Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist Resigns Over Global Warming
POSTED BY: AURaptor
UPDATED: Monday, September 19, 2011 18:34
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Dr. Ivar Giaever, a former professor with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the 1973 winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, abruptly announced his resignation Tuesday, Sept. 13, from the premier physics society in disgust over its officially stated policy that "global warming is occurring."
The official position of the American Physical Society (APS) supports the theory that man's actions have inexorably led to the warming of the planet, through increased emissions of carbon dioxide.
Giaever does not agree -- and put it bluntly and succinctly in the subject line of his email, reprinted at Climate Depot, a website devoted to debunking the theory of man-made climate change.
"I resign from APS," Giaever wrote.
Giaever was cooled to the statement on warming theory by a line claiming that "the evidence is inconvertible."
"In the APS it is ok to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible?" he wrote in an email to Kate Kirby, executive officer of the physics society.
"The claim … is that the temperature has changed from ~288.0 to ~288.8 degree Kelvin in about 150 years, which (if true) means to me is that the temperature has been amazingly stable, and both human health and happiness have definitely improved in this 'warming' period," his email message said.
A spokesman for the APS confirmed to FoxNews.com that the Nobel Laureate had declined to pay his annual dues in the society and had resigned. He also noted that the society had no plans to revise its statement.
The use of the word "incontrovertible" had already caused debate within the group, so much so that an addendum was added to the statement discussing its use in April, 2010.
"The word 'incontrovertible' ... is rarely used in science because by its very nature, science questions prevailing ideas. The observational data indicate a global surface warming of 0.74 °C (+/- 0.18 °C) since the late 19th century."
Giaever earned his Nobel for his experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in superconductors. He has since become a vocal dissenter from the alleged “consensus” regarding man-made climate fears, Climate Depot reported, noting that he was one of more than 100 co-signer of a 2009 letter to President Obama critical of his position on climate change.
Public perception of climate change has steadily fallen since late 2009. A Rasmussen Reports public opinion poll from August noted that 57 percent of adults believe there is significant disagreement within the scientific community on global warming, up five points from late 2009.
The same study showed that 69 percent of those polled believe it’s at least somewhat likely that some scientists have falsified research data in order to support their own theories and beliefs. Just just 6 percent felt confident enough to report that such falsification was "not at all likely."
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/09/14/nobel-prize-winning-physicis
t-resigns-from-top-physics-group-over-global/#ixzz1Y0416ZbB
" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "
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"Falseify" is a bit harsh. However, they might have an investment in an idea that maybe causes them to reject or accept data they shouldn't, or refine a calculation or model to fit with their existing expectations. If there have been mistakes, I don't think they're malicious. And the temperature data out there, like by NOAA, adjusted or not, does show a bit of a warming trend over the last fifty years, at least in the northern hemisphere. There has not been much warming in the southern hemisphere as I recall.
I think we're still trying to get the whole picture in regards to atmospheric science and climate, so I'd agree "Incontrovertible" is generally not a word you want to see in a research field.
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"Giaever earned his Nobel for his experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in superconductors."
And that makes him an expert in climate science .... HOW again? It's like asking your dentist to work on your car - because he's a dentist and should know!
Now that I think about it, this seems to indicate Rap's reverence for 'authorities' (as long as they agree with him) and disdain for actual facts and knowledge.
Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in taxpayer funded bailouts, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes?
Yeah, me neither....
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Can't dismiss the message, so you attack the messenger.
Classic Left wing tactic
" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "
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Just being a scientist in general is all you need to be offended by an "incontrovertible" claim.
If it's incontrovertible, it's not science - science is based on study and observation, which is based on questions.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
Just being a scientist in general is all you need to be offended by an "incontrovertible" claim.
If it's incontrovertible, it's not science - science is based on study and observation, which is based on questions.
The article Rap quoted makes the same point. There was argument before about that very single word. Change that SINGLE WORD and the conclusion still has plenty of evidence- hot spells, melting polar ice caps, extreme hurricanes, droughts, brush fires burning down Texas-- all suggestive of the conclusion, if not proof.
And an item I caught yesterday over on CNN.com--
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/14/king-crabs-invade-a
ntarctica/?hpt=hp_bn2
The king crabs, from ALASKA, are migrating to the SOUTH POLE, which was supposed to be impossible, and eating everything in sight along the way. People in the know are saying it's because of global warming.
I think it might have been because they got scared of Sig Hansen from Deadliest Catch, and left town. Maybe next season the Deadliest Catch
crazy men oughtta move South-- way South.
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Sure. It's just one word, though it's enough to annoy anyone who actually works in the field. It's become political enough that if you measure or calculate a global temperature consistent with the scientific consensus, you must have an agenda. If you find there's been warming but not at the same rate as the scientific consensus or as hot, you're biased enough that the work has no scientific merit and you and anyone who made the mistake of associating with you are disgraced.
It's just a little extreme, and I can't help but feel like neutrality has been compromised.
As for your comment about the crabs, you didn't read the whole article - they're a related southern hemisphere species, the population in question was based off of New Zealand and migrated to Antarctica.
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When should we NOT trust Dr. Ivar Giaever, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics? Another respected Nobel-prizewinning physicist was also unworthy of trust, from an article that came out the day Giaever resigned:
Quote:
I am a strong believer that good reasons, arguments, and evidence are what matter, not credentials. So the short answer to “when should we trust an expert simply because they are an expert?” is “never.” We should always ask for reasons before we place trust. Hannes Alfvén was a respected Nobel-prizewinning physicist; but his ideas about cosmology were completely loopy, and there was no reason for anyone to trust them. An interested outsider might verify that essentially no working cosmologists bought into his model. - http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2011/09/13/trusting-e
xperts/
The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity," where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two
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"There was argument before about that very single word. Change that SINGLE WORD"
Hello,
I think that single words can sometimes change everything. Language in scientific literature is usually chosen with great attention to meaning, and it does a great service to the community to remind them of that which James Bond has long known.
--Anthony
_______________________________________________
"In every war, the state enacts a tax of freedom upon the citizenry. The unspoken promise is that the tax shall be revoked at war's end. Endless war holds no such promise. Hence, Eternal War is Eternal Slavery." --Admiral Robert J. Henner
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Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
As for your comment about the crabs, you didn't read the whole article - they're a related southern hemisphere species, the population in question was based off of New Zealand and migrated to Antarctica.
You're right, I didn't read the whole thing. AW, DAMN, I'm disappointed-- ruined a perfectly good joke.
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