Ad Hoc Committee on Global Climate Issues: Annual Report¹

Lee C. Gerhard² and Bernold M. "Bruno" Hanson,³ Co-chairs

©Copyright 2000. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.
¹Manuscript received October 18, 1999; revised manuscript received October 29, 1999; final acceptance October 29, 1999.
²Kansas Geological Survey, 1930 Constant Avenue, Lawrence, Kansas 66047-3724; e-mail: [email protected]
³Independent, P.O. Drawer 1269, Midland, Texas 79702-1269.
Committee members who have contributed to this report: Lee C. Gerhard, co-chair; Bernold M. Hanson, co-chair; committee members: Roy D. Adams, John P. Bluemle, William L. Fisher, David Jenkins, Michael S. Johnson, Alfred H. Pekarek, E. A. Shinn, Douglas B. Swift, Don Wilde.

ABSTRACT

The AAPG Ad Hoc Committee on Global Climate Issues has studied the supposition of human-induced climate change since the committee's inception in January 1998. This paper details the progress and findings of the committee through June 1999. At that time there had been essentially no geologic input into the global climate change debate. The following statements reflect the current state of climate knowledge from the geologic perspective as interpreted by the majority of the committee membership. The committee recognizes that new data could change its conclusions. The earth's climate is constantly changing owing to natural variability in earth processes. Natural climate variability over recent geological time is greater than reasonable estimates of potential human-induced greenhouse gas changes. Because no tool is available to test the supposition of human-induced climate change and the range of natural variability is so great, there is no discernible human influence on global climate at this time.