Letter To The Editor That Chemical And Engineering News Refused To Print

I am always intrigued by claims that science is settled, especially when it comes to something as complex as climate.  Rudy Baum’s remarks (“Climate Change News” June 22, 2009) are particularly disquieting because of his hostility toward skepticism, which is part of every scientist’s soul.
 
Let’s cut to the chase with some questions for Mr. Baum.  (1)  Which of the 20-odd major climate models has settled the science, such that all of the rest are now discarded?  (2)  Precisely why does Mr. Baum claim that the “scientific consensus of climate change has become increasingly hard to challenge,” when nobody in the world claims that climate does not change?  (3) Does Mr. Baum refer to “climate change” instead of “global warming” because the claim of anthropogenic global warming has become increasingly contrary to fact?  (4) Has he made the switch from “global warming” to “climate change” because any data whatsoever can be taken, however illogically, as evidence that man is changing the climate?

Howard Hayden
Professor Emeritus of Physics, UConn