Summary: On the latest episode of Power Hour---the monthly Internet Radio Show where I interview today's top energy experts to discuss today's top energy issues--I talk to leading climate scientist Dr. Richard Lindzen. Today's discussion of energy policy is dominated by the claim that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are warming up the planet, with catastrophic results on the climate. We're told that this is a matter of consensus among all the top scientists, and that the time for debate is over--it's time for action. Power Hour is a show based on the idea that to draw the right conclusions for action, you first need to be informed. And in my opinion the time for debate is certainly not over because the vast, vast majority of us don't even know what the debate is about, let alone what has been proven and what hasn't, let alone what the action implications are. That's why I decided to do this episode on climate science and climate change. One reason I brought on Dr. Lindzen in particular is that even though he is an extremely prestigious scientist, he doesn't count on that prestige when he explains issues---in fact, he is very critical of the phenomenon of people taking the pronouncements of climate scientists on faith. The purpose of this episode is not to definitively establish how much CO2 is impacting the climate. Rather, it's to get a more objective idea of where the field of climate science actually is in answering that question. Is it really known that man-made CO2 is leading to catastrophic consequences, as many prominent figures claim? Is it really known that man-made CO2 is having only benign consequences, as other prominent figures claim? Listen to the show to hear Dr. Lindzen's intriguing views on these and many other issues. For more on this episode of Power Hour, and to be notified of future episodes, sign up for my free monthly newsletter ("Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Energy") here. (By the way, if you want an easy way to fit Power Hour into your schedule, download it to your MP3 player and listen to it during your commute.) Download an MP3 of this episode. Subscribe to Power Hour on iTunes: http://itun.es/iFK42H Subscribe to Power Hour for other podcast programs: http://feeds.feedburner.com/PowerHourWithAlexEpstein Image: Wikimedia Commons
