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Roger A. Pielke

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The Rightful Place of Science: Disasters and Climate Change Kindle Edition

by Roger Pielke (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.2 49 ratings

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In recent years the media, politicians, and activists have popularized the notion that climate change has made disasters worse. But what does the science actually say? Roger Pielke, Jr. takes a close look at the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the underlying scientific research, and the data to give you the latest science on disasters and climate change. What he finds may surprise you and raise questions about the role of science in political debates.

The Rightful Place of Science is a book series published by Arizona State University's Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes, and edited by G. Pascal Zachary. The series explores the complex interactions among science, technology, politics, and the human condition.

Print length

126 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publication date

29 January 2015
File size

572 KB
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Review

Roger Pielke, Jr.'s book shines a welcome beacon of light on the science of climate change and extreme weather events. Whilst underlining the importance of human-caused climate change, he argues forcibly, in agreement with the IPCC, that such changes in climate cannot be seen as increasing the intensity and frequency of hydro-meteorological disasters, and thus damage related to extreme events. A thought-provoking read! --Dr. Peter J. Webster, President, Atmospheric Section: American Geophysical Union and Professor, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology

While Roger Pielke, Jr. and I hold quite different views on the policy implications of climate change, we are in agreement that the public is not well served by the politicization of climate science or by excessive emphasis on the role of global warming as a contributor to today's weather disasters. I found his short volume on these topics to be highly informative, engaging, and thought provoking. --Prof. John Michael Wallace, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington

Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, the conviction that climate change is already increasing weather-related natural disaster losses is strengthening. In Disasters and Climate Change, Roger Pielke, Jr. lays out the evidence with his usual cogency and invites readers to come to their own conclusions. A valuable and timely contribution. --Prof. John McAneney, Managing Director, Risk Frontiers, Macquarie University

About the Author

Roger Pielke, Jr. has been on the faculty of the University of Colorado since 2001 and is a Professor in the Environmental Studies Program and a Fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). At CIRES, Roger served as the Director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research from 2001-2007. Roger's research focuses on the intersection of science and technology and decision making. In 2006 Roger received the Eduard Brückner Prize in Munich, Germany for outstanding achievement in interdisciplinary climate research. Before joining the University of Colorado, from 1993-2001 Roger was a Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Roger is a Senior Fellow of the Breakthrough Institute. He is also author, co-author or co-editor of seven books, including The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics, published by Cambridge University Press in 2007. His most recent book is The Climate Fix: What Scientists and Politicians Won't Tell you About Global Warming (September, 2010, Basic Books).

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00SZ83XMG
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes, Arizona State University (29 January 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 572 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 126 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 709,620 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 695 in Professional Environmental Science
- 1,159 in Environmental Science (Kindle Store)
- 2,027 in Environmental Science (Books)

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4.2 49 ratings

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Roger A. Pielke

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Roger A. Pielke, Jr. has been on the faculty of the University of Colorado since 2001 and is a Professor in the Environmental Studies Program and a Fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). At CIRES, Roger served as the Director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research from 2001-2007. Roger's research focuses on the intersection of science and technology and decision making. In 2006 Roger received the Eduard Brückner Prize in Munich, Germany for outstanding achievement in interdisciplinary climate research. Before joining the University of Colorado, from 1993-2001 Roger was a Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Roger is a Senior Fellow of the Breakthrough Institute. He is also author, co-author or co-editor of seven books, including The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics published by Cambridge University Press in 2007. His most recent book is The Climate Fix: What Scientists and Politicians Won't Tell you About Global Warming (September, 2010, Basic Books).

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meteoadvanced

Fakten gegen den AGW Fanatismus!

Reviewed in Germany on 27 October 2016

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hier werden die "Klima Machenschaften" einiger Regierungen aufgezeigt und der ganze Klimawandelwahnsinn ins rechte Licht gerückt. Für alle noch nicht völlig verblendeten Klimaschützer herzlich zu empfehlen, aber auch an alle, die noch an seriöser Forschung interessiert sind

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Dr. Peter Davies

Good accurate science, and a scientist who is silent no longer

Reviewed in the United States on 16 October 2015

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This is a well written short review of an important question. It's written by a man who has spent his life studying the question, and who has a good and fair understanding of it. He sets out the context well before defining the exact question he can answer by scientific means (by means of reasonably accurate measurements, and awareness of their strengths and limitations.) He's writing against scientists, advocates and politicians who are overstating the science, and going beyond the evidence. He sees that "In recent years advocates for action on climate change have enlisted disasters as a leading theme of advocacy campaigns... A turn to this strategy has occurred despite a broad consensus in the scientific literature that the evidence for connections between climate change and disasters is incredibly weak." He considers one of Barack Obama's speeches in 2013 and says of it, "I knew that several (but not all) of the claims he made were just plain wrong- they were not supported by the state of the research. In fact, some were contradicted by that research." He also records "My surprise was that my colleagues were asking me to downplay and to even misrepresent my own research because it was being viewed as inconvenient in the advocacy effort on climate change." Considering another context where information was being misused he quotes Robin Cook on the lead up to the Iraq War, "Instead of using intelligence as evidence on which to make a decision about policy, we used intelligence as the basis on which to justify a policy on which we had already settled." and John Kay, "Whatever initial misconceptions spin doctors may promote, reality will out."

Pierce is writing this book to correct a misconception- one that has gone round the world whilst the truth is getting it boots on.

The specific question he asks is, "Have disasters become more costly because of human-caused climate change?" He describes the information and dat he uses to answer this question. He uses data on weather events and records of insurance company payments and uses them to see if the patterns match or not. His conclusion is that,
"All we can say is that the record of disaster losses is fully explainable by changes in society. There is at present no evidence that human caused climate change is responsible for any part of the global increase in disaster costs. We cannot say there is no such influence.
But as I have explained on many occasions, from a practical standpoint a signal that may exist, but which cannot be detected, is indistinguishable from a signal that does not exist...
Science is concerned with evidence, not with supporting pre-existing beliefs."

The main meat of the book provides plenty of evidence from many recorded and referenced sources to support its negative answer to its main question.

This is a good book showing well how to use scientific evidence to answer a well defined question. He also rightly warns against, "But efforts to intensify public opinion through apocalyptic visions of weather-gone-wild or appeals to scientific authority, instead of motivating further support for action, have instead led to a loss of trust in campaigning scientists."

He concludes, "But the false link between disasters and climate change also distracts us from the many politically pragmatic and economically sensible justifications for accelerating the transition to clean cheap energy."

This book brings a clear scientific eye to a large amount of evidence and shows us how it looks, and where we should be looking for answers that might help people. The noise elsewhere is a distraction from clear thought. We owe Roger Pielke a debt of gratitude for taking the risk to provide us with this clear account.
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Albert de Koninck

Science vs. Ideology

Reviewed in Canada on 1 June 2015

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The book is a science-based look at disasters and climate change. In the case of disasters, analysis of the data shows that the growing impact is chiefly due to increased settlement in areas that are subject to severe storms. If the data is normalized by removing the effect of the increasing population in disaster zones, the resulting time series shows no trend.

The basic problem in discussing climate change, the author indicates, is the intrusion of ideology into the discussion. On the one hand, the left wants to attribute any change in climate to human influence, while the right want to deny any human influence. Anyone taking a data-based scientific approach risks being denigrated by both sides.

The author's research was financed by insurance and re-insurance companies, who have no axe to grind in this.

All in all, this is a well-written clear book about an important area.

Siena

Riguroso y fácil de leer

Reviewed in Spain on 11 May 2016

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En 110 páginas de texto, de tamaño DIN-A5, el autor (una autoridad en el estudio de desastres naturales y sus consecuencias) hace un análisis riguroso sobre su posible correlación, o no, con el cambio climático.

Incluye numerosas referencias a pie de página, cuando dita datos o estudios.

Libro de fácil lectura (en inglés, eso sí), muy recomendable para interesados en el tema.

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Dr. P. R. Lewis

Honest Roger

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 January 2015

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The small recent (2014) book from renowned climatologist Roger Pielke seeks to demystify the relation between climate change and the incidence of natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornados and forest fires. He concludes that after many years examining the evidence, that there is no link at all between the two. This in itself is an interesting conclusion because many people are trying to convince us that disasters are increasing frequency and severity, and it is all our fault for burning too many fossil fuels. It is said by the same people that the CO2 produced is adding to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and so trapping more heat when the sun shines on our planet. The theory is highly questionable since CO2 is a very minor gas in the air, and the greenhouse effect is produced more by water vapour. Pielke accepts it however, but the proceeds to demolish the idea that any such alleged climate change has produced wilder and more damaging weather. The book should be read by all who support the attempts by various governments and the UN to restrict carbon fuel usage, and the hysterical cries they make about allegedly increasingly extreme weather. There is no evidence for such worsening weather at all,according to Pielke, despite all their attempts to cherry-pick the data, and highlight recent events such as Hurricane Sandy and recent floods in the UK. Although a very short book, the book is highly recommended for its honesty and clarity in an increasingly politicized debate.

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The Rightful Place of Science: Disasters and Climate Change Kindle Edition