Hudson

As the U.S. Navy's former top expert on man-made climate change, retired Rear Adm. David Titley says he deals in evidence, not belief.

"I tell people this is basic science. And that people from all around the world are coming to the came conclusion," said Titley, a Schenectady native who headed up the Navy's Task Force on Climate Change. During his 32-year military career, he was also the Navy's chief oceanographer, responsible for tracking science on global oceans.

On Friday, Titley will be giving a presentation in Hudson about current global scientific consensus that greenhouse gas emissions, released by the combustion of fossil fuels, are increasing global temperatures and altering the climate and the chemistry of the oceans. Sponsored by Citizens Climate Education, the event is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Hudson High School, 215 Harry Howard Ave., Hudson.

Titley has testified before the U.S. Congress about climate change science, and he has seen first-hand the partisan divide over whether climate change is even real. "We are at a place where ideology trumps facts. The whole thing is about politics now," he said. "But the ice doesn't care. It just keeps melting."

Climate deniers who claim that thousands of scientists are engaging in a global fraud are "one step way from a conspiracy theory" that is too fantastical to be even feasible, he added.

"Think about it. We have an administration that could not roll out a proper health care website. You think they can manage a global scientific conspiracy? They could not do it if they wanted to," said Titley, who also holds a doctorate in meteorology. And he scoffed at the idea that scientists are deliberately lying about climate change just to obtain short-term research grants.

When he headed the Navy's climate change task force, the group looked at issues like rising sea levels, which is one outcome of global warming. Naval bases around the world will be affected and planners have to be ready for it, he said.

In his new job as director of Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk at Penn State University, he has "written more than a few grant requests over the years, and let me tell you, it is a pain in the ass. And you can print that," he said. "There would be multiple Nobel prizes for any scientists who could disprove climate change science. There is every incentive for scientists to disprove the status quo. But the actual physics does not allow that."

Part of being a military officer is having an understanding of an opponent. Climate change deniers have imposed a political price on Republicans who might be inclined to accept science, said Titley, who points to former GOP South Carolina Congressman Bob Inglis, a six-term incumbent who lost his seat to a Tea Party-backed candidate after he said climate change was real.

"Who wants to be the next Bob Inglis?" said Titley. He said the issue of climate change goes against a basic tenant of anti-government conservatives, because it is an example of problem that the industry has shown itself incapable of solving.

"This takes a big government solution. And if you are conservative, that is anathema. So the science is just a proxy argument that is used to disengage from the issue," said Titley. "And no doubt, there has been a lot of money put into this campaign to cast doubt on the science. This is certainly a component."

Titley's presentation in Hudson is entitled "Climate Change and National Security: People not Polar Bears." In it, he said he will discuss "multiple, independent lines of evidence," the history of climate change as seen within the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Navy, and challenges to national security that arise from climate change and in particular, the associated changes in the Arctic.

"We know enough to take significant action now, even if we don't know every detail about the future," he said. "We will figure this out. We did not get out of Stone Age because we ran out of stones. We just found something better."

bnearing@timesunion.com • 518-454-5094 • @Bnearing10