- Kevin E. Trenberth
Dr. Kevin E. Trenberth is head of the Climate Analysis Section at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research . He was a lead author of the2001 and2007 IPCC Scientific Assessment of Climate Change (seeIPCC Fourth Assessment Report ) and serves on the Scientific Steering Group for the Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR ) program. In addition, he serves on the Joint Scientific Committee of theWorld Climate Research Programme , and has made significant contributions to research intoEl Niño-Southern Oscillation .He was made an honorary fellow of the
Royal Society of New Zealand , in2000 and awarded theJule G. Charney award from theAmerican Meteorological Society and in2003 NCAR Distinguished Achievement Award .Global warming
Trenberth has long attributed
global warming tofossil fuel s:The latest 2001
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report reaffirms in much stronger language that the climate is changing in ways that cannot be accounted for by natural variability and that "global warming" is happening. Global mean temperatures have risen and the last decade is the warmest on record. The major cause of warming in the last three decades is from human effects changing the composition of the atmosphere primarily through use of fossil fuels. While changes in particulate pollution mostly causes cooling, increases in long-lived greenhouse gases dominate and cause warming. The long lifetime of several greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide lasts for over a century) suggests that we can not stop the changes, although we can slow them down. Moreover, the slow response of the oceans to warming, means that we have not yet seen all of the climate change we are already committed to. Major climate changes are projected under all likely scenarios of the future and the rates of change are much greater than occur naturally, and so are likely to be disruptive. [http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/GLOB_CHANGE/ipcc2001.html IPCC 2001] , UCAR.]Trenberth has been accused of misrepresenting the effect of global warming on hurricane activity by Dr
Christopher Landsea . [http://www.lavoisier.com.au/papers/articles/landsea.html An Open Letter to the Community from Chris Landsea] .] However, the IPCC stated in the Fourth Assessment Report that increases in average hurricane strength have been observed and are consistent with global warming but that no clear trend has been observed in the numbers of hurricanes [http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/Report/AR4WG1_Pub_Ch03.pdf] .See also
*
Effects of global warming
*Loop Current References
External links
* [http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/trenbert.html Official webpage]
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