Research clouds climate-change models

Aug. 30, 2011
Scientists at the Swiss-based CERN recently concluded experiments that seem to show the Sun and its changing magnetic field affect cloud formation in the Earth's atmosphere. The whole story gets a little ugly, with CERN management stalling and stifling ...

Scientists at the Swiss-based CERN recently concluded experiments that seem to show the Sun and its changing magnetic field affect cloud formation in the Earth's atmosphere. The whole story gets a little ugly, with CERN management stalling and stifling scientists wanting to explore activity that might possibly discredit global-warming models and theories. (Read about here.)

As a college student, I did a bit of mathematical modeling of various systems and studied the models from the Club of Rome (Limits to Growth, anyone?) One thing I learned is that if you don't know about a causal relationship between two or more variables in your model , or you don't even know a variable plays an important role, you won't be including them in your model. I also learned you have to validate your model to have any confidence in it. That's why I largely ignore predictions coming from climate “experts” based on their own, often proprietary models. And when they claim to have lost the data that went into creating the model, I suspect shenanigans.

So are you convinced global warming is a threat? Or is it just the doomsday prediction du jour?

About the Author

Stephen Mraz Blog | Senior Editor

Steve serves as Senior Editor of Machine Design.  He has 23 years of service and has a B.S. Biomedical Engineering from CWRU. Steve was a E-2C Hawkeye Naval Flight Officer in the U.S. Navy. He is currently responsible for areas such as aerospace, defense, and medical.

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