Help defend free speech and free scientific inquiry in the U.S.
Sign the Academic Freedom Petition.

Global warming

From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science

Jump to: navigation, search

Global warming is an increase in the earth's average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate and that may result from the greenhouse effect. Anthropogenic climate change refers to human induced climate change.

Contents

Controversy

Global warming has become a very controversial issue across not only the scientific field of study but it has since spread into the social and political arenas. A main catapult to such is the UN and its International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and how some rightfully consider it more a political organ rather than scientific.

Essentially scientists agree on that:

  • The global average temperature is about 0.6°Celsius or just over 1° Fahrenheit higher than it was a century ago;
  • Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) have risen by about 30 percent over the past 200 years;
  • Carbon dioxide, like water vapor, is a greenhouse gas that when increased may warm the Earth's atmosphere.

What scientists do not agree on is that:

  • If we know enough to place past temperature changes in the context of carbon dioxide being the cause;
  • Whether we have enough data to confidently predict future temperature levels;
  • What level temperature change might be more damaging than beneficial to life on Earth. [1]
  • Whether or not current fluctuations in temperature are going beyond natural variations.
  • Whether the cause of climate change is human induced and to what extent.
  • The regional effects in climate change.
  • Is global warming beneficial or detrimental.

It is important to remember that we live on an planet with a dynamic climate that is continually changing and shifting. There have been many climate extremes due to heat and many due to decreasing temperatures. It can also be noted that this last winter of 2006-07 was a particularly cold and experienced extreme winter weather, with snowfall into late April in many areas.

Scientists Speak Out

  • Dr. Madhav L. Khandekar who holds a PhD in meteorology and worked as a research scientist for Environment Canada quoted Dr. Andrew Weaver from the University of Victoria in a speech, in which he said in 2002 that, "... humanity is the primary cause of late 20th-century climate change."

Khandekar's response is that;

This is unfounded. More and more atmospheric scientists are now questioning the real cause of recent warming. According to Dr. William Gray, professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University, the warming may be entirely due to natural atmospheric variability and have nothing to do with increase in greenhouse gases at all. [2]
  • Richard S. Lindzen, an atmospheric physicist put it this way,
Although warming at Earth's surface has been quite pronounced during the past few decades, satellite measurements beginning in 1979 indicate relatively little warming of air temperature in the troposphere. The committee concurs with the findings of a recent National Research Council report,1 which concluded that the observed difference between surface and tropospheric temperature trends during the past 20 years is probably real, as well as its cautionary statement to the effect that temperature trends based on such short periods of record, with arbitrary start and end points, are not necessarily indicative of the long-term behavior of the climate system. [3]
  • Siegfried Frederick Singer is an electrical engineer and physicist and best known as the President and founder of the Science & Environmental Policy Project which has Frederick Seitz as a prominent member who was past President of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. During his testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on Climate Change on July 18, 2000, he stated:
1. There is no Appreciable Climate Warming

Contrary to the conventional wisdom and the predictions of computer models, the Earth's climate has not warmed appreciably in the past two decades, and probably not since about 1940. The evidence is overwhelming:
a) Satellite data show no appreciable warming of the global atmosphere since 1979. In fact, if one ignores the unusual El Nino year of 1998, one sees a cooling trend.
b) Radiosonde data from balloons released regularly around the world confirm the satellite data in every respect. This fact has been confirmed in a recent report of the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences.
c) The well-controlled and reliable thermometer record of surface temperatures for the continental United States shows no appreciable warming since about 1940. [See figure] The same is true for Western Europe. These results are in sharp contrast to the GLOBAL instrumental surface record, which shows substantial warming, mainly in NW Siberia and subpolar Alaska and Canada.
d) But tree-ring records for Siberia and Alaska and published ice-core records that I have examined show NO warming since 1940. In fact, many show a cooling trend.
Conclusion: The post-1980 global warming trend from surface thermometers is not credible. The absence of such warming would do away with the widely touted "hockey stick" graph (with its "unusual" temperature rise in the past 100 years) [see figure]; it was shown here on May 17 as purported proof that the 20th century is the warmest in 1000 years.[4]
  • Timothy Ball has a PhD in climatology and extensive background within it, especially the reconstruction of past climates and the impact of climate change on human history and the human condition. Ball is probably one of the most outspoken scientists on the subject of global warming. He wrote an article for the Canadian Free Press stating that,
Believe it or not, Global Warming is not due to human contribution of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). This in fact is the greatest deception in the history of science. [5]

The green industry

The Financial Times launched an investigation that found widespread failings surrounding the new emerging markets for the new green attitude. This whole way of life as it is considered now was further developed through the labeling of humans as being responsible for global warming.

What was found within this new industry regarding greenhouse gases suggests some organisations are paying for emissions reductions that do not take place. Others however receive big profits from carbon trading with very little expense.

The Financial Times investigation found:

  • Widespread instances of people and organisations buying worthless credits that do not yield any reductions in carbon emissions.
  • Industrial companies profiting from doing very little – or from gaining carbon credits on the basis of efficiency gains from which they have already benefited substantially.
  • Brokers providing services of questionable or no value.
  • A shortage of verification, making it difficult for buyers to assess the true value of carbon credits.
  • Companies and individuals being charged over the odds for the private purchase of European Union carbon permits that have plummeted in value because they do not result in emissions cuts.[6] [7] [8]

Publications and Media

An Inconvenient Truth

Among the most popular publications advocating global warming is politician Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, directed by Davis Guggenheim. [9] The film was highly acclaimed and recieved an Academy Award. Gore claims that global warming is very real and is human-caused. He has been both praised and criticized for his work.

For example, Gore points out the popular photograph of the pale-blue dot [10] saying, "all of human history has happened on that tiny pixel, which is our only home." This blanket statement voids anyone listening and believing in him any hope of life with Jesus Christ through faith in His life, death and resurrection or any type of life after death.

The Great Global Warming Swindle

There is a counter-documentary entitled The Great Global Warming Swindle. [11] The documentary argues against prominent scientific views on global warming. It was broadcast on March 8, 2007, on Channel 4 in the UK. This is a great overview of the history and impact of the politics in todays culture.

IPCC

There is a significant error within the IPCC Statement for Policy Makers, released through the U.N.

The SPM reports on a “Total Net Anthropogenic” global average radiative forcing for 2005 of +1.6 [0.6 to 2.4] Watts per meter squared. When one converts the units, this means that the Earth’s climate system should be accumulating Joules at a rate of 2.61*10**22 Joules per year [0.98*10**22 Joules to 3.91*10*22 Joules per year] in 2005.

The data, however, show quite a different accumulation of Joules in recent years, and in 2005 in particular. We have often argued that the ocean data has been shown to be an effective way to diagnose the radiative imbalance (see and see). Jim Hansen, for example, has used the accumulation of heat in the upper oceans in the 1990s to bolster his claim of multi-decadal global climate prediction skill (see), where Jim Hansen wrote,

“The Willis et al. measured heat storage of 0.62 W/m2 refers to the decadal mean for the upper 750 m of the ocean. Our simulated 1993-2003 heat storage rate was 0.6 W/m2 in the upper 750 m of the ocean. The decadal mean planetary energy imbalance, 0.75 W/m2, includes heat storage in the deeper ocean and energy used to melt ice and warm the air and land. 0.85 W/m2 is the imbalance at the end of the decade.” [12]

News

Related References


Browse


See Also

Retrieved from "http://creationwiki.org/Global_warming"
Personal tools