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More Direct Words From Hans von Storch: Climate Science’s “Almost Medieval Political Understanding”
Hans von StorchHans von Storch, Director of the Institute for Coastal Research at the Helmholtz Research Centre in Germany, interviewed with the Austrian online kleinezeitung here. In the interview the renowned German professor looks at the proposed causes of the recent cold winter, his new book Die Klimafalle, and global warming in general.
The interview focused on a number of climate-related topics, but what follows are mainly his comments on the explanation that a warm Arctic in late summer causes cold in Central Europe in the late winter. Also included are some comments he made on climate science in general.
On the warm Arctic causing cold winters:
HvS: Here I’d be careful. With climate activity, countless factors interact with each other, and lots of explanations are possible. Using models it has been shown that this special mechanism could function that way. But that does not mean in any way that it is the deciding factor.
Can the cause of the cold winters be identified?
HvS: One has to ask why are such explanations first found after the event appears. It indeed would have been much nicer if someone had said already in the year 2000: By the way, you have to expect harder winters in Europe because the Arctic ice is retreating in the summer. This claim today then would have been far more convincing. But it was the other way around: We noticed that something strange had happened, and then an explanation was constructed. Other explanations would also be possible.
2013-04-10 07:31:36
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