theglobaljournal.net: Latest articles of Marielle Courthttp://www.theglobaljournal.net/member/marielle-court/articles/2010-07-01T17:08:47ZThe Iceman Cometh2010-07-01T17:08:47Zhttp://www.theglobaljournal.net/article/view/60/<h3><img title="Jean Jouzel" src="/s3/photos%2F2011%2F04%2Fb322bd30d1d39bfb.png" alt="Jean Jouzel" /></h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>Climatologist Jean Jouzel offers a&nbsp;cool assessment of climate change&rsquo;s&nbsp;heated debate</h3> <p><span style="color: #808080;">by Marielle Court</span></p> <p><span>O</span>rganized right-wing sceptics are fighting bare-knuckled&nbsp;the existence of climate change, and with their own scientific&nbsp;experts, hacked emails at Copenhagen&rsquo;s United Nations&nbsp;Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting,&nbsp;and allegations against the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate&nbsp;Change (IPCC) that it published unsubstantiated data that exaggerated&nbsp;the melting rate of the Himalayan glaciers, what can we&nbsp;expect for the future of the climate debate?</p> <p><span style="color: #c24a3d;">Now that tensions between the global warming believers and&nbsp;naysayers have subsided a bit, what are your views on the&nbsp;controversy surrounding climate change?</span></p> <p>Even if things appear calm, if the actions of those who don&rsquo;t&nbsp;believe in global warming are less visible, some people still think&nbsp;it is possible to build strategy while denying the research findings.&nbsp;No, I&rsquo;m really not sure that the final deniers&rsquo; offensive is over. But&nbsp;we in the scientific community simply want to move ahead.</p> <p><span style="color: #c24a3d;">In this trench warfare, did science lose face with the general&nbsp;public?</span></p> <p>The idea that scientists do not all agree can result in the population&nbsp;tuning out, imagining that there is no problem. It&rsquo;s up&nbsp;to scientists to regain public confidence. Our role is to provide&nbsp;arguments that invalidate the arguments of the naysayers. We&nbsp;are doing this point by point.</p> <p><span style="color: #c24a3d;">Has the environment in general and climate change in particular&nbsp;suffered from being a passing fad?&nbsp;</span></p> <p>Perhaps we lowered our guard too much. Not to mention that&nbsp;the opposition has often built a case on arguments devoid of&nbsp;any scientific basis but that have worked with the public. For&nbsp;example, when they say that long-term projections are impossible&nbsp;since we can&rsquo;t even predict weather beyond a week,&nbsp;or when they point to a cold winter in a country to denounce&nbsp;global warming.</p> <p>...</p> <p>To read the full article&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.theglobaljournal.ch/product.php?id_product=21">buy the magazine</a>.</p>