ATEMENT OF DR. V. (RAM) RAMANATHAN, SCRIPPS
INSTITUTE OF OCEANOGRAPHY
AMANATHAN. Honorable Chairman, and honorable members
committee, I consider it a great privilege to participate in
portant hearing. My written testimony focuses on the
of greenhouse effect on global warming.
CHAIRMAN. It will be entered into the record.
AMANATHAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I must confess one would like to add there is that I am what you would call cal basket case two-handed scientist, so you must bear with
CHAIRMAN. The record will note.
AMANATHAN. When I present both sides of the issue I would
irectly like to go to the issue which was raised here, which
e theory wrong, and I believe the question should be more,
he theory is wrong, but the issue is, have we exaggerated
ct, number 1, and second is what else are we changing
ay have compensated for some of the greenhouse effect?
this issue, it is my personal opinion it is best to separate
blem into two subcomponents. The first one is the green-
ffect, and the second is the global warming that results
e greenhouse effect.
der to understand the greenhouse effect, let us ask, or take
hor, which is how does a blanket keep us warm on a cold
The blanket simply reduces the loss of the body heat to the
nvironment. Likewise, there are certain gases in the atmos-
hat surround the planet like a blanket and reduce the heat
n the planet which would otherwise escape to space.
ond point, there is a large natural greenhouse effect pro-
water vapor, the dominant greenhouse effect, carbon diox-
clouds. This is an observed fact, and we know from cyclic
ements that these greenhouse constituents reduces the heat
g into space by about 40 percent. We know this figure.
ond point, the human activities are simply adding to this
tural greenhouse effect. In other words, this blanket is po-
is a leaky blanket, and we are simply making the blanket
ous by adding the gases. So in other words, a logical deduc-
m the observations and all of the physical laws we know,
say with quite a degree of confidence a buildup of the
use gases would enhance the greenhouse effect.
econd question, then, is how would the planet respond?
ve can say with a fair degree of confidence that the planet
m if the enhanced greenhouse effect is not offset by other
ating human activities. This is the on the one hand, on the
and business, just like a thicker blanket or a less porous
would keep us warmer in our bedroom if other factors are
-ed.
, we are fairly secure in our knowledge, in our understandin our deductions how we make the statement an enhancethe greenhouse effect will cause a global warming, but this