'The Role of Clouds in Climate Change', October 7, 1991 United States Senate Hearing on 'Water Vapor and the Climate System'

"The Role of Clouds in Climate Change", statement by Alan K. Betts, October 7, 1991 to the Senate Hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate on "Global Change Research: Water Vapor and the Climate System"

The pdf is the full transcript of this hearing, chaired by Senator Al Gore; including prepared statements by:

Albert Arking, Alan K. Betts, Robert Cess, Robert Charlson, Michael Hall, Richard S. Lindzen, V. Ramanathan, William B. Rossow, Shelby Tilford, Col. Robert Townsend and Kevin Trenberth

as well as the lengthy discussion that followed, which clarified several issues.

Comment by AKB (6/26/2010).

This hearing is an interesting snapshot of scientific opinion on the climate change issue in 1991. Speakers were invited to presenting a range of opinions. I was invited to present a counter argument to the negative feedback mechanism (upper tropospheric drying by deep convective clouds in the tropics) proposed by Lindzen at that time.

My prepared statement is P33-37; Lindzen's is P14-20. The general discussion starts on P50. The discussion of Lindzen's hypothesis is mostly P64-76; with Lindzen formally withdrawing his hypothesis on P68 - which was news to Gore.

My comments on policy are on P84-85.

Related Topics

• Climate,
• Clouds,
• Convection,
• POLICY