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The online Schleswig Holstein Zeitung (SHZ) here features an interview with prominent IPCC climate scientist Professor Hans von Storch titled: A climate scientist against the spread of panic.

Hans von Storch also runs the respected Klimazwiebel blog and has at one time or another harshly criticized both sides of the climate debate. See yesterday’s NTZ story here.

Climate science losing its credibility

In the SHZ interview, the introduction writes as follows with regards to extreme weather events:

Climate scientists Hans von Storch, Director of the Helmholtz Center for Coastal Research in Geeshacht, fears that all of climate science will lose its credibility if panic keeps being spread.”

Haiyun no record storm

On whether Haiyun is a wake-up call for policymakers, von Storch reminds us that “extreme events are all part of normal weather” and that Haiyan was no record storm and that there has been no unusual increased frequency in the region over the last years. This storm can hardly be understood as a sign of man-made climate change.”

Models may have underestimated natural factors

On the models inadequate performance over the last 15 years, von Storch believes that the models may have underestimated natural factors like the sun, or that CO2 has been overrated. But he also says he sees no reason to discard the models altogether.

Acid rain scientists lost much of their credibility

Later in the interview von Storch gives his opinion on the acid-rain forest-die-off scare of the 1980s. He thinks that because of the unwarranted hysteria, few people today listen at all to forest scientists, and that he would prefer that “climate science should not become a Greenpeace arm of the government.”

Some scientists think they are keepers of the truth

Next the SHZ asks von Storch how it can be that some of his colleagues have succumbed to panic spreading. Hans von Storch:

We can think of other people in the 20th century who felt compelled to create a better world and who thought they were the keepers of a higher truth. In our case there are some that think they can derive this privilege from the scientific. Improving the world and people here mostly end up on the wayside. I don’t believe this is the majority of climate scientists. There are a few especially visible climate scientists who are pushing such thoughts.”

Some climate scientists are abusing climate science

Hans von Storch then adds that he feels that “us scientists have to take the subject seriously and not to abuse it as a vehicle for fundamental world and population improvement.”

Fracking as an “effective bridge technology”

At the end of the interview, Hans von Storch offers some support for fracking, citing the USA’s fracking for natural gas, which he says has made a considerable contribution to “decreasing the US CO2 emissions” and calls it an effective bridge technology.

In Germany this measure is being almost unanimously rejected – obviously decreasing CO2 is ‘good’ only under certain conditions”.

In summary, more harsh criticism and even words of warning from Hans von Storch aimed at alarmist scientists and the overzealous policymakers who feel compelled to rush through a fundamental transformation of global society in a fit of panic.

Photo Hans von Storch: www.hzg.de/institute/coastal_research.en