[Vision2020] Guardian: Mojib Latif Denies His Research Supports Theory That Current Cold Weather Undermines Scientific Consensus on Global Warming: Was: "The mini ice age starts here"

[Ted Moffett]

Amazing how the profession of journalism does such an execrable job
on accurate science reporting.  And how often the work of climate scientists
is distorted by those with an agenda to refute the science supporting the
claim that the current warming climate is primarily due to human impacts.
It took but a couple of minutes to discover that the Daily Mail article
presented to Vision2020 titled "The Mimi Ice Age Starts Here" is a hack
piece of bad science reporting:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/11/climate-change-global-warming-mojib-latif

 Leading climate scientist challenges Mail on Sunday's use of his research

Mojib Latif denies his research supports theory that current cold weather
undermines scientific consensus on global warming
*David Adam* <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/davidadam>, environment
correspondent
guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>, Monday 11 January 2010 16.47
GMT
Article history<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/11/climate-change-global-warming-mojib-latif#history-byline>


A leading scientist has hit out at misleading newspaper reports that linked
his research to claims that the current cold
weather<http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/weather>undermines the scientific
case for manmade global warming.

Mojib Latif, a climate expert at the Leibniz Institute at Kiel University in
Germany, said he "cannot understand" reports that used his research to
question the scientific consensus on climate
change<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-change>
.

He told the Guardian: "It comes as a surprise to me that people would try to
use my statements to try to dispute the nature of global warming. I believe
in manmade global warming. I have said that if my name was not Mojib Latif
it would be global warming."

He added: "There is no doubt within the scientific community that we are
affecting the climate, that the climate is changing and responding to our
emissions of greenhouse gases."

A report in the Mail on Sunday said that Latif's results "challenge some of
the global warming orthodoxy's most deeply cherished
beliefs"<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1242011/DAVID-ROSE-The-mini-ice-age-starts-here.html>and
"undermine the standard climate computer models". Monday's Daily
Mail<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1242202/Could-30-years-global-COOLING.html>and
Daily
Telegraph<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/globalwarming/6965342/Big-freeze-could-signal-global-warming-pause.html>repeated
the claims.

The reports attempted to link the Arctic weather that has enveloped the UK
with research published by Latif's team in the journal Nature in
2008<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7191/abs/nature06921.html>.
The research said that natural fluctuations in ocean temperature could have
a bigger impact on global temperature than expected. In particular, the
study concluded that cooling in the oceans could offset global warming, with
the average temperature over the decades 2000-2010 and 2005-2015 predicted
to be no higher than the average for 1994-2004. Despite clarifications from
the scientists at the time, who stressed that the research did not challenge
the predicted long-term warming trend, the study was widely misreported as
signalling a switch from global warming to global cooling.

The Mail on Sunday article said that Latif's research showed that the
current cold weather heralds such "a global trend towards cooler weather".

It said: "The BBC assured viewers that the big chill was was merely
short-term 'weather' that had nothing to do with 'climate', which was still
warming. The work of Prof Latif and the other scientists refutes that view."

Not according to Latif. "They are not related at all," he said. "What we are
experiencing now is a weather phenomenon, while we talked about the mean
temperature over the next 10 years. You can't compare the two."

He said the ocean temperature effect was similar to other natural influences
on global temperature, such as volcanos, which cool the planet temporarily
as ash spewed into the atmosphere reflects sunlight.

"The natural variation occurs side by side with the manmade warming.
Sometimes it has a cooling effect and can offset this warming and other
times it can accelerate it." Other scientists have questioned the strength
of the ocean effect on overall temperature and disagree that global warming
will show the predicted pause.

Latif said his research suggested that up to half the warming seen over the
20th century was down to this natural ocean effect, but said that was
consistent with the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change. "No climate specialist would ever say that 100% of the warming we
have seen is down to greenhouse gas emissions."

The recent articles are not the first to misrepresent his research, Latif
said. "There are numerous newspapers, radio stations and television channels
all trying to get our attention. Some overstate and some want to downplay
the problem as a way to get that attention," he said. "We are trying to
discuss in the media a highly complex issue. Nobody would discuss the
problem of [Einstein's theory of] relativity in the media. But because we
all experience the weather, we all believe that we can assess the global
warming problem."

-------------------------------------------

Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20100113/c05a7ba9/attachment-0001.html