Washington DC, United States – Can we have an open-minded discussion on the earthly climate in today's inflamed and polarized media climate? The International Association of Academicians for Peace-USA addressed this in a webinar on October 31, 2023.
Dr. Thomas Selover, president of Professors World Peace Academy, moderated the stimulating discussion between Senior Research Scientist Dr. Takahiro Hiroi from Brown University's NASA RELAB, Dr. J. Andrew Combs, president of the weather monitoring agency WRIST, and Dr. Staffan Berg, Coordinator of IAAP-USA. Dr. Michael Jenkins, president of UPF-International, offered concluding words of encouragement after the short question-and-answer session.
Dr. Hiroi, whose big picture view of climate change is in relation to the planetary path of the earth, stressed that cosmic factors beyond human control are influencing the earth’s climate. He showed evidence that the scary media headlines about a dramatic sea-level rise due to a melting of the polar ice caps are overstated. Dr. Hiroi also showed that the increase of CO2 has caused a welcome greening of the earth.
As a former climate skeptic who has become very concerned, Dr. Combs referenced media headlines, such as the devastation from the Category 5 hurricane Otis, wildfires in Canada and flooding in Libya. He is alarmed over the possibility of future catastrophe due to increased global temperatures. Dr. Combs sees a need to act now, especially to develop small scale nuclear energy generation.
A biased media and an oppressive political climate have stymied free discourse in the search for solutions, according to Dr. Staffan Berg. He gave the example of a team of six scientists who knowingly omitted crucial factors from their research in order to get their paper published, yet who are still widely quoted in the press even after revealing the true story.
The webinar had about 65 live participants, plus 85 who saw the recording on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_NiqQNzRA0&t=5s) in addition to those who watched through the Facebook feed.
Two more webinars on the climate are coming soon.
