Sentences with phrase «scientific uncertainty over»

Because of the considerable scientific uncertainty over the numbers of whales of different species and in different geographical stocks, the International Whaling Commission decided in 1989 that it would be better not to give whale population figures except for those species / stocks which have been assessed in some detail.

New research using data from NASA's Van Allen Probes mission helps resolve decades of scientific uncertainty over the origin of ultra-relativistic electrons in Earth's near space environment, and is likely to influence our understanding of planetary magnetospheres throughout the universe.

Not exact matches

But the many scientific uncertainties, and the sheer complexity of climate, made room for limitless debate over what actions, if any, governments should take.

The injunction «has placed a cloud of uncertainty over this entire scientific field,» said Harkin.

The NRC asked the committee to summarize current scientific information on the temperature record for the past two millennia, describe the main areas of uncertainty and how significant they are, describe the principal methodologies used and any problems with these approaches, and explain how central is the debate over the paleoclimate temperature record to the state of scientific knowledge on global climate change.

While this leads to an elevation in the level of scientific understanding from very low in the TAR to low in this assessment, uncertainties remain large because of the lack of direct observations and incomplete understanding of solar variability mechanisms over long time scales.»

Government funding may remain one of the biggest uncertainties hanging over the report, despite the consensus among astronomers and astrophysicists about their scientific priorities.

While this leads to an elevation in the level of scientific understanding from very low in the TAR to low in this assessment, uncertainties remain large because of the lack of direct observations and incomplete understanding of solar variability mechanisms over long time scales.»

Its impact remains clouded with scientific uncertainty, its effects will be felt over generations, and it is being amplified by everything from microwaving a frozen dinner to bringing electricity to an Indian village.

The terminology that the IPCC uses — such as «virtually certain», «very likely», «likely» etcetera and the very careful definitions that are attached to them, are an excellent way of communicating the uncertainties around various aspects of climate change, and are a significant improvement over the traditional way of discussing uncertainties in the scientific literature.

The many scientific uncertainties, and the sheer complexity of climate, made room for limitless debate over what actions, if any, governments should take.

The WGI contribution to the TAR — Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis — found, «In the light of new evidence and taking into account the remaining uncertainties, most of the observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations.»

«Because the 21 individual reports are planned to address scientific uncertainties associated with climate change and other technical subjects and are to be issued over a period of three or more years, it may be difficult for the Congress and others to use this information effectively as the basis for making decisions on climate policy,» according to the GAO.

That is to say, decisions over the next two or three decades affecting this larger context may influence the climate of 2100 and beyond in ways that are at least as significant as the implications of even the major current scientific uncertainties, like climate sensitivity and long - term ice - sheet stability.

Drawing on case studies of past environmental debates such as those over acid rain and ozone depletion, science policy experts Roger Pielke Jr. and Daniel Sarewitz argue that once next generation technologies are available that make meaningful action on climate change lower - cost, then much of the argument politically over scientific uncertainty is likely to diminish.26 Similarly, research by Yale University's Dan Kahan and colleagues suggest that building political consensus on climate change will depend heavily on advocates for action calling attention to a diverse mix of options, with some actions such as tax incentives for nuclear energy, government support for clean energy research, or actions to protect cities and communities against climate risks, more likely to gain support from both Democrats and Republicans.

Over and over again opponents of climate change policies have argued that nations need not act to reduce the threat of climate change because there are scientific uncertainties about the magnitude and timing of human - induced climate change impaOver and over again opponents of climate change policies have argued that nations need not act to reduce the threat of climate change because there are scientific uncertainties about the magnitude and timing of human - induced climate change impaover again opponents of climate change policies have argued that nations need not act to reduce the threat of climate change because there are scientific uncertainties about the magnitude and timing of human - induced climate change impacts.

Given that for over 20 years since international climate change negotiations began, the United States has refused to commit to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions based upon the justification that there is too much scientific uncertainty to warrant action, if it turns out that human - induced climate change actually greatly harms the health and ecological systems on which life depends of others, should the United States be responsible for the harms that could have been avoided if preventative action had been taken earlier?

The politicization of climate science (due in part to having Gore as the public face for so long) is one of the primary reasons why there is so great public doubt even over the basics (leaving out areas like sensitivity where there are large and real scientific uncertainties).

Further, the Cook et al. study is misleading as to what there is consensus on and glosses over major points of uncertainty and disagreement in the scientific community.

We also explained that for over 30 years, proponents of action on climate change mostly focused on responding to the arguments made by opponents of climate change that government action on climate change was unjustifiable due to scientific uncertainty and high costs of proposed climate policies.

Once next - generation technologies are available that make meaningful action on climate change cheaper, Pielke believes that much of the political arguments over scientific uncertainty will diminish.

In the report, the panel emphasized that the significant remaining uncertainties about climate patterns over the last 2,000 years did not weaken the scientific case that the current warming trend was caused mainly by people, through the buildup of heat - trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

This democratic oversight is overcome by deferring many of the parameters of our environmental strategy to an unaccountable, unelected panel — the Climate Change Committee, and of course, to the Stern Report, and to the IPCC; each papering over the nuances, doubt, uncertainties and scientific caution of the previous.

the committee will summarize current scientific information on the temperature record for the past 1,000 - 2,000 years, describe the main areas of uncertainty and how significant they are, describe the principal methodologies used and any problems with these approaches, and explain how central the debate over the paleoclimate temperature record is to the state of scientific knowledge on global climate change.

Hallegatte [8] notes that these sources of uncertainty will not go away in the foreseeable future: social uncertainties will play out over decades, and recent experiences of improving scientific understanding have often led to more uncertainty about the future rather than less [10], as the implications of unappreciated processes such as ice - sheet dynamics become clearer.

The WGI contribution to the TAR (Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis) found, «In the light of new evidence and taking into account the remaining uncertainties, most of the observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations.»

That's because their disagreements are not just about interpretations of scientific data, but about how they assess the risks, amid the uncertainty over global warming's future impact.

If you must know, it was the shady scientific practices and the uncertainty in climate science, as revealed in the East Anglia emails, that finally tipped me over to the sceptics» side.

Understanding the risk of half a degree of extra warming brings other scientific challenges, including the need to narrow the uncertainty over how much warming a given amount of carbon produces, known as the climate sensitivity, and the role of short - lived gases, such as methane.

They include those items ignored, glossed over, or deliberately misrepresented; projections are consistently wrong; the science has not advanced, a 2007 paper in Science by Roe and Baker concludes; «The envelope of uncertainty in climate projections has not narrowed appreciably over the past 30 years, despite tremendous increases in computing power, in observations, and in the number of scientists studying the problem»; and claims of impending disasters that simply do not make scientific sense.

Although there is uncertainty about what the precise impacts will be, there is no longer legitimate scientific disagreement about the fact that the climate is changing and that those changes will accelerate over the next century.