Before facing major surgery, wouldn’t you want a
second opinion?

When a nation faces an important decision that
risks its economic future, or perhaps the fate of the
ecology, it should do the same. It is a time-honored
tradition in science to set up a “Team B,” which
examines the same original evidence but may reach a
different conclusion. The Nongovernmental
International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) was
set up to examine the same climate data used by the
United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC).

In 2007, the IPCC released to the public its three volume Fourth Assessment Report titled Climate
Change 2007 (IPCC-AR4, 2007). Its constituent
documents were said by the IPCC to comprise “the
most comprehensive and up-to-date reports available
on the subject,” and to constitute “the standard
reference for all concerned with climate change in
academia, government and industry worldwide.” But
are these characterizations correct?

On the most important issue, the IPCC’s claim
that “most of the observed increase in global average
temperatures since the mid-twentieth century is very
likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic
greenhouse gas concentrations [emphasis in the
original],” NIPCC reaches the opposite conclusion—
namely, that natural causes are very likely to be the
dominant cause. Note: We do not say anthropogenic
greenhouse gases (GHG) cannot produce some
warming or has not in the past. Our conclusion is that
the evidence shows they are not playing a substantial
role.

Dr. S. Fred Singer is one of the most distinguished scientists in the U.S. In the 1960s, he established and served as the first director of the U.S. Weather Satellite Service, now part of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and earned a U.S. Department of Commerce Gold Medal Award for his technical leadership. In the 1980s, Singer served for five years as vice chairman of the National Advisory Committee for Oceans and Atmosphere (NACOA) and became more directly involved in global environmental issues. Since retiring from the University of Virginia and from his last federal position as chief scientist of the Department of Transportation, Singer founded and now directs the nonprofit Science and Environmental Policy Project.

Dr. Craig D. Idso is founder and chairman of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change. He received his Ph.D. in geography from Arizona State University, where he studied as one of a small group of University Graduate Scholars. He was a faculty researcher in the Office of Climatology at Arizona State University and has lectured in Meteorology at Arizona State University. Dr. Idso has published scientific articles on issues related to data quality, the growing season, the seasonal cycle of atmospheric CO2, world food supplies, coral reefs, and urban CO2 concentrations.

Climate Change Reconsidered lists 35 contributors and reviewers from 14 countries and presents in an appendix the names of 31,478 American scientists who have signed a petition saying “there is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.”

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