“Carbon dioxide emitted from your tailpipe today could last in the atmosphere for centuries,” said Dr. Richard Somerville, distinguished professor emeritus and research professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Somerville’s comments came during the first lecture of the California Western School of Law-UC San Diego 2011-2012 Speaker Series: “From Climate Change to Global Sustainability: The Great Transition.”

Somerville encouraged California Western students to use their understanding of the law to create policies aimed at reducing fossil fuel emissions. 

“The world is warming, there’s no doubt about that, and we have strong evidence the warming is human caused,” said Somerville.

Somerville also said scientists need to do a better job of informing the public about the harmful effects of climate change. “I encourage scientists to become policy advocates as long as they keep their research objective and independent of their personal views,” he told students and guests.

Somerville said scientists are reticent to advocate for policies aimed at reducing climate change because they don’t want to jeopardize their academic careers. He went on to add that 97 to 98 percent of actively publishing climate researchers believe the increase in global temperatures is caused by human activities.

Somerville compared the rhetoric denouncing the science of climate change to past efforts to discredit the science showing the harmful health effects of smoking tobacco, as described in the book Merchants of Doubt.

In addition to the scientific community, Somerville challenged journalists to do a better job of covering the issue of climate change. He says the media’s efforts to tell the story objectively are giving climate change deniers a platform to espouse incorrect information.

“The issue of false balance [in the media] creates the illusion of controversy when there isn’t one,” said Somerville.

Dr. Richard Somerville
Dr. Richard Somerville is Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Research Professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. He formally retired in 2007, but remains active in research, education and outreach. He has received numerous awards for both his research and his popular book, The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change.

His honors include election as a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Meteorological Society. Somerville was a Coordinating Lead Author for the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.