{"id":254843,"date":"2023-04-27T10:13:16","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T08:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=254843"},"modified":"2023-04-27T10:13:26","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T08:13:26","slug":"alan-longhursts-doubt-and-certainty-in-climate-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=254843","title":{"rendered":"Alan Longhurst\u2019s \u201cDoubt and Certainty in Climate Science\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Book Review by Kip Hansen \u2014 26 April 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Finally, a climate science book that readers will learn from.  Many readers here are well versed in at least some of the myriad atmospheric and oceanic forces that add up to the complex \u201ccoupled non-linear chaotic system<\/a>\u201d (IPCC TAR Chapter 14<\/em>)  that is the Earth\u2019s climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many readers are frustrated with the continued insistence of political bodies \u2013 insistence that is mirrored and echoed  in official statements<\/a> of major scientific organizations \u2014 that only the concentration of CO2<\/sub> in the atmosphere is of importance in driving the global climate this way or that \u2013 some even claiming<\/a> that increases in atmospheric CO2  <\/sub>are driving  catastrophic changes that will lead to the  collapse of human civilization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many readers will also agree that this focus on CO2<\/sub> is a rather na\u00efve short-sighted view of our ever-changing climate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how many of us really understand, at a deep and exhaustively thorough level, why we must reject the \u201cCO2<\/sub> as climate control knob\u201d hypothesis and thus reject the public policy demands based on it?  Having just finished reading Alan Longhurst\u2019s<\/a> new book \u2013 \u201cDoubt and Certainty in Climate Science \u2013 2nd<\/sup> Edition (2023)<\/em>\u201d \u2014 am ready to admit that I did not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who is Alan Longhurst?  If you are an oceanographer or a fisheries scientist, then you already know of Dr. Longhurst\u2019s long and illustrious career.  If you read Dr. Judith Curry\u2019s  blog, Climate Etc<\/em>.<\/a> , you will have seen his name at the top of several essays.  You may have read Dr. Curry\u2019s review of this book\u2019s first edition<\/a>, in which she said \u201cThis is a remarkable book, a <\/em>tour de force.  There are fresh insights in each chapter, borne of Longhurst\u2019s objective analysis of the data and the literature.  The papers he cites are from Nature, Science, PNAS, Journal of Climate and other mainstream, high impact journals. \u2026.  However, each of these papers provides a critical link in Longhurst\u2019s reasoning that produces conclusions that do not agree with the \u2018consensus<\/em>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second edition,  now updated through 2022, has just been published this March  by Critical Science Press. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is, indeed, a tour de force<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unless you have already spent a lifetime studying the complex, complicated and chaotic subjects that comprise climate science, you stand to learn more from this book than from any other contemporary work.  Longhurst\u2019s comprehension and recall of the details of hundreds of scientific papers from related and adjacent fields enter into this brilliant synopsis of the state of Climate Science \u2013 what doubts we still have and what, if any, certainty we can claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have had this book in my possession since its publication\u2026and have absorbed its contents one chapter at a time.  This has turned out to be, for me, a rather monumental task.  I read deep <\/em>and deep<\/em> takes time, even at only 258 pages.  But it has been worth every precious minute<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are really curious and have that unquenchable<\/strong> desire to learn, get and read this book.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is available from the usual sources<\/a>, in hardback, paperback and eBook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

# # # # #<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author\u2019s Comment:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irrespective of your depth of understanding of Climate Science and your personal understandings and biases on various issues involved, you will find things to love, things to hate, things to agree with, and things to disagree with in this new edition of Longhurst\u2019s book.   It is, in a single word, breathtaking<\/em><\/strong> in its scoop and breadth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t be childish and quit reading the first time you find something that offends your current understanding.   If you do, you will miss out on the insights and understandings of a great mind \u2013 one capable of producing this horizon-stretching synopsis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

# # # # #<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are really curious and have that unquenchable desire to learn, get and read this book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":254848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691819107,691819105,691818076,691819106],"class_list":["post-254843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alan-longhurst","tag-climate-science-book","tag-co2","tag-control-knob","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/00175634026_wide-095cd6f39907e8df4fc07729cb9288bec75046fe.jpg?fit=1400%2C786&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-14in","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":291393,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=291393","url_meta":{"origin":254843,"position":0},"title":"Alan 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