Abstract
The nature of the climate system is reviewed. We then review the history of scientific approaches to major problems in climate, noting that the centrality of the contribution of carbon dioxide is relatively recent, and probably inappropriate to much of the Earth’s climate history. The weakness of characterizing the overall climate behavior using only one physical process, globally averaged radiative forcing, is illustrated by considering the role of an equally well-known process, meridional heat transport by hydrodynamic processes which, by changing the equator-to-pole temperature difference, also impact global mean temperature.
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17 May 2021
An Erratum to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-021-01474-0
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William Nierenberg.
Lennard Bengtsson.
Aksel Wiin-Nielsen.
Hubert Lamb.
Basil John Mason.
Frederick Seitz.
Mikhail Budyko, Yuri Izrael and Kiril Kondratiev.
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The author’s research is currently completely self-funded, though prior to 2009, there was support from the Department of Energy.
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Lindzen, R.S. An oversimplified picture of the climate behavior based on a single process can lead to distorted conclusions. Eur. Phys. J. Plus 135, 462 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-020-00471-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-020-00471-z