Below is the press release (on the web here) from the American Physical Society, responding to the resignation letter of APS fellow Dr. Hal Lewis made public last Friday, October 8th. APS Members Dr. Roger Cohen, Dr. Will Happer, and of course Dr. Hal Lewis have responded in kind, and have asked me to carry their response on WUWT. I’ve gladly obliged, and their inline comments are indented in blue italics in the document below. – Anthony
October 12, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tawanda W. Johnson
Press Secretary
APS Physics
529 14th St. NW, Suite 1050
Washington, DC 20045-2065
Phone: 202-662-8702
Fax: 202-662-8711
tjohnson@aps.org
APS Comments on Harold Lewis’ Resignation of his Society Membership
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a recent letter to American Physical Society (APS) President Curtis A. Callan, chair of the Princeton University Physics Department, Harold Lewis, emeritus physics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, announced that he was resigning his APS membership.
In response to numerous accusations in the letter, APS issues the following statement:
There is no truth to Dr. Lewis’ assertion that APS policy statements are driven by financial gain. To the contrary, as a membership organization of more than 48,000 physicists, APS adheres to rigorous ethical standards in developing its statements.
We know that the existing 2007 APS Statement on Climate Change was developed literally over lunch by a few people, after the duly constituted Committee had signed off on a more moderate Statement.
The Society is open to review of its statements if members petition the APS Council – the Society’s democratically elected governing body – to do so.
We have yet to receive a response to our Petition:
http://www.openletter-globalwarming.info/Site/Signatures__APS_Council_Study.html
…delivered last spring and signed by 260+ members and former members, including nearly 100 Fellows, 17 members of national academies and 2 Nobels. Driven largely by the ClimateGate revelations, the Petition asks that the Society conduct an independent study and assessment.
As for democratic membership participation in matters of science, consider the reaction to a grass roots outpouring of APS member opinion on the 2007 APS Statement http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200912/apscouncilors.cfm . “[APS Councilor] was uncomfortable with the idea of a membership-wide referendum on statements. He said that he was concerned that having a membership wide vote on controversial issues could lead to the adoption of scientifically unsound statements.” Evidently physicists should be excluded from inputting on a question of physics; only “physics monks” are entitled to do so ex cathedra .
Dr. Lewis’ specific charge that APS as an organization is benefitting financially from climate change funding is equally false. Neither the operating officers nor the elected leaders of the Society have a monetary stake in such funding.
The chair of the Panel on Public Affairs (POPA) that re-endorsed the 2007 APS Statement on Climate Change sits on the science advisory board of a large international bank http://annualreport.deutsche-bank.com/2009/ar/supplementaryinformation/advisoryboards.html The bank has a $60+ billion Green portfolio, which it wishes to assure investors is safe…not to mention their income from carbon trading. Other members of this board include current IPCC chief Pachauri and Lord Oxburgh, of Climategate exoneration fame. The viability of these banks activities depends on continued concern over CO2 emissions . Then there is the member of the Kleppner Committee (that reviewed the APS 2007 Statement prior to POPA) who served on that committee while under consideration for the position of Chief Scientist at BP. The position had been vacated when Steve Koonin left to take a post in the administration at DOE. Soon after the Kleppner Committee report in late 2009, this committee member took the BP job. BP had previously funded the new Energy Laboratory at Berkeley, which was headed by current Energy Secretary Steve Chu.
Moreover, relatively few APS members conduct climate change research, and therefore the vast majority of the Society’s members derive no personal benefit from such research support.
This does not mention the firm expectation by federal government agencies such as the NAS and the Presidential Science Advisor’s office that the APS will continue to support the huge funding machine that diverts billions of taxpayer dollars into research that must support the alarmist credo. APS has been silent on the documented practice by some climate scientists aimed at preventing opposing research from being published.
On the matter of global climate change, APS notes that virtually all reputable scientists agree with the following observations:
- Carbon dioxide is increasing in the atmosphere due to human activity;
- Carbon dioxide is an excellent infrared absorber, and therefore, its increasing presence in the atmosphere contributes to global warming; and
This passes over the fact that carbon dioxide absorption lines are nearly saturated.
- The dwell time of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is hundreds of years.
Well, it depends on what you mean by “dwell time.” If it is the conventional half life of an impulse loading of carbon dioxide, the statement is wrong – by a lot.. The IPCC’s Bern carbon cycle model http://www.climate.unibe.ch/~joos/model_description/model_description.html gets a 16 year half life. If it is the time for the last molecule to get picked up by a sink, the statement is meaningless. At the very least, the statement is sloppy and hardly befitting a world class scientific society.
On these matters, APS judges the science to be quite clear. However, APS continues to recognize that climate models are far from adequate, and the extent of global warming and climatic disruptions produced by sustained increases in atmospheric carbon loading remain uncertain.
This is much better than the 2007 APS Statement itself. However, the phrase “climate disruptions” is noteworthy because it is the new buzzword recently introduced by Science Advisor John Holdren http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100054012/global-warming-is-dead-long-live-er-global-climate-disruption/ , evidently enabling advocates to assign any unusual weather event to human causes. It is curious that that the APS press release happens to echo this new phrase.
In light of the significant settled aspects of the science, APS totally rejects Dr. Lewis’ claim that global warming is a “scam” and a “pseudoscientific fraud.”
What we have here is a bait and switch. No one is saying that the greenhouse effect itself is a scam. This passage seeks to transfer the ‘scam’ charge from its real target to the trivial. The fraud/scam is to be found in the continual drumbeat that the science is settled; that the effects will be catastrophic; that it requires draconian economic sacrifices to avoid; and that mandates and subsidies for rent-seeking corporations are justified.
Additionally, APS notes that it has taken extraordinary steps to solicit opinions from its membership on climate change. After receiving significant commentary from APS members, the Society’s Panel on Public Affairs finalized an addendum to the APS climate change statement reaffirming the significance of the issue. The APS Council overwhelmingly endorsed the reaffirmation.
Never mind that the Panel on Public Affairs is chaired by an individual whose research funding stream (from BP) depends on continued global warming alarm. And you have to keep your eye on the pea. The dispute was not over the “significance” of the issue; it was over the alarmist nature of the statement. The addendum used more than five times the number of words to try to explain what the original statement meant. Not a good sign that they got it right the first time.
Lastly, in response to widespread interest expressed by its members, the APS is in the process of organizing a Topical Group to feature forefront research and to encourage exchange of information on the physics of climate.
Never mind that the Topical Group was proposed in a petition organized by a group of five members that included Dr. Lewis. Also, the Council has not yet approved a TG; therefore it is not in the process of being “organized.” It is being considered. No formal charter or bylaws have been set down. What we have here is the first attempt to co-opt the TG for PR purposes. This before it has even been approved by the APS Council.
Read the APS Climate Change Statement and Commentary: http://www.aps.org/policy/statements/07_1.cfm.
APS should be very reluctant to draw public attention to this Statement, with its infamous phrase, “The evidence is incontrovertible,” despite the fact that nothing in science is ever incontrovertible.
About APS: The American Physical Society (www.aps.org) is the leading physics organization, representing 48,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories, and industry in the United States and internationally. APS has offices in College Park, MD (Headquarters), Ridge, NY, and Washington, DC.
Tawanda W. Johnson
Press Secretary
APS Physics
529 14th St. NW, Suite 1050
Washington, DC 20045-2065
Phone: 202-662-8702
Fax: 202-662-8711
tjohnson@aps.org
=================================================
This page is available as a PDF here: APS Press Release Deconstruction
=================================================
Dr. Roger Cohen writes in with an addedum:
I would like to clarify one technical point for your visitors. It relates to: “This passes over the fact that carbon dioxide absorption lines are nearly saturated.”
The statement is fact, but it does not by itself imply that additional amounts of atmospheric CO2 will not cause significant warming. Straightforward radiation transfer calculations have established that the effect of doubling atmospheric CO2 would be to increase global average temperature by only about 1 deg. C. — if there were no other climate effects involved. However, these other effects, generally called “feedbacks,” can amplify or attenuate the primary radiation altering effect of additional CO2. The most prominent feedback is the “cloud-water vapor feedback,” which is very difficult to calculate or determine empirically. The IPCC says these feedback effects are in aggregate large and positive, giving rise to their most recent estimate of 2 to 4.5 deg. C for doubling, with a most likely value of 3 deg. C. However, a substantial body of other research points to a much lower value, much closer to the zero feedback value of 1 deg. C, or even lower. The actual aggregated effect of feedbacks is a critical aspect of the debate.
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“The dwell time of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is hundreds of years”
The letter comes from APS? Sure? OMG
Thanks, APS, for letting all the members know about Hal’s resignation, and for a forum to post more of the disturbing details. I’m hoping your actions will break this issue into the MSM.
Well if you ever wanted proof that politics was in charge of the science of AGW, then this statement from the APS demonstrates it perfectly.
Are we witnessing the demise of the scientific method and its replacement by the financial method?
Sadly, it looks very much like it.
The APS doubles down.
What is clear is that these rent seeking idiots have no knowledge of the history of scientific controversies….in the vast majority of cases the lone individual has been proven to be right, and (please forgive the sarcastic quotes here) the “august”, “deliberative”, “body of reputable scientists” proven to be wrong.
At some point Anthony, a mere loss of status and public ridicule simply isn’t enough. What the APS management, Holdren, Hanson, Mann et. al. are doing crosses over into criminal enterprise.
“This passes over the fact that carbon dioxide absorption lines are nearly saturated.”
Is it? At all relevant altitudes?
A very week response to the criticisms of the APS made in the Dr. Hal Lewis resignation letter.
This absurd statement caught my eye:-
In light of the significant settled aspects of the science, APS totally rejects Dr. Lewis’ claim that global warming is a “scam” and a “pseudoscientific fraud.”
On most of the key pillars of the CAGW conjecture, most of the science is far from settled:-
The amount (if any) that the extra CO2 from use of fossil fuels increases temperature.
The size (if any) of the positive feed back from extra water vapour and other ‘forcing(s)’.
The role of clouds – ocean – aerosols – solar changes… e.t.c.
How a scientific body like the APS can be blind to the uncertainties in these basic climate mechanisms defies belief! I think Hal Lewis has every right to call it pseudo-science. The whole crumbling edifice of CAGW lies broken on the ground, but the true believers refuse to see it and still keep on repeating the same old discredited mantra.
Most organisations are still drinking the Koolaid to either keep government money flowing, or to keep dues coming in.
An email exchange with a CAGW Aid group…….. thread is in reverse order.
‘
[SNIP – as much as I’d like to publish this, it is a private email exchange not a public one. – Anthony]
“Moreover, relatively few APS members conduct climate change research, and therefore the vast majority of the Society’s members derive no personal benefit from such research support.”
If so few APS members are involved in climate change research, why the hell is the APS issuing statements on it? It would seem the topic is almost as far from the APS’s purview as it could get.
Something is rotten in Denmark.
I would like to know how you know that statement was literally drawn up over lunch.
Is the resignation letter by Dr. Hal Lewis an example of the body of science policing itself?
Is this APS press release (in response to Dr. Lewis resignation letter) an example of the body of science policing itself?
Are the responses (to the APS press release) written by Dr. Hal Lewis and by current APS members Dr. Roger Cohen and Dr. Will Happer an example of the body of science policing itself?
Is WUWT providing a public forum to discuss Dr. Lewis’ resignation and its fallout an example of the body of science policing itself?
My Answer: All of the above are good examples of a scientific self-policing process . . . . finally.
John
“The dwell time of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is hundreds of years.”
Then are the following in error or am I missing something?
http://c3headlines.typepad.com/.a/6a010536b58035970c0120a5e507c9970c-pi
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ef800581r
http://www.co2science.org/articles/V12/N31/EDIT.php
I downloaded the pdf version of the above. The pdf version omits that the source of the comments is Dr.’s Cohen, Happer and Lewis, which is indicated in the above posting. I suggest that their names as sourced be added to the pdf, to make it more of a free-standing complete document.
The scientific evidence of AGW is very questionable, and becoming more so, not less. Most telling is that it cannot be duplicated in a laboratory. Troubling, is the evidence for a continuous temperature run up, predicated for the computer models, is very sketchy, with the AGW proponents often concealing real thermometer readings in favor of altered figures of extremely dubious evidential value. The increase in winter arctic ice extent for the last three years, the cooling of surface oceanic temperatures since 2002, and the divergence between satellite temperature reading as compared to the ground readings released by various governmental agencies should give any reasonable scientist pause.
Dr. Lewis’ specific charge that APS as an organization is benefitting financially from climate change funding is equally false. Neither the operating officers nor the elected leaders of the Society have a monetary stake in such funding.
Did anyone else notice that they ignored the specific charge from Dr. Lewis that the bylaws of the organization were violated by ignoring the petition from the 200+ members?
As for the rest of it, maybe physicists will start zeroing in on the effects of CO2 from a physics standpoint, using the well known equations on the subject and maybe, just maybe, blow a hole in the entire AGW theory.
This is the usual BS from APS and the American Chemical Society (ACS) behaves no differently. The leadership of each of these “societies” has been largely taken over by propagandists.
@jorge
“If so few APS members are involved in climate change research, why the hell is the APS issuing statements on it? It would seem the topic is almost as far from the APS’s purview as it could get.”
Maybe they’re commenting on it because it’s an important scientific issue with enormous implications.
Could you provide some figures for what constitutes the appropriate climate science involvement between “What the hell does this have to do with them anyway?” and “Well they would say that wouldn’t they?”
You would think if even a random selection of the charges leveled against climate science (for example that the greenhouse effect just doesn’t exist) that APS members would have the skillset to detect such a thing. Instead, like practically every other scientific organisation, they accept the reality of human driven climate change.
Instead it’s become necessary to explain why the vast majority of the scientific community support something that isn’t true, the explanation naturally being a conspiracy theory.
“The dwell time of carbon dioxide in the BRAIN impairs reasoning for many years until compensated by fresh oxygen intake from the Blogsphere, specially from WUWT”
Anthony,
Regarding snipping the “private” email, I suspected as much. Thank you for doing so. Is there a way running these sorts of things by the moderators before attempting to post?
For the curious, the private email was with a government funded aid organisation that could not give me a justifiable reason for why her organisation “believed” we were suffering, “The effects of climate change (cyclones, floods and crop failures etc)………
I had complained earlier about their pre-exploding-schoolchild-video support of 10:10.
I remember when in 1957 Russia launched the Sputnik. In the USA everyone called for a new education, this proves the change made was in the ideological sense.
From my point of view the APS’s attempt at face saving is just that and little more. They are of course just as entitled to their opinions as is Dr. Lewis his. While this letter may be the right thing to do, from the APS’s Public Relations prospective, It is less then convincing. I suspect the membership and a large proportion of the public, will see through the spin and obscuration.
In Lewis’ letter he suggested the APS was acting more from self interest, of at least some of its prominent members, and not from a strictly scientific view. On that charge the APS has not successfully defended.
If a significant number of the membership doesn’t chime in, then the responder will have benefitted by the letter of resignation in that he will learn that the large majority are in support of the APS position. Also, having not actually responded to the main issue of the letter – Climategate and what it revealed about the top resesearchers – they were scammers regardless of several coats of whitewash- it also means they accept the lower standards for scientific research. How can you say that the science is incontrovertible especially when those who put it together had to resort to faulty and devious methods and behaviours to arrive at the “theory”. Woe is science for a generation at least.
What else would you expect???
To come out & say “Yep, Hal Lewis is right on all accounts.”
They have major face-saving to do & that is what this press release represent – nothing more, nothing less.
It would appear that there’s a little squirming going on in the APS Boardroom!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tawanda W. Johnson
Press Secretary
APS Physics
529 14th St. NW, Suite 1050
Washington, DC 20045-2065
Phone: 202-662-8702
Fax: 202-662-8711
tjohnson@aps.org
_________________________________
Sending a lady, the Press Secretary, to do the “President’s” duty: to respond ‘in kind’. This says more about the APS than anything anyone has ever said about this professional organization, and likely ever will say. Tawanda, you really might want to pass the word to the other staff that the people you work for are cowards and will leave you hanging out to dry if they think it’s for the good of their own backsides.