Richard S. Lindzen

Dr. Richard S. Lindzen ( b. February 8, 1940) is the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Joel Achenbach wrote in the Washington Post in 2006 that "of all the skeptics, MIT's Richard Lindzen probably has the most credibility among mainstream scientists, who acknowledge that he's doing serious research on the subject."

Lindzen is perhaps best known for his "Iris hypothesis", which proposed that, like the iris of an eye, the earth's cloud systems will act to lessen global warming. Other climate researchers believe that further research has not supported this hypothesis; Lindzen disagrees.

Background
His academic research involves studies of the role of the tropics in mid-latitude weather and global heat transport, the moisture budget and its role in global change, the origins of ice ages, seasonal effects in atmospheric transport, stratospheric waves, and the observational determination of climate sensitivity. He has published numerous papers regarding meteorologic and atmospheric topics.

Fossil Fuel Interests Funding
In a biographical note at the foot of a column published in Newsweek in 2007, Lindzen wrote that "his research has always been funded exclusively by the U.S. government. He receives no funding from any energy companies." (Emphasis added).

Ross Gelbspan, journalist and author, wrote a 1995 article in Harper's Magazine which was critical of Lindzen and other global warming skeptics. In the article, Gelbspan reports Lindzen charged "oil and coal interests $2,500 a day for his consulting services; [and] his 1991 trip to testify before a Senate committee was paid for by Western Fuels and a speech he wrote, entitled 'Global Warming: the Origin and Nature of Alleged Scientific Consensus,' was underwritten by OPEC."

A decade later Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam reported, based on an interview with Lindzen, that "he accepted $10,000 in expenses and expert witness fees from fossil- fuel types in the 1990s, and has taken none of their money since."

Lindzen's Discarded Global Warming Arguments
An internal document (pdf) of the Global Climate Coalition (GCC) -- an industry front group that disbanded in 2002 -- reviewed some of the "contrarian" arguments used by Lindzen and other climate change skeptics that they later discarded. The document, which was obtained as part of a court action against the automobile industry.

In a section on the "Role of Water Vapor", the GCC's Science and Technical Advisory Committee wrote that "In 1990, Prof Richard Lindzen of MIT argued that the models which were being used to predict greenhouse warming were incorrect because they predicted an increase in water vapor at all levels of the troposphere. Since water vapor is a greenhouse gas, the models predict warming at all levels of the troposphere. However, warming should create convective turbulence, which would lead to more condensation of water vapor (i.e. more rain) and both drying and cooling of the troposphere above 5 km. This negative feedback would act as, a "thermostat" keeping temperatures from rising significantly."

However, the GCC's science advisers noted that this argument had been disproven to the point that Lindzen himself had ceased to use it. "Lindzen's 1990 theory predicted that warmer conditions at.the surface would lead to cooler, drier conditions at the top ofthe troposphere. Studies of the behavior of the troposphere in the tropics fail to find the cooling and drying Lindzen predicted. More recent publications have indicated the possibility that Lindzen's hypothesis may be correct, but the evidence is still weak. While Lindzen remains a critic of climate modeling efforts, his latest publications do not include the convective turbulence argument."

In conclusion the GCC's science advisers was that "Lindzen's hypothesis that any warming would create more rain which would cool and dry the upper troposphere did offer a mechanism for balancing the effect of increased greenhouse gases. However, the data supporting this hypothesis is weak, and even Lindzen has stopped presenting it as an alternative to the conventional model of climate change."

Linzden's Betting Challenge on Global Warming
In November 2004, climate change skeptic Richard Lindzen was quoted saying he'd be willing to bet that the earth's climate will be cooler in 20 years than it is today. When British climate researcher James Annan contacted him, however, Lindzen would only agree to take the bet if Annan offered a 50-to-1 payout. Subsequent offers of a wager were also refused by Pat Michaels, Chip Knappenberger, Piers Corbyn, Myron Ebell, Zbigniew Jaworowski, Sherwood Idso and William Kininmonth. At long last, however, Annan has persuaded Russian solar physicists Galina Mashnich and Vladimir Bashkirtsev to take a $10,000 bet. "There isn't much money in climate science and I'm still looking for that gold watch at retirement," Annan says. "A pay-off would be a nice top-up to my pension."

On Tobacco
In a 2001 profile in Newsweek, journalist Fred Guterl wrote that Lindzen "clearly relishes the role of naysayer. He'll even expound on how weakly lung cancer is linked to cigarette smoking." James Hansen recalls meeting Lindzen whilst testifying before the Vice President's Climate Task Force: "I considered asking Lindzen if he still believed there was no connection between smoking and lung cancer. He had been a witness for tobacco companies decades earlier, questioning the reliability of statistical connections between smoking and health problems. But I decided that would be too confrontational. When I met him at a later conference,  I did ask  that  question, and was surprised by his response: He began rattling off all the problems with the date relating smoking to helath problems, which was closely analagous to  his views of climate data."

Key Quotes by Lindzen

 * "I think it's [concern about global warming] mainly just like little kids locking themselves in dark closets to see how much they can scare each other and themselves."


 * Lindzen told the BBC that ExxonMobil was "the only principled oil and gas company I know in the US" and that "they have a CEO who is not going to be bamboozled by nonsense."


 * "To say that climate change will be catastrophic hides a cascade of value-laden assumptions that do not emerge from empirical science."


 * On the term climate skeptic "Let me explain why I dont like it. You know to be skeptical assumes there is a strong presumptive case, but you have your doubts. I think were dealing with a situation where there's not a strong presumptive case."


 * "There is no substantive basis for predictions of sizeable global warming due to observed increases in minor greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and chlorofluorocarbons." Lindzen speaking at the International Conference on Climate Change (2009).

Affiliations
Lindzen was a member of the Science, Health, and Economic Advisory Council of the Annapolis Center, a Maryland-based think tank which had been funded by corporations including ExxonMobil , but does not appear to have filed a tax return with the IRS since 2007.

He is also on the Academic Advisory Council of the U.K.-based Global Warming Policy Foundation.

Signatory to Letters Opposing Action on Global Warming

 * Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change
 * "Open Letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations", December 13, 2007.

Speaker at events disputing climate change
Lindzen has been a keynote speaker at media events and conferences of a range of think tanks disputing climate change including the Heartland Institute and the Cooler Heads Coalition.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Climate change
 * Climate change sceptics

External resources

 * Lindzen Illusions from SkepticalScience, countering Lindzen's claims; accessed May 2011
 * RealClimate Wiki on Lindzen


 * "Richard S. Lindzen", Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences 9MIT), accessed May 2009.
 * "Richard Lindzen", DeSmogBlog, accessed May 2009.
 * "Factsheet: Richard Lindzen", ExxonSecrets, Greenpeace, accessed May 2009.
 * "Richard Lindzen," Wikipedia.
 * "Lindzen, Richard Siegmund," ISIHighlyCited.com, February 4, 2003.

By Lindzen

 * Richard Lindzen, "Global Warming, The Origin and Nature of the Alleged Scientific Consensus", Regulation, Volume 15, Number 2, 1992.
 * Richard Lindzen, Testimony of Richard S. Lindzen Before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works", May 2, 2001.
 * Richard S. Lindzen, "Scientists' Report Doesn't Support the Kyoto Treaty", Wall Street Journal, June 11 2001.
 * Richard Lindzen, "Dangerous Warming Unlikely, MIT Climatologist Says", Environment & Climate News, November 2004. (This is an edited version of Lindzen's presentation to the Houston Forum on September 9, 2004).
 * Richard Lindzen, "Climate Alarm- Where Does It Come From?", George C. Marshall Institute, December 1, 2004.
 * Richard Lindzen, "Memorandum by Professor Richard S Lindzen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology", Select Committee on Economic Affairs Minutes of Evidence (UK), January 25, 2005.
 * "Examination of Witnesses (Questions 130-139): Professor Richard Lindzen", Select Committee on Economic Affairs Minutes of Evidence, January 25, 2005.
 * "Examination of Witnesses (Questions 140-150): Professor Richard Lindzen", Select Committee on Economic Affairs Minutes of Evidence, January 25, 2005.
 * Richard Lindzen, "Hockey Stick Paradox", CCNet, February 8, 2006.
 * Richard Lindzen, "Climate of Fear: Global-warming alarmists intimidate dissenting scientists into silence",Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2006.
 * Richard Lindzen, "Why So Gloomy?", Newsweek, undated but early 2007.
 * Richard Lindzen, "No Global Warming", Environment & Climate News, Heartland Institute, August 2006.
 * Richard Lindzen, "Climate Alarm: What We Are Up Against, and What to Do", Presentation to the Heartland Institute's International Conference on Climate Change (2009), March 8, 2009. (The video of the subsequent "Questions and Answers" session can be downloaded here).
 * Richard Lindzen, "Climate Science: Is it currently designed to answer questions?", Creativity and Creative Inspiration in Mathematics, Science, and Engineering: Developing a Vision for the Future conference, 29-31 August 2008. The conference was sponsored by Euresis (Associazone per la promozione e la diffusione della cultura e del lavoro scientifico) and the Templeton Foundation and held in San Marino. Lindzen's paper is dated November 29, 2008.
 * Richard Lindzen, "Global Warming & Greentech: Why global warming is unlikely to be a safe area for investment", Presentation at the GoingGreen East conference, Boston, March 11th, 2009. (See here for the video of his presentation)

Videos of Lindzen

 * Richard Lindzen, Presentation to the Second annual International Conference on Climate Change in New York, March 10, 2009.

About Lindzen

 * Ross Gelbspan, "The Heat is On: The warming of the world's climate sparks a blaze of denial," Harper's magazine, December 1995.
 * Fred Guterl, "The Truth About Global Warming: The Forecasts Of Doom Are Mostly Guesswork, Richard Lindzen Argues--And He Has Bush's Ear", Newsweek, July 23, 2001.
 * Daniel Grossman, Dissent in the Maelstrom,"Scientific American, November 2001.
 * Tim Lambert, "'Sound Science' and Climate change", Deltoid (blog), March 6, 2004.
 * Conal Walsh, "'Denial lobby' turns up the heat: The vocal minority sceptical of the threat of global warming are now targeting the UK," Observer, March 6, 2005.
 * Gavin Schmidt, "Richard Lindzen’s HoL testimony", RealClimate, February 14, 2006.
 * "Open Thread on Lindzen Op-Ed in WSJ Group", RealClimate, April 12, 2006
 * Daniel Kirk-Davidoff, [http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/04/lindzen-point-by-point/ "Lindzen: Point by point", RealClimate, April 13, 2006.
 * Tim Lambert, "Richard Lindzen claims global warming stopped in 1998", Deltoid (blog), May 15, 2006.
 * Tim Lambert, "Lindzen in WSJ", Deltoid (blog), June 26, 2006.
 * Jim Hoggan, "Ambiguous scientific statements about climate are hyped by those with a vested interest in alarm", DeSmogBlog October 12, 2006.
 * Richard Lindzen", Logical Science, accessed February 2007.
 * Gavin Schmidt and Michael Mann, "Lindzen in Newsweek", Real Climate, April 17, 2007.
 * Michael Tobis, "Lindzen Diatribe", Only in it for the Gold'' (blog), September 23, 2008.
 * Werner Aeschbach-Hertig, "Politicizing Climate Science", Reality Check, October 4, 2008.