Talk:United States National Academy of Sciences

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[edit] More on CNN misrepresentation of NAS report

Richard S. Lindzen, a professor of meteorology at MIT, was one of eleven members of the National Academy Sciences panel on climate change. As a result of what he considered misrepresentation by the media of the resulting report by that NAS panel, Dr. Lindzen published an analysis/opinion piece that appeared in a number of publications, including the June 11, 2001 The Wall Street Journal. Sad to say, his critical remarks were nowhere noted in the scientific press (at least in the 50 or so journals to which we subscribe, including Nature and Science), which continued to report on the NAS panel as if there were a consensus and that that consensus was in support of the Kyoto Treaty. Dr. Lindzen says otherwise.

According to Dr. Lindzen, CNN's Michelle Mitchell was "typical of the coverage when she declared that the [NAS] report represented a 'unanimous decision that global warming is real, is getting worse, and is due to man. There is no wiggle room.'" Lindzen's response: "As one of 11 scientists who prepared the report, I can state that this is simply untrue." For example, he notes that far too much public attention has been paid to the "hastily" prepared summary than to the body of the report. "Our primary conclusion was that despite some knowledge and agreement, the science is by no means settled. We are quite confident (1) that global mean temperature is about 0.5 degrees Celsius higher than it was a century ago; )2) that atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide have risen over the past two centuries; and (3) that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas whose increase is likely to warm the earth (one of many, the most important being water vapor and clouds). But -- and I cannot stress this enough -- we are not in a position to confidently attribute past climate change to carbon dioxide or to forecast what the climate will be in the future. That is to say, contrary to media impressions, agreement with the three basic statements tells us almost nothing relevant to policy discussions."

Dr. Lindzen noted that the NAS panel was asked to evaluate the work of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, focusing on the Summary for Policymakers, the only part ever read or quoted. He concludes that "Within the confines of professional courtesy, the NAS panel essentially concluded that the IPCC's Summary for Policymakers does not provide suitable guidance for the U.S. government." He feels that "Science, in the public arena, is commonly used as a source of authority with which to bludgeon political opponents and propagandize uninformed citizens. This is what has been done with both the reports of the IPCC and the NAS." [1]—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Capitalister (talk • contribs).

Your link is broken, and the "lifeservices.com" domain is not in use. You might want to replace that with a functional link so people can get a look at what kind of scientists Durk and Sandy are.

As it stands, your appendix (diff) is insufficiently specific and worded as a vague negation of that which preceeds it.

1. The suggestion that Global Warming skeptics comprise "a large part of the scientific community" is misleading.
2. The sentence is made grammatically confusing by that phrase. I doubt "The statement [referring to the Joint Declaration On Global Warming] stresses that the scientific understanding of climate change is [...] still disputed by a large part of the scientific community", which is how that sentence now parses.

Also, please sign your Talk Page contributions. Typing four tildes (~~~~) will do this for you automatically. edgarde 14:12, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Civil War

What exactly is the relation between the foundation of the USNAS and the Civil War? How come the latter created a need for the earlier? //Halibutt 08:56, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

This doesn't quite address your question, but here's some info: 1863 Act of Incorporation and if you're really interested, you can poke around the online version of the 1978 book: The National Academy of Sciences: The First Hundred Years, 1863-1963, or find it in a library. Michael Jon Jensen 20:23, 6 July 2006 (UTC)