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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: JoAnn Gutin 609/258-5729
Date: Nov. 20,1997
GFDL Head Assesses State of Knowledge on Global Warming
Princeton, N. J.- Jerry Mahlman, a professor at Princeton University and Director of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab, assesses current scientific understanding of global warming in the journal Science this week. In the article, which appears in the Policy Forum section of the journal, Mahlman distinguishes between three kinds of climate data: (1) facts, (2) projections with various degrees of certainty, and (3) projections that are widely believed but probably wrong. Among the latter, Mahlman says, is the assertion that tropical storms will increase under conditions of global warming.
He concludes that while uncertainties exist, those uncertainties are fewer than many groups "with widely varying sociopolitical agendas" assume. "Much is known about the climate system," Mahlman asserts, and "human-caused greenhouse warming is not a problem that can rationally be dismissed."
Policy Forum articles are invited columns in which experts provide two-page summaries of current thinking in their fields. The columns are targeted at policy makers in addition to scientists; Mahlman's contribution precedes the upcoming UN Framework Conference on Climate Change to be held Dec. 1-10 in Kyoto, Japan.
Much of Dr. Mahlman's research career has been directed toward understanding the behavior of the stratosphere and troposphere, as well as their implications for climate change. In 1994 he received the highest honor of the American Meteorological Society, the Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal, for pioneering work in the application of general circulation models to the understanding of stratospheric dynamics and transport.
He has been Lecturer with the rank of Professor in Geosciences and Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at Princeton since 1980.
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