There's no consensus on global warming....
Richard Lindzen goes after Al Gore....
The media rarely help, of course. When Newsweek featured global warming in a 1988 issue, it was claimed that all scientists agreed. Periodically thereafter it was revealed that although there had been lingering doubts beforehand, now all scientists did indeed agree. Even Mr. Gore qualified his statement on ABC only a few minutes after he made it, clarifying things in an important way. When Mr. Stephanopoulos confronted Mr. Gore with the fact that the best estimates of rising sea levels are far less dire than he suggests in his movie, Mr. Gore defended his claims by noting that scientists "don't have any models that give them a high level of confidence" one way or the other and went on to claim--in his defense--that scientists "don't know. . . . They just don't know."Read the whole thing....
So, presumably, those scientists do not belong to the "consensus." Yet their research is forced, whether the evidence supports it or not, into Mr. Gore's preferred global-warming template--namely, shrill alarmism. To believe it requires that one ignore the truly inconvenient facts. To take the issue of rising sea levels, these include: that the Arctic was as warm or warmer in 1940; that icebergs have been known since time immemorial; that the evidence so far suggests that the Greenland ice sheet is actually growing on average. A likely result of all this is increased pressure pushing ice off the coastal perimeter of that country, which is depicted so ominously in Mr. Gore's movie. In the absence of factual context, these images are perhaps dire or alarming.
They are less so otherwise. Alpine glaciers have been retreating since the early 19th century, and were advancing for several centuries before that. Since about 1970, many of the glaciers have stopped retreating and some are now advancing again. And, frankly, we don't know why.
posted by GayandRight @ 10:55 AM
8 Comments:
Without a doubt, CO2 is at it's highest level ever. It is also a fact that CO2 is a greenhouse gas. While some are arguing to what degree manmade production of CO2 is contributing to climate change, the fact remains, we keep spewing it out in the atmosphere in ever greater quantities which will make the problem much worse. I'm not an expert on the Kyoto accord, but I know we can't reduce our allotment of 300Mega tonnes by 2012. We can't build the required infrastructure by then. Harper would be better off in trying to reduce N20 (a greenhouse gas whose Global Warming Potential is 301 times greater than CO2), Reducing this by 1 Mega tonne (or as much as possible) by 2012 may be an easier task.
CO2 is at its highest level ever? I don't think so. Having been measuring CO2 levels for (maybe) 100 of the last 5,000,000,000 years, I think there are considerable doubts...especially considering that the earth has been both much warmer (all that oil in Alberta is the result of its former tropical climate!) and much cooler (all those pretty canyons are the result of glaciers).
Regardless of what concensus there is among scientists, that doesn't matter a hill o' beans. Science is not based on democratic principles. The concensus in 1491 was that the Earth was flat...in his day, Coperinicus was the only scientist who believed the Earth revolved around the sun. The existence of a concensus does not make something true.
Jeff, your right. It's the higheat in 650000 years!
November 25, 2005
As Climate Science Advances, Scale of Predicament More Clear
Levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal gas that drives global warming, are now 27 pct higher than at any point in the last 650,000 years, according to research into Antarctic ice cores. The more we learn about climate change, its rate and its impacts; the more the scale and magnitude of human impact upon global ecological systems becomes apparent. We are really in trouble as advances in climate change science (and obvious impacts just outside our door) indictate we may have reached or being reaching a tipping point where abrupt and major climate shifts are underway. It is clear that immediate efforts to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions are absolutely vital to humanity's survival. Vague commitments to adapt to changes and reduce the rate of growth of greenhouse gases will doom humanity to eco-armaggedon. Climate change is deadly serious - and either we accept that ecological sustainability takes preference over unbridled economic growth or we die.
Core Evidence That Humans Affect Climate Change
An ice core about two miles long — the oldest frozen sample ever drilled from the underbelly of Antarctica — shows that at no time in the last 650,000 years have levels of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane been as high as they are today... the core and shows that carbon dioxide levels today are 27% higher than they have been in the last 650,000 years and levels of methane, an even more powerful greenhouse gas, are 130% higher...
The hole in the ozone layer which lets in Cosmic Rays is also our fault...
Historical record of CO2 and temperatures
Yes CO2 was higher in the past BUT the amounts changed slowly over time and did not rapidly/decrease in only 100 short years. Climate change was over a much longer period. Rapid Climate change would result in mass extinction because species can't evolve quickly enough.
I have all the answers, just give me power over your choices in life and everything will be fine.
Perhaps global warming is a real issue, and perhaps it isn't. Quite simply we're going to need to find an alternative fuel source some day, and the longer we wait the harder it will be to make such a change. I know that even now this would be one of the most difficult tasks to accomplish for humanity. Even if you are comfortable putting aside the possibility that greenhouse gas could increase global warming in turn increase the rate at which the ice caps melt in turn changing the level of fresh water in the atlantic currents, in turn creating powerful weather effects, even if you can ignore that as a possibility. We're polluting far too much. The air we breath is poison and while humans may be directly able to resist these poisons temporarily. Lesser species cannot. One by one links out of the food chain can fall. Am I scared? No, you gotta die some day, but I sure would like for this world to carry on for the future generations instead of thinking we can just put it off till later, put it off till later and then BAM. Your children are saying "@&*!! Looks like its our problem now, thanks mom and dad. "
What we really need to do is consider everything, keep our eyes open and always ackowledge that there is an X factor that our equations can't predict.
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