Minnesota Public Radio features weekly discussion on climate change

Climate change: What we know, what we're doing

The Daily Circuit, Dec 5, 2013
Climate Cast, Minnesota Public Radio

LISTEN: As the world warms: What we know, what we're doing

Guests

• Ben Santer: Climate scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• Andrew Freedman: Senior science writer for Climate Central
• Bernadette Woods Placky: Meteorologist for Climate Central
• Erich Osterberg: Assistant professorin Dartmouth College's Department of Earth Sciences
• Craig Bowron: Physician and writer
• John Abraham: Professor of thermal sciences at the University of St. Thomas
• Kevin Trenberth: Distinguished senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research
• Richard Benedick: Chief U.S. negotiator and a principal architect of the Montreal Protocol
• David Keith: Professor of applied physics in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

For this week's Climate Cast, we are taking a deep dive into the issue of climate change with a full hour on one of the world's biggest concerns. Today's show highlights not only how our lives are affected by climate change, but what people are doing about it.

BLAMING HUMANS FOR OUR WARMING PLANET

In 1995, climate scientist Ben Santer first brought up the notion that humans were partially to blame for a warming planet. His views on climate change, backed by stacks of data, have gone from being in the extreme minority to the near-universally accepted majority.

"The warming we have seen in these many different aspects of the climate system — the ocean, the land surface, the ice, the atmosphere, water vapor, pressure patterns, circulation patterns — these changes cannot be purely explained by natural causation," Santer said. "You need a substantial human influence in order to best explain the observed changes we've seen."

(Text and broadcast are here.)