Kerby Anderson

Have you noticed an increase in climate alarmism in the news? Pundits, politicians, and activists are predicting a global catastrophe on the horizon that requires immediate and expensive action before the planet is doomed. A helpful antidote to all the doom and gloom is the book, Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters, by Dr. Steven Koonin. He is difficult to label as a “climate denier.” Early in his book, he acknowledges that, “it’s true that the globe is warming, and that humans are exerting a warming influence upon it.” He can’t be pegged as a right-wing activist since he served as the undersecretary for science in the US Department of Energy in the Obama administration. Before that he was a professor of physics at Caltech and served as Caltech’s vice president and provost. He reminds his readers that research literature and government reports say, “that heat waves in the US are now no more common than they were in 1900 and that the warmest temperatures in the US have not risen in the past fifty years.” He then follows that statement with three others that would surprise most Americans. (1) “Humans have had no detectable impact on hurricanes over the past century.” (2) “Greenland’s ice sheet isn’t shrinking any more rapidly today than it was eighty years ago.” (3) “The net economic impact of human-induced climate change will be minimal through at least the end of this century.” He is also skeptical of the computer models used to forecast future climate change. If these models can’t retroactively “predict” events that have already happened, why should we trust their predictions for the future? His book reminds us that the science isn’t settled, and we need some humility about what we don’t know.