NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt: denying climate change is wishful thinking

NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt is one of the world's most recognized climatologists — but he says, he's tired of hearing from sceptics who still deny climate change is occurring.

"I would wish this wasn't happening. I wish it was all a mistake and it was all some sort of conspiracy driven by vegetarian-socialists, but it's not," he told The Early Edition's Rick Cluff.

The director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Schmidt says those who deny the science behind climate change are just wishful thinkers.

Schmidt already spoke at the TED Vancouver 2014 Conference — now he's getting ready to give two free lectures in Victoria on Wednesday and Vancouver on Thursday.

His talks will focus on looking at past climate models, in order to more accurately predict how future climates will impact the Earth.

No short-term solution

Earlier this week, Nature Geoscience released a report that predicts by 2100, glaciers in B.C. will shrink by 70 per cent.

According to Schmidt, reversing the effects of an increasingly hotter earth will not be a short-term solution.

"It's not something we can fix in a day, or a week or even an election cycle. It's something that requires a sustained effort across the world for many decades. Then you'll start to see a big difference by 2080 to 2100."

Gavin Schmidt will be giving a lecture entitled Climate change: Choose your own adventure! at 7 p.m. PT Wednesday at UVic in Victoria.

He will then present another lecture entitled What are climate models good for? at 7 p.m. PT Thursday at UBC Robson Square in Vancouver.

Both lectures will also be webcast live online.