorial heat being relatively stable is the product of evaporation and circulation patterns carrying the heat, (that's always streaming straight down on equatorial waters), out and away from the tropics and dissipating it onto the rest of the globe - it isn't any indication of some preordained global stability.
Equatorial heat being relatively stable is the product of evaporation and circulation patterns carrying the heat, (that's always streaming straight down on equatorial waters), out and away from the tropics and dissipating it onto the rest of the globe - it isn't any indication of some preordained global stability.
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TROPIC OCEANS HELP SCIENTISTS IN CLIMATE STUDY
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY RECORD March 4, 1994 Vol. 19 No. 19
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY RECORD March 4, 1994 Vol. 19 No. 19
Tropical ocean waters - long thought to have remained unaffected by Earth's past climate changes - may have cooled by 5C (9F) during the last ice age, scientists at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory reported recently.
The research, reported in the Feb. 4 issue of "Science," indicates
that tropical regions play a pivotal and previously underestimated
role in regulating Earth's climate.
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OLDEST ICE CORE FROM THE TROPICS RECOVERED, NEW ICE AGE EVIDENCE, 12/3/98
Lonnie Thompson, professor of geological sciences and research scientist with the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University, said that the new cores are the best evidence yet that the tropics were much cooler during the last glacial stage.
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On top of that, in Lindzen's zeal to oversimplify he never mentions complicating factors that will have major impacts, such as:
Rising Temperature Difference Between Hemispheres Could Dramatically Shift Rainfall Patterns in Tropics | Science Daily
Apr. 2, 2013 — One often ignored consequence of global climate change is that the Northern Hemisphere is becoming warmer than the Southern Hemisphere, which could significantly alter tropical precipitation ... full story
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45:50 Alex: Alright, it's amazingly stable, but I mean there are many physical properties of things that are stable too, but they don't have a goal per se. Like a living being, if it's not evolved to self regulate in that way.
Lindzen: No, I mean presumably if they haven't exist the planet wouldn't have survived, so it's a matter of selection.
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This is a bit obtuse, is the professor really attributing Earth's "survival" to Darwinian selection? Hmmm, nothing is off limits for his game of confusion, is it? I wonder how Mars and Venus managed to survive?
