What is Climate Sensitivity?

What is climate sensitivity and why is it so important? Michael E. Mann and Stefan Rahmstorf answer the question. Michael E. Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State University and director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center (ESSC). Mann received his Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics from Yale University. His research involves use of theoretical models and observational data to better understand Earth’s climate system. He was a Lead Author on the Observed Climate Variability and Change chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Scientific Assessment Report in 2001 and has received a number of honors including NOAA’s outstanding publication award in 2002, the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union in 2012 and the National Conservation Achievement Award for science by the National Wildlife Federation in 2013. He also contributed, with other IPCC authors, to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He made Bloomberg News list of fifty most influential people in 2013. Dr. Mann is author of more than 190 peer-reviewed publications and has published the books Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change and The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines. He co-founded the award-winning science website RealClimate.org. Stefan Rahmstorf obtained his PhD in oceanography at Victoria University of Wellington in 1990. He has worked as a scientist at the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute, at the Institute of Marine Science in Kiel and since 1996 at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. His work focuses on the role of the oceans in climate change. In 1999 Rahmstorf was awarded the $ 1 million Centennial Fellowship Award of the US-based James S. McDonnell foundation. Since 2000 he teaches Physics of the Oceans as a professor at Potsdam University. Rahmstorf served from 2004–2013 in the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) and was one of the lead authors of the 4th IPCC Assessment Report. Dr. Rahmstorf has published over 100 scientific papers (30 in leading journals such as Nature, Science and PNAS) and co-authored four books. Available in English are Our Threatened Oceans (2009, with Katherine Richardson) and The Climate Crisis (2010, with David Archer).