MIT Club of Southwest Florida

Richard Lindzen's Talk, Naples, FL, March 24, 2008 (pdf file, 50 pages, 2MB)

This Web page contains a biography of Lindzen and publications and material by him and by other authors and groups. It also includes streaming video of various talks on the subject. The material is both pro and con - an attempt to be "fair and balanced". Scroll down to the bottom of this page to view the links. Additional material will be added from from time to time to try to keep it current.

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Professor Richard Lindzen

Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences

Professor Lindzen is a dynamical meteorologist with interests in the broad topics of climate, planetary waves, monsoon meteorology, planetary atmospheres, and hydrodynamic instability. His research involves studies of the role of the tropics in mid-latitude weather and global heat transport, the moisture budget and its role in global change, the origins of ice ages, seasonal effects in atmospheric transport, stratospheric waves, and the observational determination of climate sensitivity. He has made major contributions to the development of the current theory for the Hadley Circulation, which dominates the atmospheric transport of heat and momentum from the tropics to higher latitudes, and has advanced the understanding of the role of small scale gravity waves in producing the reversal of global temperature gradients at the mesopause.

He pioneered the study of how ozone photochemistry, radiative transfer and dynamics interact with each other. He is currently studying the ways in which unstable eddies determine the pole to equator temperature difference, and the nonlinear equilibration of baroclinic instability and the contribution of such instabilities to global heat transport. In the past few years, he has been studying the influence of temperature on cumulus convection and its role in generating cirrus decks. The results so far strongly suggest a powerful negative feedback in climate.

He has developed models for the Earth's climate with specific concern for the stability of the ice caps, the sensitivity to increases in CO₂, the origin of the 100,000 year cycle in glaciation, and the maintenance of regional variations in climate.

Prof. Lindzen is a recipient of the AMS's Meisinger, and Charney Awards, and the AGU's Macelwane Medal. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the AAAS. (Ph.D., '64, S.M., '61, A.B., '60, Harvard University)

Related links

• Prof. Lindzen's publications
  • Professional publications
  • Op-ed articles
    • Global Warming Fears Overblown, Newsweek, April 16, 2007.
    • Don't Believe the Hype, Wall Street Journal, July 2, 2006.
    • Climate of Fear, Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2006.
• Wikipedia Article on Prof. Lindzen
• A Climate of Alarm (Edwin Cartlidge, Physics World, February 1, 2007. An interview with Prof. Lindzen)
• Organizations and Institutions
  • IPPC Web site (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)
  • The Met Office Hadley Centre provides a focus in the UK for the scientific issues associated with climate change
  • Confronting Climate Change (February 27, 2007;The United Nations Foundation and Sigma Xi)
• Video
  • Ford Hall Forum (April 22, 2007; "Is Global Warming a Cause For Alarm?", R. Lindzen)
  • MIT World
    • MIT World (June 15, 2006, "Climate and Energy: Uncertainties in Forecasts and the Problems of Scale", Ronald G. Prinn)
    • MIT World (April 25, 2007; "Uncertainties in Climate Forecasts: Causes, Magnitudes and Policy Implications", Stephen H. Schneider)
    • MIT World (October 9, 2007, "Anthropogenic Climate Change: Science, Economics and Policy", Ronald G. Prinn)
    • MIT World (November 19, 2007, "Climate Change: The Economics of and Prospects for a Global Deal", Nicholas Stern)
    • Additional MIT World Videos (Climate change and energy policy)
  • Harvard University Institute of Politics (IOP); Harvard doesn't tag the dates of the videos.
    • Science of Climate Change
    • Global Climate Change, The Environment, and Energy: The Bush Administrations Policy
    • Global Climate Change and Economics Policy
    • Additional IOP Videos
• Op-ed Articles and Columns
  • Global Warming Delusions (WSJ, October 17, 2007; Daniel B. Botkin)
  • My Nobel Moment (WSJ, November 1, 2007; John R. Christy)
  • MIT's inconvenient scientist Boston Globe, August 30, 2006; Alex Beam)