General Controversy

The controversy intensified in 2004 between the two scientists Christopher Landsea and Kevin Trenberth, both working for the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Trenberth was the Lead Author since the 1990’s, believing that global warming was one major factor to the change of behavior of extreme events such as hurricanes. Landsea opposed a more skeptical point of view on this attribution. In 2004, Trenberth participated in a press conference on the topic Experts to warn global warming likely to continue spurring more outbreaks of intense hurricane activity as the Lead Author of the Observation chapter of the IPCC. Landsea protested against the conclusions that Trenberth publicly stated, saying that they did not reflect the diversity of positions within the scientific community. After this brief clash, Landsea decided to withdraw his participation from the IPCC.