Judith Curry Quotes

“Does it make more sense to provide air conditioning or to limit CO2 emissions. I vote for more air conditioning in these susceptible regions.”

“I am broadly concerned about the slow death of free speech, but particularly in universities and also with regards to the climate change debate.”

“If you examine the intensification of a single storm, or even the statistics on intensification for a particular season, factors like wind shear can play an important role.

However, there is no global trend in wind shear or the other factors over the 35-year period.”

“Not being able to address the attribution of change in the early 20th century to my mind precludes any highly confident attribution of change in the late 20th century.”

“Sea surface temperature is the one that consistently comes up.

What we found is that all the variables have an effect, but those tend to be on a storm-by-storm basis and not over a longer period.”

“The link between sea surface temperatures and hurricane intensity is an important piece of the global warming debate.”

“The manufactured consensus of the IPCC has had the unintended consequences of distorting the science, elevating the voices of scientists that dispute the consensus, and motivating actions by the consensus scientists and their supporters that have diminished the public's trust in the IPCC.”

“The whole question of global warming is something that has to be confronted.”

“This study really shores up the link between rising sea temperature and the intensity of hurricanes.”

“We firm up the link between the increase in sea surface temperatures and hurricane intensity, which has been a key issue in the debate about whether global warming is causing an increase in hurricane intensity.”

“We found no long-term trend in things like wind shear. There's a lot of year-to-year variability, but there's no global trend.

In any given year, it's different for each ocean.”

“We need to push the reset button on climate change.”

“We need to raise the level of our game in terms of explaining the planetary warming by infrared absorption of CO2 etc. The missing area of understanding seems to be the actual physical mechanism.

Let's target an explanation at an audience that has taken 1 year each of undergraduate physics and chemistry, plus calculus. Once we have something that is convincing at this level, we can work on how to communicate this to the interested public (i.e. those that hang out in the climate blogosphere).”

“We're looking at a much worse hurricane risk than people were thinking about a year ago. Some places are going to become uninsurable.”

“Recent data and research supports the importance of natural climate variability and calls into question the conclusion that humans are the dominant cause of recent climate change.”

“I am arguing that climate models are not fit for the purpose of detection and attribution of climate change on decadal to multidecadal timescales.”

“It’s long past time to get rid of the concept of ‘consensus’ on climate change.”

“What the heck does the ‘climate change consensus’ even mean any more?

The definition of climate change consensus is now so fuzzy that leading climate change skeptics are categorizing themselves within the 97%.”

“Activist scientists and the media quickly seize upon each extreme weather event as having the fingerprints of manmade climate change — ignoring the analyses of more sober scientists showing periods of even more extreme weather in the first half of the 20th century, when fossil fuel emissions were much smaller.”

“Climate change — manmade and/or natural — along with extreme weather events, provide reasons for concern.

However, the rhetoric and politics of climate change have become absolutely toxic and nonsensical.”

“Crop yields continue to increase globally, surpassing what is needed to feed the world. Agricultural technology matters more than climate.”

“Don’t believe the hype that you are hearing from Extinction Rebellion and the like.

Rather than going on strike or just worrying, take the time to learn something about the science of climate change.”

“Over the past century, there has been a 99% decline in the death toll from natural disasters, during the same period that the global population quadrupled.”

“Societal prosperity is the best insurance policy that we have for reducing our vulnerability to the vagaries of weather and climate.”

“The proportion of world population living in extreme poverty declined from 36% in 1990 to 10% in 2015.”

“We have been told that the science of climate change is ‘settled’. However, in climate science there has been a tension between the drive towards a scientific ‘consensus’ to support policy making, versus exploratory research that pushes forward the knowledge frontier.

Climate science is characterized by a rapidly evolving knowledge base and disagreement among experts. Predictions of 21st century climate change are characterized by deep uncertainty.”

“We still don’t have a realistic assessment of how a warmer climate will impact us and whether it is ‘dangerous’.

e don’t have a good understanding of how warming will influence future extreme weather events.

Land use and exploitation by humans is a far bigger issue than climate change for species extinction and ecosystem health.”

“While the IPCC has estimated that sea level could rise by 0.6 meters by 2100, recall that the Netherlands adapted to living below sea level 400 years ago.”

“Why are we so worried about climate change? The concern over climate change is not so much about the warming that has occurred over the past century.

Rather, the concern is about what might happen in the 21st century as a result of increasing fossil fuel emissions. Emphasis on ‘might’.”