In the latest issue of CALIFORNIA, contributor Tim Lesle writes about Berkeley physicist Richard Muller and the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, an endeavor that Muller, author of Physics for Future President, hopes will bring clarity to one of the contentious topics in Washington: global warming.
Last March, Muller testified before the House science committee about research he and his daughter Elizabeth, the CEO of an energy consultancy, initiated in 2010. Called the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project (or Berkeley Earth), its goal is to combine and reanalyze the last two centuries’ worth of global land temperature data. The outcome, expected in the near future, is twofold: a new record of the planet’s surface temperature, and a set of data and algorithms available for public scrutiny and further analysis.At this point, the reader may very well wonder, haven’t three major climate research groups already analyzed the planet’s temperature and found it to be on the rise? Well, yes. But if you thought the science was settled, Richard Muller would like to disagree. He points out, for example, evidence compiled by retired meteorologist (and climate change skeptic) Anthony Watts that questions the reliability of a number of temperature monitoring stations. Muller contends that such concerns have been ignored, even attacked, by climate scientists. “That kind of bothered me,” he says, “because since when are you not supposed to ask questions?”
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