Climate research must shift focus to natural causes says Res. Council of Norway, away from well financed 'political needs regarding science results'

"Surprisingly, the worldwide scientific effort to increase our understanding of the natural variations is very limited."

June 25, 2012, "Research Council Of Norway Recommendation: More Research On Natural Causes Of Climate Change!," P. Gosselin, NoTricksZone

"This just released prestigious report is not going to please the IPCC scientists. It calls for a profound change of course in climate research."...[text at this site same as link in case link below is temporarily not working]

June 2012, "Norwegian climate research An evaluation," The Research Council of Norway, (PDF-2 114.2 KB). (See item listed on right side of page).

page 22, "2.1.1.6 Future directions"

"For the research groups evaluated, the main motivation is to better understand the physical processes of the complex climate system. During the last decade, Norway has invested major resources in the research field and important results have been achieved. This has given Norway a prominent international position, in particular in relation to the IPCC. The building and developing of Norwegian climate and Earth system models and the development of climate services gives Norway a unique opportunity as a nation to tackle climate change related challenges.

Although the expressed political needs regarding science results primarily relate to the impact of anthropogenic greenhouse gasses, there is also a need for increased research on the impact of human activity on land cover and land-use change, especially in relation to the albedo and the biogeochemical and hydrological cycles.

Furthermore, a good understanding of the system cannot be reached without a dedicated effort to understand the contribution to
climate change from natural climate processes. The geological history very clearly documents a strong climate forcing associated with solar variability, although the exact mechanism has not been identified. This should call for a coherent international effort, but surprisingly, the worldwide scientific effort to increase our understanding of the natural variations

is very limited,

and this is most probably related to the limited funding available for basic,

not agenda-driven research.

Therefore, in addition to implementing the recommendations of
Klima21, this committee recommends an increased effort in research on the natural causes of climate change, in particular the activity variations of the sun, the mechanism of cloud formation, and the multi-decadal variations in ocean current systems.

2.1.1.7 Summary of key findings

Largely funded by RCN, Norway has developed internationally recognised top competency in many of the scientific disciplines that are necessary for understanding current climate and its development. In particular, the numerical comprehensive climate and Earth system models are highly regarded.

Less effort has been devoted to studying and explaining the natural causes of
climate change because these have been regarded as having a relatively minor impact on the
climate system and global temperature compared with the effect of man-made greenhouse
gasses. In setting priorities, Norwegian climate research is in harmony with the mainstream of
international climate science, but, taking into account the strong competencies in a wide spectrum of disciplines, an increased effort to understand

• the basic natural climate processes

• could be advantageous for Norwegian climate research."...

Via 6/25/12, "Research Council Of Norway Recommendation: More Research On Natural Causes Of Climate Change!" P. Gosselin, via Tom Nelson