So did you hear that the American Physical Society reversed its previous stance on global warming?

[salvorhardin]

There's a DailyTech blog post written by Michael Asher floating around with the headline, "Myth of Consensus Explodes: APS Opens Global Warming Debate". And indeed, reading the post you learn...

The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science. The leadership of the society had previously called the evidence for global warming "incontrovertible."

In a posting to the APS forum, editor Jeffrey Marque explains,"There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution."

The APS is opening its debate with the publication of a paper by Lord Monckton of Brenchley, which concludes that climate sensitivity -- the rate of temperature change a given amount of greenhouse gas will cause -- has been grossly overstated by IPCC modeling. A low sensitivity implies additional atmospheric CO2 will have little effect on global climate.
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=12403

Oh dear. That sounds bad... not! The APS did not change its' stance on anthropogenic global warming. Seems there's an update at the end of the blog post:

After publication of this story, the APS responded with a statement that its Physics and Society Forum is merely one unit within the APS, and its views do not reflect those of the Society at large.

That's hardly the APS reversing itself. Further, from the APS homepage today:

The American Physical Society reaffirms the following position on climate change, adopted by its governing body, the APS Council, on November 18, 2007:

"Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth's climate."

An article at odds with this statement recently appeared in an online newsletter of the APS Forum on Physics and Society, one of 39 units of APS. The header of this newsletter carries the statement that "Opinions expressed are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the APS or of the Forum." This newsletter is not a journal of the APS and it is not peer reviewed.
http://www.aps.org

One more hit on the baloney detector, the author of the paper in question, Christopher Monckton of Brenchley, appears somewhat crankish. For starters he's an HIV denialist and secondly seems to have something of a religious and political agenda (bolding mine):

Monckton has been an advocate of Euroscepticism for many years; as he put it in a 2007 interview, he would "leave the European Union, close down 90 per cent of government services and shift power away from the atheistic, humanistic government and into the hands of families and individuals."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Monckton%2C_3rd_Viscount_Monckton_of_Brenchley

It may be ad hom to refer to his views on AIDS and politics here, but I think it speaks to his credibility as an objective scientist. Still, I bet this little blog post will get quite a bit of coverage in some, umm, credulous circles around these parts.

[uriel1972]

1. I wonder how many will read the fine print tho :( nt

[cosmik debris]

2. When this showed up in the environment/energy forum

I posted a link to the rebuttal article posted in the same news letter.

http://www.aps.org/units/fps/newsletters/200807/hafemeister.cfm

The editor clearly said that they were publishing one article from each side. Yet everyone seems to think they have taken sides. :shrug:

"This editor (JJM) invited several people to contribute articles that were either pro or con. Christopher Monckton responded with this issue's article that argues against the correctness of the IPCC conclusion, and a pair from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, David Hafemeister and Peter Schwartz, responded with this issue's article in favor of the IPCC conclusion."

http://www.aps.org/units/fps/newsletters/200807/editor.cfm