This is a collection of articles on climate
change.
What is known, is that the earth is warming. What is conjectured and supported primarily
by the opinions, of scientists, politicians and the news media, is how much of
this warming is the result of human activity.
Equally compelling arguments can be drawn for both points of view. Here are some of them.
PRO – Climate Change Caused by Human Activities
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/what-evidence-exists-earth-warming-and-humans-are-main-cause
We know this warming is largely caused by human
activities because the key role that carbon dioxide plays in maintaining
Earth’s natural greenhouse effect has been understood since the mid-1800s.
Unless it is offset by some equally large cooling influence, more atmospheric
carbon dioxide will lead to warmer surface temperatures. Since 1800, the amount
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has
increased from about 280 parts per million to 410 ppm in 2019. We know
from both its rapid increase and its isotopic “fingerprint” that the source of
this new carbon dioxide is fossil fuels, and not natural sources like forest
fires, volcanoes, or outgassing from the ocean
https://scienceexchange.caltech.edu/topics/sustainability/evidence-climate-change
In its Fifth Assessment Report, the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of 1,300 independent
scientific experts from countries all over the world under the auspices of the
United Nations, concluded there's a more than 95 percent probability that human
activities over the past 50 years have warmed our planet.
The industrial activities of modern civilization
have raised atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from 280 parts per million to 414
parts per million in the past 150 years. The panel also concluded there's a
better than 95 percent probability that human-produced greenhouse gases such as
carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide have caused much of the observed
increase in Earth's temperatures over the past 50 years.
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/are-humans-major-cause-global-warming
Humans cause climate change. How do we know?
Scientists agree that global warming is caused
mainly by human activity. Specifically, the evidence shows that certain
heat-trapping gases, such as carbon dioxide, are warming the world—and that we
release those gases when we burn fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas.
As scientific models and methods grow more
sophisticated, and as we collect more data, our confidence in human-caused
climate change only grows higher.
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
The current warming trend is of particular
significance because it is unequivocally the result of human activity since the
mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over
millennia.1 It is undeniable that human activities have warmed the atmosphere,
ocean, and land and that widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean,
cryosphere, and biosphere have occurred.
Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological
advances have enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many
different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global
scale. This body of data, collected over many years, reveals the signals of a
changing climate.
The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and
other gases was demonstrated in the mid-19th century.2 Their ability to affect
the transfer of infrared energy through the atmosphere is the scientific basis
of many instruments flown by NASA. There is no question that increased levels
of greenhouse gases must cause Earth to warm in response.
Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and
tropical mountain glaciers show that Earth’s climate responds to changes in
greenhouse gas levels. Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean
sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. This ancient, or
paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly ten
times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery warming. Carbon dioxide
from human activity is increasing more than 250 times faster than it did from
natural sources after the last Ice Age.
CON – Humans Are Not Primarily Responsible
for Climate Change
. https://blog.heartland.org/2017/01/climate-change-101-the-evidence-humans-arent-destroying-the-climate/
Differences between the claims made by those who
believe in the theory human greenhouse-gas emissions significantly affect the
climate and the actual measured changes strongly indicate humans are not
causing a climate Armageddon and that climate alarmists’ theory is incorrect.
In fact, based on the evidence, at the worst, humans are having a modest effect
on Earth’s climate, with the increase in carbon dioxide possibly having a net
beneficial effect (due to the enhanced plant productivity resulting from higher
carbon-dioxide levels.)
https://www.listland.com/top-10-reasons-humans-are-not-causing-global-warming/
Climate change proponents such as the IPCC
(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change),
NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
believe that the rise in greenhouse gasses comes from human activities. Burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse
gasses into the atmosphere – at the same time the reduction in forested land
through logging or clearing for agriculture results in a loss of the natural
carbon sink (trees absorb Carbon Dioxide).
Man made global warming – they would have us believe – will be single
handedly responsible for rising sea levels, melting glaciers, species
extinction and any severe weather from tornadoes to ice-storms.
This view, supported by the mainstream media, has
become the orthodox belief. Only a few
scientists now admit to being sceptical about man’s role in global
warming. Is the orthodoxy right? Here are the Top 10 Reasons Humans Are Not
Causing Global Warming…
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/global-warming-manmade-or-natural/
In the past few years there has been increasing
concern about global climate change on the part of the media, politicians, and
the public. It has been stimulated by the idea that human activities may
influence global climate adversely and that therefore corrective action is
required on the part of governments. Recent evidence suggests that this concern
is misplaced. Human activities are not influencing the global climate in a
perceptible way. Climate will continue to change, as it always has in the past,
warming and cooling on different time scales and for different reasons,
regardless of human action. I would also argue that—should it occur—a modest
warming would be on the whole beneficial.
This is not to say that we don’t face a serious
problem. But the problem is political. Because of the mistaken idea that
governments can and must do something about climate, pressures are building
that have the potential of distorting energy policies in a way that will
severely damage national economies, decrease standards of living, and increase
poverty. This misdi-rection of resources will adversely affect human health and
welfare in industrialized nations, and even more in developing nations. Thus it
could well lead to increased social tensions within nations and conflict
between them.
If not for this economic and political damage, one
might consider the present concern about climate change nothing more than just
another environmentalist fad, like the Alar apple scare or the global cooling
fears of the 1970s. Given that so much is at stake, how-ever, it is essential
that people better understand the issue.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2569215/Humans-not-blame-global-warming-says-Greenpeace-founder-Patrick-Moore.html
PATRICK MOORE ON THE HOT TOPIC OF GLOBAL WARMING
'There is no scientific proof that human emissions
of carbon dioxide (CO2) are the dominant cause of the minor warming of the
Earth’s atmosphere over the past 100 years. If there were such a proof it would
be written down for all to see. No actual proof, as it is understood in
science, exists.
'The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) states: “It is extremely likely that human influence has been the
dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.” (My
emphasis) “Extremely likely” is not a
scientific term but rather a judgment, as in a court of law. The IPCC defines
“extremely likely” as a “95-100% probability”.
'But upon further examination it is clear that
these numbers are not the result of any mathematical calculation or statistical
analysis. They have been “invented” as a construct within the IPCC report to
express “expert judgment”, as determined by the IPCC contributors.
'When modern life evolved over 500 million years
ago, CO2 was more than 10 times higher than today, yet life flourished at this
time. Then an Ice Age occurred 450 million years ago when CO2 was 10 times higher
than today.
'There is some correlation, but little evidence,
to support a direct causal relationship between CO2 and global temperature
through the millennia. The fact that we had both higher temperatures and an ice
age at a time when CO2 emissions were 10 times higher than they are today
fundamentally contradicts the certainty that human-caused CO2 emissions are the
main cause of global warming.
'Today, we live in an unusually cold period in the
history of life on earth and there is no reason to believe that a warmer
climate would be anything but beneficial for humans and the majority of other
species. There is ample reason to believe that a sharp cooling of the climate
would bring disastrous results for human civilization.
'The IPCC states that humans are the dominant
cause of warming “since the mid-20th century”, which is 1950. From 1910 to 1940
there was an increase in global average temperature of 0.5C over that 30-year
period. Then there was a 30-year “pause” until 1970.
'This was followed by an increase of 0.57C during
the 30-year period from 1970 to 2000. Since then there has been no increase,
perhaps a slight decrease, in average global temperature. This in itself tends
to negate the validity of the computer models, as CO2 emissions have continued
to accelerate during this time.
'The increase in temperature between 1910-1940 was
virtually identical to the increase between 1970-2000. Yet the IPCC does not
attribute the increase from 1910-1940 to “human influence.”'
Ray Gruszecki
November12, 2021
