Yuri A. Izrael (born 1930 in
Russia) is a vice-chairman of the
Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He is the "most influential
scientific adviser" for
Vladimir
Putin, the president of Russia, according to
CNN.
Izrael is a former chairman of the Committee for Hydrometeorology.
He also
served as director of the Institute of Global Climate and Ecology,
which is apart of the Russian Academy of Sciences
. He was a former first vice-president of the
World Meteorological
Organization and helped develop
World Weather Watch.
In 1992, Izrael won the
UNEP Sasakawa
Environment Prize for, among other accomplishments, contributing to
the "success of Working Group I I" of the IPCC.
Views on the Kyoto Protocol
Izrael believes the
Kyoto Protocol,
an international treaty aimed at reducing global
greenhouse gas emissions, is not
scientifically supported and damaging for the Russian economy,
stating, "the Kyoto Protocol is overly expensive, ineffective and
based on bad science."
Views on global warming
Izrael has stated, "climate change is obvious, but science has not
yet been able to identify the causes of it," and, "there is no
proven link between human activity and global warming." This seems
to contrast the
IPCC conclusion
that "most of the observed increase in globally averaged
temperatures since the mid-20th century is
very likely
[confidence level >90%] due to the observed increase in
anthropogenic [human] greenhouse gas concentrations."
Izrael agrees with the IPCC predictions for future climate change,
stating, "Global temperatures will likely rise by 1.4-5.8 degrees
during the next 100 years. The average increase will be three
degrees. I do not think that this threatens mankind. Sea levels,
due to rise by 47 cm in the 21st century, will not threaten port
cities." He also states, "I think the panic over global warming is
totally unjustified. There is no serious threat to the climate,"
and, "There is no need to dramatize the anthropogenic impact,
because the climate has always been subject to change under
Nature's influence, even when humanity did not even exist."
Additionally, he does not believe the 0.6 °
C (1.08 °
F) rise in
temperature observed in the last 100 years is a threat, stating,
"there is no scientifically sound evidence of the negative
processes that allegedly begin to take place at such
temperatures."
Instead of decreasing
carbon dioxide,
he argues, aerosol injections in to the stratosphere would be a
more effective way to
mitigate global warming. He
appears to favor adaption over mitigation, arguing, "The people of
Bangladesh, who live at sea level, may face problems if the Indian
Ocean rises. Still, their resettlement would be much cheaper than
projected Kyoto Protocol expenses."
Criticism
Izrael was
chairman of the State Committee on Hydrometeorology
(Goskomgidromet) at the time of the Chernobyl
nuclear accident
. Following the accident he was widely
criticized for slow and inaccurate monitoring.
He was also criticized
for allowing air pollution throughout the USSR
to reach
unprecedented levels. In a 2004 article published in
Nature, Quirin Schiermeier
and Bryon MacWilliams referred to him as a "fossil communist
fighting for fossil fuel."
See also
References
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