Richard Siegmund Lindzen (born February 8, 1940) is an American atmospheric physicist known for his work in the dynamics of the middle atmosphere, atmospheric tides, and ozone photochemistry. He is the author of more than 200 scientific papers. From 1972 to 1982, he served as the Gordon McKay Professor of Dynamic Meteorology at Harvard University. In 1983, he was appointed as the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he would remain until his retirement in 2013.[2][1] Lindzen has disputed the scientific consensus on climate change and criticizes what he has called "climate alarmism".[3][4]

Richard S. Lindzen
Born (1940-02-08) February 8, 1940 (age 84)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard University (BA, MS, PhD)
Known forIris hypothesis
quasi-biennial oscillation
Dynamic meteorology
Atmospheric tides
Ozone photochemistry
SpouseNadine Lindzen
Children2[1]
AwardsNCAR Outstanding Publication Award (1967)
AMS Clarence Leroy Meisinger Award (1968)
AGU
Macelwane Award (1969)
Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1970)
AMS Charney Award (1985)
Member of the NAS
Scientific career
FieldsAtmospheric physics
Applied mathematics
InstitutionsUniversity of Washington
University of Copenhagen
University of Oslo
National Center for Atmospheric Research
University of Chicago
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ThesisRadiative and photochemical processes in strato- and mesospheric dynamics (1965)
Doctoral advisorRichard M. Goody

Early life and education edit

Lindzen was born on February 8, 1940, in Webster, Massachusetts.[1] His father, a shoemaker, had fled Nazi Germany with his mother. Lindzen moved to The Bronx soon after his birth and grew up in a Jewish household in a predominantly Catholic neighborhood.[4][5]

Lindzen attended the Bronx High School of Science, where he won Regents' and National Merit Scholarships, then Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before matriculating at Harvard University.[6] In 1960, he received his Bachelor of Arts in physics, magna cum laude, followed by a Master of Science in applied mathematics in 1961 and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics in 1964. His doctoral thesis, Radiative and photochemical processes in strato- and mesospheric dynamics,[7] involved the interactions of ozone photochemistry, radiative transfer, and dynamics in the middle atmosphere.

Career edit

Lindzen has published papers on Hadley circulation, monsoon meteorology, planetary atmospheres, hydrodynamic instability, mid-latitude weather, global heat transport, the water cycle, ice ages and seasonal atmospheric effects. His main contribution to the academic literature on anthropogenic climate change is his proposal of the iris hypothesis in 2001, with co-authors Ming-Dah Chou and Arthur Y. Hou.[8][9]

Lindzen is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Science, Health, and Economic Advisory Council at the Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy. He joined MIT in 1983, prior to which he held positions at the University of Washington (1964–65), the Institute for Theoretical Meteorology at the University of Copenhagen, the University of Oslo (1965–67), the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) (1966–67), and the University of Chicago (1968–72). From 1972 to 1982, he served as the Gordon McKay Professor of Dynamic Meteorology at Harvard University. Lindzen also briefly held a position of visiting lecturer at UCLA in 1967.[10]

As of January 2010, his publications list included 230 papers and articles published between 1965 and 2008, with five in process for 2009. He is the author of a standard textbook on atmospheric dynamics, and co-authored the monograph Atmospheric Tides with Sydney Chapman.[11]

He was Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at MIT from 1983,[1] until his retirement which was reported in the Spring 2013 newsletter of MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).[2] On December 27, 2013, the Cato Institute announced his appointment as a Distinguished Senior Fellow in its Center for the Study of Science.[12]

Early work (1964–1972) edit

Lindzen's early work was concerned with ozone photochemistry, the aerodynamics of the middle atmosphere, the theory of atmospheric tides, and planetary waves. His work in these areas led him to a number of fundamental scientific discoveries, including the discovery of negative equivalent depths in classical tidal theory, explanations for both the quasi-biennial oscillation of the Earth's stratosphere and the four-day period of the superrotation of the Venus atmosphere above the cloud top.

Ozone photochemistry edit

His PhD thesis of 1964 concerned the interactions of ozone photochemistry, radiative transfer and the dynamics of the middle atmosphere. This formed the basis of his seminal Radiative and Photochemical Processes in Mesospheric Dynamics that was published in four parts in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences between 1965 and 1966.[13][14][15][16][17] The first of these, Part I: Models for Radiative and Photochemical Processes, was co-authored with his Harvard colleague and former PhD thesis advisor, Richard M. Goody, who is well known for his 1964 textbook Atmospheric Radiation.[18] The Lindzen and Goody (1965) study has been widely cited as foundational in the exact modeling of middle atmosphere ozone photochemistry. This work was extended in 1973 to include the effects of nitrogen and hydrogen reactions with his former PhD student, Donna Blake, in Effect of photochemical models on calculated equilibria and cooling rates in the stratosphere.[19]

Lindzen's work on ozone photochemistry has been important in studies that look at the effects that anthropogenic ozone depletion will have on climate.[20]

Atmospheric tides edit

Since the time of Pierre-Simon Laplace (1799),[21] scientists had been puzzled as to why pressure variations measured at the Earth's surface associated with the semi-diurnal solar tide dominate those of the diurnal tide in amplitude, when intuitively one would expect the diurnal passage of the sun to dominate. Lord Kelvin (1882) had proposed the so-called "resonance" theory, wherein the semi-diurnal tide would be "selected" over the diurnal oscillation if the atmosphere was somehow able to oscillate freely at a period of very close to 12 hours, in the same way that overtones are selected on a vibrating string. By the second half of the twentieth century, however, observations had failed to confirm this hypothesis, and an alternative hypothesis was proposed that something must instead suppress the diurnal tide. In 1961, Manfred Siebert suggested that absorption of solar insolation by tropospheric water vapour might account for the reduction of the diurnal tide.[22] However, he failed to include a role for stratospheric ozone. This was rectified in 1963 by the Australian physicist Stuart Thomas Butler and his student K.A. Small who showed that stratospheric ozone absorbs an even greater part of the solar insolation.[23]

Nevertheless, the predictions of classical tidal theory still did not agree with observations. It was Lindzen, in his 1966 paper, On the theory of the diurnal tide,[24] who showed that the solution set of Hough functions given by Bernhard Haurwitz[25] to Laplace's tidal equation was incomplete: modes with negative equivalent depths had been omitted.[a] Lindzen went on to calculate the thermal response of the diurnal tide to ozone and water vapor absorption in detail and showed that when his theoretical developments were included, the surface pressure oscillation was predicted with approximately the magnitude and phase observed, as were most of the features of the diurnal wind oscillations in the mesosphere.[27] In 1967, along with his NCAR colleague, Douglas D. McKenzie, Lindzen extended the theory to include a term for Newtonian cooling due to emission of infrared radiation by carbon dioxide in the stratosphere along with ozone photochemical processes,[28] and then in 1968 he showed that the theory also predicted that the semi-diurnal oscillation would be insensitive to variations in the temperature profile, which is why it is observed so much more strongly and regularly at the surface.[29]

While holding the position of research scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, CO Lindzen was noticed and befriended by Professor Sydney Chapman, who had contributed to the theory of atmospheric tides in a number of papers from the 1920s through to the 1940s. This led to their joint publication in 1969 of a 186-page monograph (republished in 1970 as a book) Atmospheric Tides.[30][31]

Quasi-biennial oscillation edit

Although it wasn't realized at the time, the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) was observed during the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, when the ash from the volcano was transported around the globe from east to west by stratospheric winds in about two weeks. These winds became known as the "Krakatoa easterlies". It was observed again in 1908, by the German meteorologist Arthur Berson, who saw that winds blow from the west at 15 km (9.32 mi) altitude in tropical Africa from his balloon experiments. These became known as the "Berson westerlies". However, it was not until the early 1960s that the ~ 26-month cycle of the QBO was first described, independently by Richard J. Reed in 1960 and Veryhard and Ebdon in 1961.

Lindzen recalls his discovery of the mechanism underlying the QBO in the semi-autobiographical review article, On the development of the theory of the QBO.[32] His interest in the phenomenon began in 1961 when his PhD advisor, Richard M. Goody, speculated that the 26-month relaxation time for stratospheric ozone at 25 km (15.53 mi) in the tropics might somehow be related to the 26-month period of the QBO, and suggested investigation of this idea as a thesis topic. In fact, Lindzen's, Radiative and photochemical processes in mesospheric dynamics, Part II: Vertical propagation of long period disturbances at the equator, documented the failure of this attempt to explain the QBO.[33]

Lindzen's work on atmospheric tides led him to the study of planetary waves and the general circulation of atmospheres. By 1967, he had contributed a number of papers on the theory of waves in the middle atmosphere. In Planetary waves on beta planes, he developed a beta plane approximation for simplifying the equations of classical tidal theory, whilst at the same time developing planetary wave relations. He noticed from his equations that eastward-traveling waves (known as Rossby waves since their discovery in 1939 by Carl-Gustav Rossby) and westward-traveling waves (which Lindzen himself helped in establishing as "atmospheric Kelvin waves") with periods less than five days were "vertically trapped." At the same time, an important paper by Booker and Bretherton appeared, which Lindzen read with great interest. Booker and Bretherton showed that vertically propagating gravity waves were completely absorbed at a critical level.[34]

In his 1968 paper with James R. Holton, A theory of the quasi-biennial oscillation,[35] Lindzen presented his theory of the QBO after testing it in a two-dimensional (2-D) numerical model that had been developed by Holton and John M. Wallace.[36] They showed that the QBO could be driven by vertically propagating gravity waves with phase speeds in both westward and eastward directions and that the oscillation arose through a mechanism involving a two-way feedback between the waves and the mean flow. It was a bold conjecture, given that there was very little observational evidence available to either confirm or confute the hypothesis. In particular, there was still no observational evidence of the westward-traveling "Kelvin" waves; Lindzen postulated their existence theoretically.[b]

In the years following the publication of Lindzen and Holton (1968), more observational evidence became available, and Lindzen's fundamental insight into the mechanism driving the QBO was confirmed. However, the theory of interaction via critical level absorption was found to be incomplete and was modified to include the importance of attenuation due to radiative cooling. The revised theory was published in the Holton and Lindzen (1972) paper, An updated theory for the quasibiennial cycle of the tropical stratosphere.[38]

Superrotation of Venus edit

Since the 1960s a puzzling phenomenon has been observed in the atmosphere of Venus. The atmosphere above the cloud base is seen to travel around the planet about 50 times faster than the rotation of the planet surface, or in only four to five Earth-days.[39] In 1974 a theory was proposed by Stephen B. Fels and Lindzen to explain this so-called "superrotation" which held that the rotation is driven by the thermal atmospheric tide.[40] An alternative theory was proposed by Peter J. Gierasch in the following year which held instead that the meridional (Hadley) circulation may transport the momentum by eddy-mixing.[41] As of 2005, the actual cause of this phenomenon continued to be debated in the literature, with General Circulation Model experiments suggesting that both the Fels/Lindzen and Gierasch mechanisms are involved.[42]

Middle period (1972–1990) edit

From 1972 to 1982 Lindzen was a professor of dynamic meteorology at Harvard University. From February to June 1975 he was a visiting professor of dynamic meteorology at MIT, and during part of 1979 Lindzen was a visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, before switching affiliations to MIT as the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology in 1983.

During this time, Lindzen published some research on gravity waves,[43] as well as Hadley circulations.[44] He is named as one of 16 Scientific Members of the team authoring the National Academy of Sciences 1975 publication Understanding Climatic Change: A Program for Action.[45]

Final period (1990–2010) edit

Climate sensitivity edit

Lindzen hypothesized that the Earth may act like an infrared iris. A sea surface temperature increase in the tropics would result in reduced cirrus clouds and thus more infrared radiation leakage from Earth's atmosphere.[9] Additionally, rising temperatures would cause more extensive drying due to increased areas of atmospheric subsidence. This hypothesis suggests a negative feedback which would counter the effects of CO2 warming by lowering the climate sensitivity. Satellite data from CERES has led researchers investigating Lindzen's theory to conclude that the Iris effect would instead warm the atmosphere.[46][47] Lindzen disputed this, claiming that the negative feedback from high-level clouds was still larger than the weak positive feedback estimated by Lin et al.[48]

Lindzen has expressed his concern over the validity of computer models used to predict future climate change. Lindzen said that predicted warming may be overestimated because of their handling of the climate system's water vapor feedback. The feedback due to water vapor is a major factor in determining how much warming would be expected to occur with increased atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, and all existing computer models assume positive feedback — that is, that as the climate warms, the amount of water vapour held in the atmosphere will increase, leading to further warming. By contrast, Lindzen believes that temperature increases will actually cause more extensive drying due to increased areas of atmospheric subsidence as a result of the Iris effect, nullifying future warming.[4] This claim was criticized by climatologist Gavin Schmidt, Director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who notes the more generally-accepted understanding of the effects of the Iris effect and cites empirical cases where large and relatively rapid changes in the climate such as El Niño events, the Ultra-Plinian eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, and recent trends in global temperature and water vapor levels show that, as predicted in the generally-accepted view, water vapor increases as the temperature increases, and decreases as temperatures decrease.[49]

Contrary to the IPCC's assessment in 2001, Lindzen said that climate models are inadequate. Despite accepted errors in their models, e.g., treatment of clouds, modelers still thought their climate predictions were valid.[50] Lindzen has stated that due to the non-linear effects of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, CO2 levels are now around 30% higher than pre-industrial levels but temperatures have responded by about 75% 0.6 °C (1.08 °F) of the expected value for a doubling of CO2. The IPCC (2007) estimates that the expected rise in temperature due to a doubling of CO2 to be about 3 °C (5.4 °F), ± 1.5°. Lindzen has given estimates of the Earth's climate sensitivity to be 0.5 °C based on ERBE data.[51] These estimates were criticized by Kevin E. Trenberth and others,[52] and Lindzen accepted that his paper included "some stupid mistakes". When interviewed, he said "It was just embarrassing", and added that "The technical details of satellite measurements are really sort of grotesque." Lindzen and Choi revised their paper and submitted it to PNAS.[53] The four reviewers of the paper, two of whom had been selected by Lindzen, strongly criticized the paper and PNAS rejected it for publication.[54] Lindzen and Choi then succeeded in getting a little known Korean journal to publish it as a 2011 paper.[53][55] Andrew Dessler published a paper which found errors in Lindzen and Choi 2011, and concluded that the observations it had presented "are not in fundamental disagreement with mainstream climate models, nor do they provide evidence that clouds are causing climate change. Suggestions that significant revisions to mainstream climate science are required are therefore not supported."[56]

NAS panel edit

In 2001, Lindzen served on an 11-member panel organized by the National Academy of Sciences.[57] The panel's report, titled Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions,[58] has been widely cited. Lindzen subsequently publicly criticized the report summary for not referring to the statement in the full report that twenty years of temperature measurements was "too short a period for estimating long term trends".[59]

IPCC activities edit

Lindzen worked on Chapter 7 of 2001 IPCC Working Group 1, which considers the physical processes that are active in real world climate. He had previously been a contributor to Chapter 4 of the 1995 "IPCC Second Assessment". He described the full 2001 IPCC report as "an admirable description of research activities in climate science"[60] although he criticized the Summary for Policymakers. Lindzen stated in May 2001 that it did not truly summarize the IPCC report[61] but had been amended to state more definite conclusions.[62] He also emphasized the fact that the summary had not been written by scientists alone. The NAS panel on which Lindzen served says that the summary was the result of dialogue between scientists and policymakers.[c]

Work at Cato Institute edit

Lindzen was a featured speaker at a Cato Institute conference, "Global Environmental Crisis: Science or Politics?" on June 5 (World Environment Day) and June 6, 1991.[64] The conference was identified in 2019 in the book Kochland by business writer Christopher Leonard as a previously unhighlighted early landmark in the efforts by the fossil fuel multi-billionaire Koch brothers to promote questions about climate science. Cato Institute was "founded and heavily funded for years" by the Kochs,[65] and Lindzen was prominently quoted in the brochure for the conference.

The notion that global warming is a fact and will be catastrophic is drilled into people to the point where it seems surprising that anyone would question it, and yet, underlying it is very little evidence at all. Nonetheless, there are statements made of such overt unrealism that I feel embarrassed. I feel it discredits science. I think problems will arise when one will need to depend on scientific judgment, and by ruining our credibility now you leave society with a resource of some importance diminished.

The title of the presentation Lindzen made at the conference was "Critical Issues in Climate Forecasting".[64]

In an announcement on December 27, 2013, the Institute said that in a new position at Cato, Lindzen's focus would be on "the interaction between science and policymakers" and that he would study "whether the move from largely private funding to public support has introduced biases into science and the public policies informed by science."[12]

By mid-2019, Lindzen was no longer affiliated with the Cato institute.[66]

Views on climate change edit

In June 1992, a year after the Cato Institute conference, Lindzen signed the Heidelberg Appeal.[67]

He has criticized the scientific consensus on global climate change, claiming that scientists are just as liable to err when the science appears to point in just one direction. He drew an analogy in 1996 between the consensus in the early and mid-twentieth century on eugenics and the current consensus about global warming.[68] In a 2007 interview on The Larry King Show, Lindzen said:[69]

We're talking of a few tenths of a degree change in temperature. None of it in the last eight years, by the way. And if we had warming, it should be accomplished by less storminess. But because the temperature itself is so unspectacular, we have developed all sorts of fear of prospect scenarios – of flooding, of plague, of increased storminess when the physics says we should see less. I think it's mainly just like little kids locking themselves in dark closets to see how much they can scare each other and themselves.

In a 2009 editorial in The Wall Street Journal, Lindzen said that the earth was just emerging from the "Little Ice Age" in the 19th century and says that it is "not surprising" to see warming after that. Lindzen states that the IPCC's 2001 findings were[70]

Based on the weak argument that the current models used by the IPCC couldn't reproduce the warming from about 1978 to 1998 without some forcing, and that the only forcing that they could think of was man. Even this argument assumes that these models adequately deal with natural internal variability—that is, such naturally occurring cycles as El Niño, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, etc. Yet articles from major modeling centers acknowledged that the failure of these models to anticipate the absence of warming for the past dozen years was due to the failure of these models to account for this natural internal variability. Thus even the basis for the weak IPCC argument for anthropogenic climate change was shown to be false.

According to an April 30, 2012 New York Times article,[71] "Dr. Lindzen accepts the elementary tenets of climate science. He agrees that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, calling people who dispute that point 'nutty.' He agrees that the level of it is rising because of human activity and that this should warm the climate." He also believes that decreasing tropical cirrus clouds in a warmer world will allow more longwave radiation to escape the atmosphere, counteracting the warming.[71] Lindzen first published this "iris" theory in 2001,[9] and offered more support in a 2009 paper.[51]

Comments addressed to U.S. policymakers edit

Starting in 1991, Lindzen has provided testimonies to the U.S. Senate and House committees regarding his understandings of the current state of research on climate change for multiple times.[72]

In 2001, Lindzen urged the Bush administration not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.[73] In a letter to Mayor David B. Cohen of Newton, Massachusetts, Lindzen wrote that he believed the Kyoto Protocol would increase the cost of electricity for no gain, putting signatory states at a competitive disadvantage.[74]

In 2017, Lindzen sent a petition to President Trump, asking the President to withdraw the United States from the United Nations Convention on Climate Change.[75] The petition contained the names of "around 300 eminent scientists and other qualified individuals", and called on the United States and other nations to "change course on an outdated international agreement that targets minor greenhouse gases," starting with carbon dioxide.[76][77] It received considerable media coverage; 22 then- current or retired MIT professors promptly issued an open letter addressed to Trump saying that Lindzen's petition does not represent their views or those of the vast majority of other climate scientists.[78][79]

Third-party characterizations of Lindzen edit

An April 30, 2012, article in The New York Times included the comments of several other experts. Christopher S. Bretherton, an atmospheric researcher at the University of Washington, said Lindzen is "feeding upon an audience that wants to hear a certain message, and wants to hear it put forth by people with enough scientific reputation that it can be sustained for a while, even if it's wrong science. I don't think it's intellectually honest at all." Kerry A. Emanuel, another M.I.T. scientist, said of Lindzen's views "Even if there were no political implications, it just seems deeply unprofessional and irresponsible to look at this and say, 'We're sure it's not a problem.' It's a special kind of risk, because it's a risk to the collective civilization."[71]

A 1996 article in The New York Times included the comments of several other experts. Jerry D. Mahlman, director of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, did not accept Lindzen's assessment of the science, and said that Lindzen had "sacrificed his luminosity by taking a stand that most of us feel is scientifically unsound." Mahlman did, however, admit that Lindzen was a "formidable opponent". William Gray of Colorado State University basically agreed with Lindzen, describing him as "courageous". He said, "A lot of my older colleagues are very skeptical on the global warming thing". He added that while he regarded some of Lindzen's views as flawed, he said that, "across the board he's generally very good". John Wallace of the University of Washington agreed with Lindzen that progress in climate change science had been exaggerated, but said there are "relatively few scientists who are as skeptical of the whole thing as Dick [Lindzen] is".[4]

The November 10, 2004, online version of Reason magazine reported that Lindzen is "willing to take bets that global average temperatures in 20 years will in fact be lower than they are now".[80] However, on June 8, 2005, they reported that Lindzen insisted that he had been misquoted, after James Annan contacted Lindzen to make the bet but claimed that "Lindzen would take only 50 to 1 odds".[81]

The Guardian reported in June 2016 that Lindzen has been a beneficiary of Peabody Energy, a coal company that has funded multiple groups contesting the climate consensus.[82]

Lindzen has been called a contrarian, in relation to climate change and other issues.[83][84][85] Lindzen's graduate students describe him as "fiercely intelligent, with a deep contrarian streak."[86]

The characterization of Lindzen as a contrarian has been reinforced by reports that he claims that lung cancer has only been weakly linked to smoking.[87][88] When asked about this during an interview as part of an Australian Broadcasting Corporation documentary, Lindzen said that while "the case for second-hand tobacco is not very good ... the World Health Organization also said that” (referencing a 1998 study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) on environmental tobacco smoke (ETS)[89]), on the other hand "With first-hand smoke it's a more interesting issue ... The case for lung cancer is very good but it also ignores the fact that there are differences in people's susceptibilities which the Japanese studies have pointed to."[90] Again, when asked to clarify his position Lindzen wrote "there was a reasonable case for the role of cigarette smoking in lung cancer, but that the case was not so strong that one should rule that any questions were out of order ... the much, much weaker case against second hand smoke [is] also being treated as dogma."[91]

Awards and honors edit

Lindzen is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and was named Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Meteorological Society. He is a corresponding member of the NAS Committee on Human Rights, and a member of the United States National Research Council Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate. He was a consultant to the Global Modeling and Simulation Group at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Lindzen is an ISI highly cited researcher,[92] and his biography has been included in American Men and Women of Science.[93]

Personal life edit

Richard Lindzen and his wife, Nadine, have two sons. Lindzen's interests include amateur radio, photography, and oriental rugs.[94]

Selected publications edit

Articles edit

  • Lindzen, Richard Siegmund (1992). "Global Warming: The Origin and Nature of the Alleged Scientific Consensus". Regulation. 15 (2): 87–98.
  • ——— (July 26, 2009). "Resisting climate hysteria". Quadrant.
  • ——— (November 30, 2009). "The Climate Science Isn't Settled". The Wall Street Journal.
  • ——— (April 24, 2010). "Alarmists keep ringing the bell". The Australian.
  • "What Catastrophe? MIT’s Richard Lindzen, the unalarmed climate scientist", The Weekly Standard, January 13, 2014

Books edit

Peer-reviewed papers edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Susumu Kato had independently made the same discovery at about the same time in Japan.[26]
  2. ^ Actually, the evidence was coming in at the time, see Wallace, JM; Kousky, VE (1967). "Observational evidence of Kelvin waves in the tropical stratosphere". J. Atmos. Sci. 25 (5): 900–7. Bibcode:1968JAtS...25..900W. doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1968)025<0900:OEOKWI>2.0.CO;2. However, Lindzen says in his 1987 recollections that he did not see this study until after the Lindzen & Holton 1968 paper was already submitted.[37]
  3. ^ The NAS panel said on the matter that "The committee finds that the full IPCC Working Group I (WGI) report is an admirable summary of research activities in climate science, and the full report is adequately summarized in the Technical Summary. The full WGI report and its Technical Summary are not specifically directed at policy. The Summary for Policymakers reflects less emphasis on communicating the basis for uncertainty and a stronger emphasis on areas of major concern associated with human-induced climate change. This change in emphasis appears to be the result of a summary process in which scientists work with policy makers on the document. Written responses from U.S. coordinating and lead scientific authors to the committee indicate, however, that (a) no changes were made without the consent of the convening lead authors (this group represents a fraction of the lead and contributing authors) and (b) most changes that did occur lacked significant impact".[63]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d "Richard Siegmund Lindzen" (PDF) (curriculum vitae). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 22, 2012. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
  2. ^ a b "Spring 2013 Newsletter Faculty News". MIT EAPS. May 31, 2013. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  3. ^ Lindzen, Richard (April 22, 2010). "Climate Science in Denial". Wall Street Journal.
  4. ^ a b c d Stevens, William K. (June 18, 1996). "Scientist at work: Richard S. Lindzen; A Skeptic Asks, Is It Getting Hotter, Or Is It Just the Computer Model?". The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  5. ^ Epstein, Ethan. "What Catastrophe?". The Magazine. The Weekly Standard. Archived from the original on January 6, 2014. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
  6. ^ Guterl, Fred (July 22, 2001). "The Truth About Global Warming". Newsweek.
  7. ^ Lindzen, Richard Siegmund (1965). Radiative and photochemical processes in strato- and mesospheric dynamics (Thesis). Harvard University. OCLC 76991637.
  8. ^ "Publications". Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  9. ^ a b c Lindzen, Chou & Hou 2001.
  10. ^ "Richard Siegmund Lindzen" (PDF). Faculty (curriculum vitae). MIT. June 1, 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 20, 2009. Retrieved March 18, 2009.
  11. ^ "Richard Lindzen's Publications". Retrieved January 17, 2010.
  12. ^ a b "Richard Lindzen". Cato Institute. December 27, 2013. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  13. ^ Lindzen, Richard S; Goody, RM (1965). "Radiative and photochemical processes in mesospheric dynamics: Part I. Models for radiative and photochemical processes" (PDF). J. Atmos. Sci. 22 (4): 341–48. Bibcode:1965JAtS...22..341L. doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1965)022<0341:RAPPIM>2.0.CO;2. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 3, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  14. ^ Lindzen, Richard S (1965). "The radiative-photochemical response of the mesosphere to fluctuations in radiation" (PDF). J. Atmos. Sci. 22 (5): 469–78. Bibcode:1965JAtS...22..469L. doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1965)022<0469:trprot>2.0.co;2. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  15. ^ Lindzen, RS (1966). "Radiative and photochemical processes in mesospheric dynamics: Part II. Vertical propagation of long period disturbances at the equator" (PDF). J. Atmos. Sci. 23 (3): 334–43. Bibcode:1966JAtS...23..334L. doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1966)023<0334:RAPPIM>2.0.CO;2. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  16. ^ Lindzen, Richard S (1966). "Radiative and photochemical processes in mesospheric dynamics. Part III. Stability of a zonal vortex at midlatitudes to axially symmetric disturbances" (PDF). J. Atmos. Sci. 23 (3): 344–49. Bibcode:1966JAtS...23..344L. doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1966)023<0344:RAPPIM>2.0.CO;2. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 22, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  17. ^ Lindzen, Richard S (1966). "Radiative and photochemical processes in mesospheric dynamics. Part IV. Stability of a zonal vortex at midlatitudes to baroclinic waves" (PDF). J. Atmos. Sci. 23 (3): 350–59. Bibcode:1966JAtS...23..350L. doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1966)023<0350:RAPPIM>2.0.CO;2. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 22, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  18. ^ Goody, RM (1964). Atmospheric Radiation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  19. ^ Blake, DW; Lindzen, Richard Siegmund (1973). "Effect of photochemical models on calculated equilibria and cooling rates in the stratosphere" (PDF). Mon. Wea. Rev. 101 (11): 738–802. Bibcode:1973MWRv..101..783B. doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1973)101<0783:eopmoc>2.3.co;2. hdl:2060/19730017658.
  20. ^ See for instance the widely cited study Fels, SB; Mahlman, JD; Schwarzkopf, MD; Sinclair, RW (1980). "Stratospheric Sensitivity to Perturbations in Ozone and Carbon Dioxide: Radiative and Dynamical Response" (PDF). J. Atmos. Sci. 37 (10): 2265–97. Bibcode:1980JAtS...37.2265F. doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1980)037<2265:SSTPIO>2.0.CO;2. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 18, 2008. The Lindzen and Blake formalism is used in the parameterization of radiative-photochemical damping (see Appendix A).
  21. ^ Laplace, PS (1799). Méchanique Céleste [Celestial Mechanics] (in French). Paris.
  22. ^ Siebert, M (1961). "Atmospheric tides". Advances in Geophysics. Vol. 7. New York: Academic Press. pp. 105–82.
  23. ^ Butler, Stuart Thomas; Small, KA (1963). "The excitation of atmospheric oscillations". Proceedings of the Royal Society. A274: 91–121.
  24. ^ Lindzen, Richard S (1966). "On the theory of the diurnal tide" (PDF). Mon. Wea. Rev. 94 (5): 295–301. Bibcode:1966MWRv...94..295L. doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1966)094<0295:OTTOTD>2.3.CO;2.
  25. ^ Haurwitz, B (1962a). "Die tägliche Periode der Lufttemperatur in Bodennähe und ihre geographische Verteilung". Arch. Met. Geoph. Biokl. (in German). A12 (4): 426–34. Bibcode:1962AMGBA..12..426H. doi:10.1007/BF02249276. S2CID 118241095.
  26. ^ Kato, S (1966). "Diurnal atmospheric oscillation, 1. Eigenvalues and Hough functions" (PDF). J. Geophys. Res. 71 (13): 3201–9. Bibcode:1966JGR....71.3201K. doi:10.1029/JZ071i013p03201.
  27. ^ Lindzen, Richard S (1967). "Thermally driven diurnal tide in the atmosphere". Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. 93 (395): 18–42. Bibcode:1967QJRMS..93...18L. doi:10.1002/qj.49709339503. Archived from the original on January 5, 2013.
  28. ^ Lindzen, Richard Siegmund; McKenzie, DJ (1967). "Tidal theory with Newtonian cooling". Pure Appl. Geophys. 64 (1): 90–96. Bibcode:1967PApGe..66...90L. doi:10.1007/BF00875315. S2CID 128537347.
  29. ^ Lindzen, Richard Siegmund (1968). "The application of classical atmospheric tidal theory". Proceedings of the Royal Society. A303 (1474): 299–316. Bibcode:1968RSPSA.303..299L. doi:10.1098/rspa.1968.0052. S2CID 97096978.
  30. ^ Lindzen, Richard Siegmund; Chapman, Sydney (1969). "Atmospheric tides" (PDF). Space Science Reviews. 10 (1): 3–188. Bibcode:1969SSRv...10....3L. doi:10.1007/BF00171584. S2CID 189783807. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 14, 2019. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  31. ^ Chapman, Sydney; Lindzen, Richard Siegmund (1970). Atmospheric Tides: Thermal and Gravitational. Dordrecht, NL: D. Reidel Press. ISBN 978-90-277-0113-8. 200 pp.
  32. ^ Lindzen 1987, pp. 329–37.
  33. ^ Lindzen 1987, p. 329.
  34. ^ Booker, J. R.; Bretherton, F. P. (2006). "The critical layer for internal gravity waves in a shear flow". Journal of Fluid Mechanics. 27 (3): 513. Bibcode:1967JFM....27..513B. doi:10.1017/S0022112067000515. S2CID 120754946.
  35. ^ Lindzen, Richard Siegmund; Holton, JR (1968). "A theory of quasi-biennial oscillation" (PDF). J. Atmos. Sci. 26 (6): 1095–1107. Bibcode:1968JAtS...25.1095L. doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1968)025<1095:atotqb>2.0.co;2. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 13, 2010. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  36. ^ Wallace, JM; Holton, JR (1967). "A diagnostic numerical model of the quasi-biennial oscillation" (PDF). J. Atmos. Sci. 25 (2): 280–92. Bibcode:1968JAtS...25..280W. doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1968)025<0280:ADNMOT>2.0.CO;2. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 5, 2014.
  37. ^ Lindzen 1987, p. 330.
  38. ^ Holton, JR; Lindzen, RS (1972). "An updated theory for the quasibiennial cycle of the tropical stratosphere" (PDF). J. Atmos. Sci. 29 (6): 1076–80. Bibcode:1972JAtS...29.1076H. doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1972)029<1076:AUTFTQ>2.0.CO;2.
  39. ^ Taylor, FW; Tsang, CCC (February 2005). "Venus super-rotation". Archived from the original on July 6, 2007. Retrieved March 29, 2009.
  40. ^ Fels, SB; Lindzen, Richard S (1974). "Interaction of thermally excited gravity waves with mean flows" (PDF). Geophys. Fluid Dyn. 6 (2): 149–91. Bibcode:1974GeoFD...6..149F. doi:10.1080/03091927409365793. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 22, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  41. ^ Gierasch, PJ (1975). "Meridional circulation and the maintenance of the Venus atmospheric rotation" (PDF). J. Atmos. Sci. 32 (6): 1038–44. Bibcode:1975JAtS...32.1038G. doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1975)032<1038:MCATMO>2.0.CO;2. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 25, 2010.
  42. ^ Zhu, X (2005). "Maintenance of Equatorial Superrotation in a Planetary Atmosphere: Analytic Evaluation of the Zonal Momentum Budgets for the Stratospheres of Venus, Titan and Earth" (PDF). SR SR A-2005-01, JHU /APL, Laurel, MD. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 3, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  43. ^ Lindzen, R. S. (1981). "Turbulence and stress owing to gravity wave and tidal breakdown". Journal of Geophysical Research. 86 (C10): 9707–9714. Bibcode:1981JGR....86.9707L. doi:10.1029/JC086iC10p09707.
  44. ^ Lindzen, R. S.; Hou, A. V. (1988). "Hadley Circulations for Zonally Averaged Heating Centered off the Equator". Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 45 (17): 2416–2427. Bibcode:1988JAtS...45.2416L. doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1988)045<2416:HCFZAH>2.0.CO;2.
  45. ^ Understanding Climate Change Archived April 8, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, National Academy of Sciences 1975, full text and pdf scan available at the Internet Archive
  46. ^ Lin, Bing; et al. (2002). "The iris hypothesis: a negative or positive cloud feedback?". Journal of Climate. 15 (1): 3–7. Bibcode:2002JCli...15....3L. doi:10.1175/1520-0442(2002)015<0003:TIHANO>2.0.CO;2.
  47. ^ Rink, Chris; Cole, Julia (January 16, 2002). "NASA satellite instrument warms up global cooling theory" (Press release). NASA.
  48. ^ Chou, Ming-Dah; Lindzen, Richard S.; Hou, Arthur Y. (2002). "Comments on "The Iris Hypothesis: A Negative or Positive Cloud Feedback?"". Journal of Climate. 15 (18): 2713–15. Bibcode:2002JCli...15.2713C. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.232.8350. doi:10.1175/1520-0442(2002)015<2713:COTIHA>2.0.CO;2.
  49. ^ Schmidt, Gavin (February 14, 2006). "Richard Lindzen's HoL testimony". Real Climate.
  50. ^ Guterl, Fred (July 23, 2001). "The Truth About Global Warming". Newsweek. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
  51. ^ a b Lindzen, Richard S.; et al. (2009). "On the determination of climate feedbacks from ERBE data". Geophysical Research Letters. 36 (16): L16705. Bibcode:2009GeoRL..3616705L. doi:10.1029/2009GL039628.
  52. ^ dana1981 (July 6, 2012). "Working out climate sensitivity from satellite measurements". Skeptical Science. Retrieved December 20, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  53. ^ a b Gillis, Justin (May 1, 2012). "Clouds' Effect on Climate Change Is Last Bastion for Dissenters". New York Times. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  54. ^ Schekman, Randy (January 19, 2011). "Title: On the observational determination of climate sensitivity and its implications Ms. No.: 2010-15738" (PDF). PNAS Office. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 19, 2012. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  55. ^ Lindzen, Richard S.; Choi, Yong-Sang (2011). "On the observational determination of climate sensitivity and its implications". Asia-Pacific Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 47 (4): 377–390. Bibcode:2011APJAS..47..377L. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.167.11. doi:10.1007/s13143-011-0023-x. S2CID 9278311.
  56. ^ Dessler, A. E. (2011). "Cloud variations and the Earth's energy budget". Geophysical Research Letters. 38 (19): n/a. Bibcode:2011GeoRL..3819701D. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.362.5742. doi:10.1029/2011GL049236. S2CID 17463106.
  57. ^ "Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions: Committee on the Science of Climate Change". National Academies Press. 2001. Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  58. ^ Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions. National Academies Press. 2001. doi:10.17226/10139. ISBN 978-0-309-07574-9. Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  59. ^ Lindzen, Richard Siegmund (June 11, 2001). "Scientists' Report Doesn't Support the Kyoto Treaty" (PDF). The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 17, 2003. Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  60. ^ Lindzen, Richard S. (February 23, 2004). "Canadian Reactions To Sir David King". The Hill Times. Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  61. ^ Lindzen, Richard S. (May 1, 2001). "Testimony of Richard S. Lindzen before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee" (PDF). Lavoisier Group. Retrieved March 18, 2009.
  62. ^ Solomon, Lawrence (December 22, 2006). "The Deniers – Part V: The original denier: into the cold". National Post. Archived from the original on February 23, 2007. Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  63. ^ "Summary". Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions. National Academies Press. 2001. Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  64. ^ a b “1991 CATO Climate Denial Conference Flyer and Schedule”, ‘’Koch Docs’’, n.d. Retrieved 2019-08-17.
  65. ^ Mayer, Jane, “‘Kochland’ Examines the Koch Brothers’ Early, Crucial Role in Climate-Change Denial” (review), ‘’The New Yorker’’, August 13, 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-17.
  66. ^ Waldman, Scott (May 29, 2020). "Cato closes its climate shop; Pat Michaels is out". E&E News. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  67. ^ “Richard Lindzen”, DeSmogBlog, n.d. Retrieved 2019-08-17.
  68. ^ Hahn, R, ed. (1996), "5. Science and politics: global warming and eugenics", Risks, Costs, and Lives Saved, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 85–103, 267 pp.
  69. ^ "Transcripts". CNN. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  70. ^ Lindzen, Richard S (November 30, 2009). "The Climate Science Isn't Settled". The Wall Street Journal.
  71. ^ a b c Gillis, Justin (April 30, 2012). "Clouds' Effect on Climate Change Is Last Bastion for Dissenters". New York Times. Retrieved May 27, 2012.
  72. ^ "Other publications". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on May 1, 2015.
  73. ^ "Reflections on Kyoto" Archived October 17, 2003, at the Wayback Machine, Los Angeles Times, 12/12/97.
  74. ^ Lindzen, Richard (September 17, 2003). "A Mayor Mistake". TCS (Tech Central Station). Archived from the original on May 24, 2007. Retrieved March 15, 2009.
  75. ^ Lindzen, Richard. "Petition to withdraw from United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 10, 2017. Retrieved May 27, 2018.
  76. ^ Cama, Timothy (February 23, 2017). "Climate skeptics ask Trump to withdraw from UN agency". The Hill.
  77. ^ Richardson, Valerie (February 23, 2017). "Hundreds of scientists urge Donald Trump to withdraw from U.N. Climate-change agency". The Washington Times. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  78. ^ "MIT Faculty Working on Climate Write to President Trump". Climate@MIT. March 4, 2017. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  79. ^ Abel, David (March 8, 2017). "MIT professors denounce their colleague in letter to Trump for denying evidence of climate change". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on April 10, 2019. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  80. ^ Bailey, Ronald (November 10, 2005). "Two Sides to Global Warming". Reason Magazine. Archived from the original on October 27, 2006. Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  81. ^ "Betting on Climate Change". Reason Magazine. June 8, 2005. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  82. ^ Suzanne Goldenberg and Helena Bengtsson (June 13, 2016). "Biggest US coal company funded dozens of groups questioning climate change". The Guardian. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
  83. ^ Ritter, Karl (December 17, 2007). "Climate change dissenters say they are demonized in debate". USA Today. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  84. ^ Eilperin, Juliet (October 2009). "Richard Lindzen: An Inconvenient Expert". Outside. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  85. ^ Achenbach, Joel (June 5, 2006). "Global-warming skeptics continue to punch away". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on June 18, 2008. Retrieved December 8, 2009.
  86. ^ "The Contrarian". Seed. August 24, 2006. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved December 8, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  87. ^ Guterl, Fred (July 23, 2001). "The Truth About Global Warming". Newsweek. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
  88. ^ Williams, Robyn (2005). "Fair-weather friends?". Griffith Review (12). Retrieved June 12, 2017.
  89. ^ Boffetta P, Agudo A, Ahrens W, et al. (1998). "Multicenter case-control study of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and lung cancer in Europe". J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 90 (19): 1440–50. doi:10.1093/jnci/90.19.1440. PMID 9776409.
  90. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: I Can Change Your Mind About…Climate (video). April 26, 2012. Event occurs at 22:34. Retrieved June 12, 2017.Transcript; Episode page
  91. ^ Treadgold, Richard (May 15, 2011). "Lindzen dismisses Hansen's defamations". Climate Conversation Group. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
  92. ^ Knowledge (record), ISI.
  93. ^ American Men & Women of Science, vol. 4 (25th ed.), 2008, p. 909.
  94. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved 2013-10-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

Bibliography edit

External links edit