Page 87 - DLIS402_INFORMATION_ANALYSIS_AND_REPACKAGING

Information Analysis and Repackaging

Notes These are the type of events that have a more significant impact on society than annual average
global temperature trends. Policy responses to climate variability and change should be flexible
and sensible–The difficulty of prediction and the impossibility of verification of predictions decades
into the future are important factors that allow for competing views of the long-term climate future.
Therefore, the AASC recommends that policies related to long-term climate not be based on particular
predictions, but instead should focus on policy alternatives that make sense for a wide range of
plausible climatic conditions regardless of future climate... Finally, ongoing political debate about
global energy policy should not stand in the way of common sense action to reduce societal and
environmental vulnerabilities to climate variability and change. Considerable potential exists to
improve policies related to climate.
American Geological Institute
The American Geological Institute (AGI) strongly supports education concerning the scientific
evidence of past climate change, the potential for future climate change due to the current building
of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and the policy options available.
Understanding the interactions between the solid Earth, the oceans, the biosphere, and the
atmosphere both in the present and over time is critical for accurately analyzing and predicting
global climate change due to natural processes and possible human influences.
American Institute of Professional Geologists
The geological professionals in AIPG recognize that climate change is occurring and has the potential
to yield catastrophic impacts if humanity is not prepared to address those impacts. It is also
recognized that climate change will occur regardless of the cause. The sooner a defensible scientific
understanding can be developed, the better equipped humanity will be to develop economically
viable and technically effective methods to support the needs of society.
Concerned that the original statement issued in March 2009 was too ambiguous, AIPG’s National
Executive Committee approved a revised position statement issued in January 2010:
The geological professionals in AIPG recognize that climate change is occurring regardless of cause.
AIPG supports continued research into all forces driving climate change.
In August 2009, the Ohio Section of AIPG submitted a position statement to Senators Brown and
Voinovich opposing H.R. 2454, the Markey-Waxman climate bill. The statement professed that “there
is no scientific evidence supporting…. the premise that human production of CO gas is responsible
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for ‘global warming’….” The statement went on to challenge the findings of the IPCC and made
numerous references to articles published by the Heartland Institute.
In March 2010, AIPG’s Executive Director issued a statement regarding polarization of opinions on
climate change within the membership and announced that the AIPG Executive had made a decision
to cease publication of articles and opinion pieces concerning climate change in AIPG’s news journal,
The Professional Geologist. The Executive Director noted that “the question of anthropogenicity of
climate change is contentious.”
Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences
The science of global climate change is still evolving and our understanding of this vital Earth
system is not as developed as is the case for other Earth systems such as plate tectonics. What is
known with certainty is that regardless of the causes, our global climate will continue to change for
the foreseeable future... The level of CO in our atmosphere is now greater than at any time in the
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past 500,000 years; there will be consequences for our global climate and natural systems as a result.
Statements by dissenting organizations
Since 2007, when the American Association of Petroleum Geologists released a revised statement,
no scientific body of national or international standing rejects the findings of human-induced effects
on climate change.

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