Carl Wunsch
Encyclopedia
Carl Wunsch is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physical Oceanography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is known for his early work in internal waves and more recently for research into the effects of ocean circulation on climate
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at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1966. He began teaching there in 1967, achieving tenure in 1970, and was named Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physical Oceanography in 1976.
he has said:
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He was one of the scientists interviewed in the documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle
but says his: discussion was grossly distorted by context... My appearance in the "Global Warming Swindle" is deeply embarrassing, and my professional reputation has been damaged. I was duped http://ocean.mit.edu/~cwunsch/CHANNEL4.html. He has also said: Durkin says that I reacted to the way the film portrayed me because of pressure from my colleagues. This is completely false. I did hear almost immediately from colleagues in the UK who saw the film who didn't berate me. They simply said, "This doesn't sound like you, this seems to be distorting your views, you better have a look at this". And having had a look at what they did with my comments in the film out of context and cutting away many of the important things that I thought were important that dealt with the science of it, it was a complete distortion of what I had told Durkin I believed. http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s1977366.htm
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
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Career
Wunsch received his Ph. D. in GeophysicsGeophysics
Geophysics is the physics of the Earth and its environment in space; also the study of the Earth using quantitative physical methods. The term geophysics sometimes refers only to the geological applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational and magnetic fields; its internal structure and...
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1966. He began teaching there in 1967, achieving tenure in 1970, and was named Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physical Oceanography in 1976.
Climate change
On the subject of global warmingGlobal warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
he has said:
- Thus at bottom, it is very difficult to separate human induced change from natural change, certainly not with the confidence we all seek. In these circumstances, it is essential to remember that the inability to prove human-induced change is not the same thing as a demonstration of its absence. It is probably true that most scientists would assign a very high probability that human-induced change is already strongly present in the climate system, while at the same time agreeing that clear-cut proof is not now available and may not be available for a long-time to come, if ever. Public policy has to be made on the basis of probabilities, not firm proof. http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=4688&tip=1
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- I believe that climate change is real, a major threat, and almost surely has a major human-induced component. But I have tried to stay out of the climate wars because all nuance tends to be lost, and the distinction between what we know firmly, as scientists, and what we suspect is happening, is so difficult to maintain in the presence of rhetorical excess. In the long run, our credibility as scientists rests on being very careful of, and protective of, our authority and expertise... I am on record in a number of places as complaining about the over-dramatization and unwarranted extrapolation of scientific facts. Thus the notion that the Gulf Stream would or could "shut off" or that with global warming Britain would go into a "new ice age" are either scientifically impossible or so unlikely as to threaten our credibility as a scientific discipline if we proclaim their reality http://ocean.mit.edu/~cwunsch/papersonline/responseto_channel4.htm
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- Climate change is arguably one of the most complicated of all scientific problems, because it involves the changing atmosphere, the changing ocean, the changing land, the ice, the biology on both land and sea, possible changes in the sun and anybody who tells you they know what is going to happen 20 years from now, 100 years from now, is not a good scientist, because the science can only say at this stage there's certain possibilities that we are aware of. They are possibilities that we think society should take very seriously and try to decide how it is going to deal with them if they come about. That's quite different from my saying that I know the ice sheets are going to melt in the next 50 years. I don't know that, it's a possibility and something to worry about, but my credibility, the credibility of my colleagues is completely lost when people are broadcast saying, "I know that carbon dioxide is not changing the world," or, "I know the ice sheet will melt". This destroys the science in the long run. http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s1977366.htm
He was one of the scientists interviewed in the documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle
The Great Global Warming Swindle
The Great Global Warming Swindle is a polemical documentary film that suggests that the scientific opinion on climate change is influenced by funding and political factors, and questions whether scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming exists....
but says his: discussion was grossly distorted by context... My appearance in the "Global Warming Swindle" is deeply embarrassing, and my professional reputation has been damaged. I was duped http://ocean.mit.edu/~cwunsch/CHANNEL4.html. He has also said: Durkin says that I reacted to the way the film portrayed me because of pressure from my colleagues. This is completely false. I did hear almost immediately from colleagues in the UK who saw the film who didn't berate me. They simply said, "This doesn't sound like you, this seems to be distorting your views, you better have a look at this". And having had a look at what they did with my comments in the film out of context and cutting away many of the important things that I thought were important that dealt with the science of it, it was a complete distortion of what I had told Durkin I believed. http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s1977366.htm
Selected honors
- Member, National Academy of SciencesUnited States National Academy of SciencesThe National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, 1978 - Fellow, American Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesThe American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
, 1979 - Fulbright Scholar, 1981-1982
- Maurice Ewing MedalMaurice Ewing MedalThe Maurice Ewing Medal is awarded by the American Geophysical Union for "significant original contributions to the understanding of physical, geophysical, and geological processes in the ocean; to those who advance oceanographic engineering, technology, and instrumentation; and to those who...
, American Geophysical UnionAmerican Geophysical UnionThe American Geophysical Union is a nonprofit organization of geophysicists, consisting of over 50,000 members from over 135 countries. AGU's activities are focused on the organization and dissemination of scientific information in the interdisciplinary and international field of geophysics...
and U.S. Navy, 1990 - Henry Stommel Research AwardHenry Stommel Research AwardThe Henry Stommel Research Award is awarded by the American Meteorological Society to researchers in recognition of outstanding contributions to the advancement of the understanding of the dynamics and physics of the ocean. The award is in the form of a medallion and was named for Henry...
, American Meteorological SocietyAmerican Meteorological SocietyThe American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
, 2000 - Foreign Member, Royal Society of London, 2002
- William Bowie MedalWilliam Bowie MedalThe William Bowie Medal is awarded annually by the American Geophysical Union for 'outstanding contributions to fundamental geophysics and for unselfish cooperation in research"...
, American Geophysical Union, 2006
Selected publications
- Carl Wunsch, Discrete Inverse and State Estimation Problems, 2006. ISBN 0521854245
- Carl Wunsch, The Ocean Circulation Inverse Problem, 1996. ISBN 0521480906
- Walter Munk, Peter Worcester, and Carl Wunsch, Ocean Acoustic Tomography, Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN 0521470951