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NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Climate scientist and Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and Director and Adjunct Senior Research Scientist at Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research
PROFILE
Gavin Schmidt
Guest
FROM Gavin Schmidt
To the Point
Climate Change: Politics and Reality Climate change is a big part of Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic platform. Donald Trump and the GOP call it a hoax with no basis in science. Meantime, temperatures in Kuwait are rising to historic highs, and melting ice in the Arctic is changing the lives of nomadic native Alaskans. Extreme weather apparently is becoming the norm, and climate scientists are working faster to connect the dots between heat waves and global warming. We update some facts on the ground and hear how the climate change is playing in the presidential campaign.
To the Point
Why All the Extreme Weather? Everybody knows about the winter weather — closing airports in Europe, collapsing the Metrodome roof in Minneapolis, and tying up much of the eastern United States. It's even unusually cold in Siberia. During the warmest decade on record, the Eastern US, Northern Europe and East Asia are experiencing their coldest and snowiest winters in 100 years. So what about global warming? Gavin Schmidt is a climate scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
Which Way, L.A.?
Views on Global Warming Change with the Weather Surveys show that public opinion on climate change quite literally shifts with the weather. Now there's a more persuasive kind of evidence. The recent spate of extreme weather -- flooding in Pakistan, Fires in Russia, landslides in China and unprecedented extremes in the US -- appears to confirm predictions made by earlier models of global warming, according to the World Meteorological Organization . Dmitry Medvedev says it's " a wake-up call to all… heads of state." But, when it comes to tough decisions about industrial policy, skeptics are ahead of the game. The political will to take action is as variable as the weather. The world is getting warmer, whether industrial greenhouse emissions are the cause or not. Is there need for some action before it's too late?
To the Point
Views on Global Warming Change with the Weather Surveys show that public opinion on climate change quite literally shifts with the weather. Now there's a more persuasive kind of evidence. The recent spate of extreme weather -- flooding in Pakistan, Fires in Russia, landslides in China and unprecedented extremes in the US -- appears to confirm predictions made by earlier models of global warming, according to the World Meteorological Organization . Dmitry Medvedev says it's " a wake-up call to all… heads of state." But, when it comes to tough decisions about industrial policy, skeptics are ahead of the game. The political will to take action is as variable as the weather. The world is getting warmer, whether industrial greenhouse emissions are the cause or not. Is there need for some action before it's too late?
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