Human-Induced Climate Change: Truths and Controversies

Everyone has seen the evidence of a changing climate over the last 30–40 years. Climatologists can demonstrate this fact through changes in climate-parameter averages. There have been many published measurements of – for example – temperature and sea-level rise in relation to reference periods in the past. Other studies have focused on forecasting climate parameters out to the end of the present century. In other words, there is ample scientific evidence that the global climate is changing.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), including through its recent 15th Special Report (2018), attributes this change in the global climate to anthropogenic activity, and in particular to increases in emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), and in particular carbon dioxide. The report says that by 2017 global temperatures had risen by 1°C relative to the pre-industrial period (1850–1900), indicating a rate of change of 0.2°C/decade. It also predicts that temperatures will be 1.5°C warmer than pre-industrial levels by the middle of the century and about 2°C warmer by the end, with a subsequent mean sea-level rise of 0.51 m.

On the other hand, there are many climatological studies that, while supporting the notion of climate change, argue that global warming cannot be exclusively attributed to GHG emissions, and suggest that natural variability is at least equally important. The Global Warming Policy Forum has become a centre for exchange of such views.

The main purpose of the Special Issue is to open a space for those on both sides of the debate (“climate believers” and “climate skeptics”) to express their views by invoking facts, measurements, and validated simulations. In this way, it may allow us to move at least a little closer to answering the question: is man the main cause of the global warming since the Industrial Revolution?

• Climate modelling.
• Climate projections to the end of the 21st century.
• Observations not predicted by climate modellers.
• Causes of climate modelling inaccuracies.
• Climate sensitivity of the Earth.
• Adaptation of the climatic system of the Earth to exogenous factors.
• Teleconnections and interactions among the various large-scale climatic phenomena;
• and their effect on global climate.

Dr. Harry Kambezidis
Guest Editor

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