ASA Endorses Conclusions of UN IPCC
Climate Change Report
Ron Wasserstein, ASA Executive Director, and Rosanne Desmone, ASA Public Relations Specialist
T
he Board of Directors of the American Statistical Association released a
statement on climate change, including an endorsement of the conclu-
sions of the Fourth Assessment Report of the UN Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change. Recommendations of prominent statisticians and
climatologists who participated in an ASA-sponsored workshop in October were
key to the endorsement. In its support, the ASA joins more than 100 countries
and numerous scientists in the climate change community.
“The importance of the study of global climate change, and the role
of statistics and statisticians in this research, cannot be overstated,” said
2007 ASA President Mary Ellen Bock. According to ASA member David
Marker, who presented the results of the ASA-sponsored workshop on
statistics in global climate change, “the board of the ASA has taken a clear
stand on a topic of critical importance.”
The board recommended greater involvement of statisticians in both
the IPCC and the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, in addition to
the “already extensive and healthy collaboration between statisticians and
scientists in basic research on climate change.” The board’s statement cites
several areas, identified by the ASA workshop, in which statistical science
can make a contribution to ongoing research.
Below is the complete statement of the ASA board. The statement also can
be downloaded from
www.amstat.org/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=climatechange.
American Statistical Association (ASA)
Statement on Climate Change
Adopted 11-30-07, ASA Board of Directors
The American Statistical Association ture in the geosciences and related dis- Over the course of four assessment
(ASA) recently convened a workshop of ciplines as it relates to climate change. reports, a small number of statisticians
leading atmospheric scientists and The Fourth Assessment Report finds have served as authors or reviewers.
statisticians involved in climate change that “Warming of the climate system Although this involvement is encourag-
research. The goal of this workshop was is unequivocal, as is now evident from ing, it does not represent the full range
to identify a consensus on the role of sta- observations of increases in global aver- of statistical expertise available. ASA
tistical science in current assessments of age air and ocean temperatures, wide- recommends that more statisticians
global warming and its impacts. Of par- spread melting of snow and ice, and should become part of the IPCC pro-
ticular interest to this workshop was the rising mean sea level. … Most of the cess. Such participation would be
recently published Fourth Assessment observed increase in globally averaged mutually beneficial to the assessment
Report of the United Nations’ temperatures since the mid-20th cen- of climate change and its impacts and
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate tury is very likely due to the observed also to the statistical community.
Change (IPCC), endorsed by more than increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas The US government’s Climate Change
100 governments and drawing on the concentrations. … Discernible human Science Program (CCSP) is in the pro-
expertise of a large portion of the climate influences now extend to other aspects of cess of producing a set of 21 Synthesis
science community. climate, including ocean warming, con- and Assessment reports on many dif-
Through a series of meetings span- tinental-average temperatures, tempera- ferent aspects of climate change. Some
ning several years, IPCC drew in leading ture extremes, and wind patterns The statisticians have been appointed mem-
experts and assessed the relevant litera- ASA endorses the IPCC conclusions. bers of CCSP committees or reviewers
6 AMSTAT NEWS JANUARY 2008
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