Disparagement of Climate Change Research: A Double Wrong - Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability - page 164

occasion fabricating evidence in order to support controversial theories.
Misrepresentation and obfuscation have also been brought into play to undermine
the importance of research results and damage the reputation of respected scholars.
Climate change research is a salient example. Distortion of research results is a
serious misdemeanour; denial of the reality of climate science is unethical on two
counts: without clear contrary evidence, it debases the reputation of scientifi c
research, while it is prejudicial to the future of the natural world.
Climate change threatens to be much more than an inconvenience. There is a
moral imperative in limiting the rising amounts of atmospheric gas which trap an
increasing amount of heat in the lower part of the atmosphere, the troposphere. On
the other hand, the upper atmosphere (the stratosphere), which is regarded as ending
at approximately 50 km above the earth's surface, has cooled due to a reduced heat
fl ow through the tropopause (the boundary between the two, where the air ceases to
cool with height). If the heat of the sun was the cause of global warming, the tem-
perature would rise throughout the entire atmosphere. The IPCC confi rms that the
warming of the troposphere alone is a clear indication that the activities of human-
kind are giving rise to climate change.
The 2013 Summary for Policymakers of the report of Working Group I, the
Physical Science Basis (IPCC 2013 ), published on 30 September 2013 in anticipa-
tion of the full fi fth series of Assessment Reports expected in 2014 expresses it as
follows:
It is virtually certain that globally the troposphere has warmed since the mid-20th century
… It is very likely that anthropogenic infl uence, particularly greenhouse gases and strato-
spheric ozone depletion, has led to a detectable observed pattern of tropospheric warming
and a corresponding cooling in the lower stratosphere since 1961 (IPCC 2007a ). (IPCC
WGIAR5 SMP: B2, D3 2013 )

and in the Fourth Assessment Report (WGIAR4):
Radiosonde-based 1 observations (with near global coverage since 1958) and satellite-based
temperature measurements (beginning in late 1978) show warming trends in the tropo-
sphere and cooling trends in the stratosphere. (IPCC, Working Group I, 2007c : 9.4.4)

The 'standard' view of climate change has come to be defi ned by these Assessment
Reports. The IPCC is the leading international body for the assessment of climate
change, established in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Thousands of climate
scientists and researchers contribute to the fi ndings. As the IPCC reports are intended
to inform policymakers in the fi rst place, experts from non-environmental disci-
plines also participate, addressing the economic and political implications. For
instance, the Synthesis Report of the forthcoming Fifth Assessment is expected to
contain chapters on the 'Economics of Adaptation' and on 'Cross-cutting Investment
and Finance Issues'.

1 Radiosonde: small, expendable instrument package, suspended 25 m (about 80 ft) below a large