http://list.cagle.com
 
Blogs Etc. Travel Weather Health Tech/Science Entertainment Sports Business World News Politics U.S. news Home
Professional Cartoonists Index Main Page

















2007 in Review
2006 in Review
2005 in Review
2004 in Review

2002 in Review

Our Cartoons for YOU

Cagle Privacy Policy


COOLING IT ON GLOBAL WARMING
A CAGLE CARTOON INTERVIEW WITH FRED SINGER, THE GODFATHER OF GLOBAL WARMING DENIAL
...
by Bill Steigerwald and all the top cartoonists!
CLICK to COMMENT!
, SUBSCRIBE to our CARTOON-a-DAY NEWSLETTER

Main - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5



Continued ...

Q: Give me a sample of how complicated just one little thing can be.
A: The most complicated thing about the atmosphere that the models cannot capture is clouds. First of all, clouds are small. The resolution of the computer models is about 200 miles; clouds are much smaller than that. Secondly, they don't know when clouds form. They have to guess what humidity is necessary for a cloud to form. And of course, humidity is not the only factor. You have to have nuclei -- little particles -- on which the water vapor can condense to form droplets. They don't know that either. And they don't know at what point the cloud begins to rain out. And they don't know at what point -- it goes on like this.

Q: Is this debate a scientific fight or a political fight?
A: Both. I much support a scientific fight, because I'm pretty sure we'll win that -- because the data support us; they don't support the climate models. Basically it's a fight of people who believe in data, or who believe in the atmosphere, versus people who believe in models.

Q: Is it not true that CO2 levels have gone up by about a third in the last 100 years?
A: A little more than a third, yes. I accept that.

Q: Do you say that's irrelevant?
A: It's relevant, but the effects cannot be clearly seen. The models predict huge effects from this, but we don't see them.

Q: Why is it important that global warming be studied in a balanced, scientific, depoliticized way?
A: It's a scientific problem. The climate is something we live with, and we need to know what effect human activities are having on climate. I don't deny that there's some effect of human activities on climate. We need to learn how important they are.

Q: Why is it important that global warming be studied in a balanced, scientific, depoliticized way?
A: It's a scientific problem. The climate is something we live with and we need to know what effect human activities are having on climate. I don't deny that there's some affect of human activities on climate. Cities are warmer now than they used to be. We have changed forests into agricultural fields. That has some affect on climate. We irrigate much of the Earth. That affects climate. And so on. We are having some influence on climate, at least on a small scale. So we need to know these things. We need to how important they are.

Q: And global warming is something we should study but not get panicky about?
A: The thing to keep in mind always is that the natural fluctuations of climate are very much larger than anything we can ascribe ­ so far ­ to any human activity. Much larger. We lived through a Little Ice Age just a few hundred years ago. During the Middle Ages the climate was much warmer than it is today. So the climate does change all the time. We need to understand the scientific reasons for natural climate change. Most of us now think it's the sun that is the real driver of climate. It has something to do with sun spots, but the mechanism is not quite clear. That's what's being studied now.

Bill Steigerwald is a columnist at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. E-mail Bill at bsteigerwald@tribweb.com. ©Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, All Rights Reserved.





Larry Wright, Detroit, Michigan, The Detroit News,
E- Mail Larry. Visit an archive of the artist's most recent cartoons in the drop menu at the right. Click on the cartoon to e-mail it to a friend. Would you like to run Larry's cartoons on your website or in your publication? Just e-mail us at: cari@cagle.com
   Next




Politicalcartoons.comTab (Thomas Boldt), The Calgary Sun, Alberta, Canada
E-mail Tab.
Visit an archive of the artist's most recent cartoons in the drop menu at the right. To reproduce Tab's cartoons in your publication, e-mail us. Click on the cartoon to e-mail it to a friend.
   Next


Click to see the next cartoon ...

All cartoons are displayed here with the permission of the artists. Many thanks to each of you for allowing us to feature your cartoons. Artwork © each artist. The Professional Cartoonists Index is ©Daryl Cagle. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.