Global Warming - Another View
In his testimony before Senator Inhofe’s Senate committee in the spring of 2007, Al Gore said that the previous winter had been the warmest on record. Senator Inhofe countered that the spring of 2007 was the coldest spring in 20 years, and that 183 coldest temperature records had been set. Although the major media have been sounding the Global Warming mantra for some time now, we need to use our intelligence and best judgment to see where the climate situation really stands.
Many climate scientists insist that climate always changes, that it is the nature of climate to change, and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) has never driven climate change. Professor Tim Patterson, Dept. of Earth Sciences at Carlton University, says that climate is and always has been variable, continually. There was a “Little Ice Age” between 1400 and 1900 AD. And there was a “Middle Warming Period” from 500 to 1400 AD. These were not caused by human activities.
The “MBH-98 Hockey Stick Curve”, used by Al Gore in his
“Inconvenient Truth”, has been discredited completely. It has been shown by Dr.
Steven McIntyre that it is based on a computer modeling program error and other
methodological errors, which almost always produces a hockey-stick graph result
from trendless red-noise data.
The International Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) is a political, not scientific, organization, whose charter is to
provide evidence to the U.N. for climate change and
Global Warming. Dr. Vincent Grey, an IPCC reviewer, testifies that the IPCC
made up the conclusions beforehand in their summary, then told the scientists
writing the details to choose facts that supported the summary. Scientists who were involved said that the scientists were
kept in rooms to write a page apiece, with runners going back and forth between
them and the policy-makers, telling them how to make changes to what they were
writing to agree with the summary which had already been written. The
“discovery” of open sea near the North Pole by an IPCC scientist, was only the
re-discovery of a Northwest Passage that had first been discovered in
1906. The fact is that arctic
temperatures 8000 years ago (based on ice-core samples) were higher than they
are today.
Professor Ian Clark, Dept. of Earth
Sciences at the University of Ottawa, says that he believed in Global Warming
until he investigated. He was surprised to find absolutely no evidence of
human-causes, but overwhelming evidence of causes in the changes of the sun’s
output.
Al Gore, in his “Inconvenient
Truth”, reversed the graphs of temperature and CO2 levels, and separated them,
to show that CO2 changes drive temperature changes. The original graphs, from
ice-core samples, actually show that temperature, specifically the sun’s
output, drives CO2 changes, with an 800 year lag between temperature increases
and increases in CO2. The fundamental assumption in his presentation has been
shown to be wrong.
Of the 200 billion metric tons of
CO2 put into the atmosphere every year, most is produced by vegetation, the
soil, and the oceans. Only 3% is produced by human activities. Water vapor accounts for
97% of all greenhouse gases, with CO2 contributing 2%, then traces of methane, clorofluorocarbons and nitrous oxide. So humans
contribute 3% of the 2% of greenhouse gases.
CO2 is also heavier than air, and so it tends to gather closer to the
ground, and is almost not found at all in the upper atmosphere where it could
contribute to the “greenhouse effect”.
Clouds produce 66-86% of greenhouse gas effects, where CO2 produces
9-27%, and man’s contribution to that is only 3%, or 1% overall.
Much of the temperature data being
used to support the warming theory is taken from around cities, where land-use
issues such as the expansion of paved areas have much more to do with rising
temperatures. Satellite data shows a
much smaller temperature rise. Balloons
released all over the globe also show a very small temperature rise in the atmosphere.
The El Nino effect of 1997-1998,
which caused a rise in water vapor in the atmosphere, saw a 1 degree
temperature spike around the world. But there has been no appreciable
temperature rise since 1998, despite a great rise in CO2 output. With NASA-corrected data we see that, despite
what Al Gore said about 1998 thru 2006 being the warmest years on record, six of the ten
hottest years were between 1920 and 1953.
The five hottest years were 1934, 1998, 1921, 2006, and 1933
respectively.
In 1974 – 1975 the greatest threat
being trumpeted by the media was Global Cooling, where
the scientific consensus and media alarmists were predicting a coming Ice Age
and resulting drop in food production. The same words, such as “catastrophe”,
“chaos”, and “havoc” were being used then as are being used today about Global
Warming.
In 2003, 56% of climatologists said
that man is causing Global Warming, but most still said we should not base
policy on that theory.
The
Global Warming theory is all based on computer models, not reality, simulating
climate from the surface up through the atmosphere, and trying to take into
account temperatures, precipitation, cloud cover, winds, movements of weather
systems, evaporation from oceans and land, and global ice cover among other
variables. This is too complex for a computer model, and it involves components
that interact in non-linear ways, in an unpredictable cascade of processes.
Droughts, hurricanes, and other
weather phenomena are cyclical. Global
Warming advocates warn that warming will produce more serious storms. But
history shows that storm intensity is worse in colder periods. From 1851 to
1950 there were 15 – 22 hurricanes per decade, with 5 – 8 major. From 1951 to 2000 there were 12 – 15 per
decade, 5 -6 major. In 2005 we had a
devastating hurricane season, while in 2006 there were virtually none. The
theory that there would be a greater temperature rise in the middle atmosphere,
causing more intense storms, after surface temperatures rise, is not matched by
the facts.
Despite Al Gore’s alarmism about
polar bears, the fact is that polar bear populations are rising, except for one
species.
In Antarctica, there is some melting
ice at the edges, but the central ice mass is increasing. Greenland too may be
melting at the edges, but the ice mass of the interior is increasing. During
the times of the Norsemen, 800 years ago, there was widespread agriculture in
Greenland. This was during the “Middle Warming Period” or “Medieval Optimal”.
By 1400 they had to leave Greenland as the ice took over their farmlands.
There is a direct and graphic correlation
shown between an increase in sunspots and higher temperatures on earth. They do
not cause warming, but the length of the solar cycle affect earth’s
temperatures. This is because solar flares protect against cosmic radiation and
serve to cool the earth. (?!?!)
Mars and other planets appear to be
warming also.
Elevated CO2 is very beneficial to
crops and plants. CO2 levels now are
much lower than they used to be. At one
time CO2 was at ten times the current level, and vegetation flourished. Up to 5 times the amount of current CO2 would
not be harmful to humans, and it has been proven by horticultural experiments
to increase the yield on all food crops. More CO2 also helps plants use less
water to grow, almost like a free fertilizer, and can relieve famine in
marginal areas.
Big Oil companies do not support Global Warming opponents. On the contrary, they play hardball politics to get Congress to spend more on Global Warming research, so they can make billions of dollars on Cap and Trade policies.
Note: This is a summary of points made about Global Warming, as contained in a DVD entitled "Global Warming or Global Governance"