Global Warming Skepticism 101

Global Warming Skepticism 101

Informative summary From Dr. Roy Spenser 12/9/09

A few excerpts from Spenser with [my notes]:
1. [AGW]Skeptics deny global warming.
No, we deny that warming has been mostly human-caused. [Scientists should be skeptical, even of skeptics. Science is not pitch a view, it is to advance understanding].

2. Skeptics are paid by big oil.
The vast majority of skeptics have never been paid anything by Big Oil (me included). [It's not as easy to get a grant as an AGW skeptic. Note: several recent revelations show big oil is pandering to AGW folks.]

3. Skeptics don’t publish in the peer reviewed literature.
Wrong…but it is true we do not have nearly as many publications as the other side does. But it only takes one scientific study to destroy a scientific hypothesis, which is what anthropogenic global warming theory is.

4. Skeptics are not unified with an alternative explanation for global warming. Well, that’s the way science works in a field as immature as climate change science. The biggest problem is that we really don’t understand what causes natural climate variability.........

5. But the glaciers are melting!
Many glaciers which have been monitored around the world for a long time have been retreating since the 1800’s, before humans could have been responsible. A few retreating glaciers are even revealing old tree stumps…how did those get there? Planted by skeptics?

6. But the sea ice is melting!
Well, the same thing happened back in the 1920’s and 1930’s, with the Northwest Passage opening up in 1940. It was just as warm, or nearly as warm, in the Arctic in the 1930’s. Again, this is before humans could be blamed. There were very low water levels in the Great Lakes in the 1920’s too, just as has happened recently. We have accurate measurements of sea ice cover from satellites only since 1979, so there is no way to really know whether sea ice cover is less than it was before.

7. But we just had the warmest decade in recorded history!
Well, if thermometer measurements had started in, say 200, AD (rather than in the 1800’s), and it was now 850 AD, the same thing might well have been said back then. The climate system is always warming or cooling, and the Industrial Revolution (and thus our carbon dioxide emissions) just happened to occur while we were still emerging from the Little Ice Age…a warming period.

8. But the Antarctic ice shelves are collapsing!
Well, sea ice around Antarctica has been expanding since we started monitoring by satellite in 1979….so which do we use as evidence? There is no convincing evidence of warming in Antarctica, except in the relatively small Antarctic Peninsula, which juts out into the ocean. Just as glaciers naturally flow to the sea, ice shelves must eventually break off. It is very uncertain how often this happens through the centuries, and what has been observed in recent years might be entirely normal. Similarly, it was warmer in Greenland in the 1930’s than it has been more recently.

9. But the sea levels are rising!
Yes, and from what we can tell, they have been rising since the end of the last Ice Age. Again, the more recent rise might be just a consequence of our emergence from the Little Ice Age, which bottomed out in the 1600’s.

10. But we keep emitting carbon dioxide, which we know is a greenhouse gas!
But the direct warming effect of moré CO2 is agreed by all to be small…and I predict that when we better understand how clouds change in response to that small warming influence, the net warming in response to more CO2 will be smaller still. This is the “feedback” issue, which determines “climate sensitivity”, the area of research I spend most of my time on. I and a minority of other scientists believe the net feedbacks in the climate system are negative, probably driven by negative cloud feedback. In contrast, all twenty-something IPCC climate models now exhibit positive cloud feedback.

AGW Skeptic Video Summaries

Summaries from 4 skeptics for consideration of alternative views
D'Aleo http://www.kusi.com/home/78477122.html?video=pop&t=a
Coleman http://www.kusi.com/home/78477082.html?video=pop&t=a
Lindzen http://www.kusi.com/home/78477177.html?video=pop&t=a
Soon http://www.kusi.com/home/78477312.html?video=pop&t=a

Daring to Question Al Gore

From McIver Institute Oct 9, 2009

"However, the former Vice President of the United States was not in the mood to answer any questions from skeptics of global warming. His appearance was highly scripted, and when one filmmaker dared ask a tough question...well, just watch this report."

Key point at the end of the video is challenging what is the role of journalists? To be cheerleaders or skeptics?

U.N. climate meeting was propaganda: Czech president

U.N. climate meeting was propaganda: Czech president

Reuters Sept 22, 2009

Excerpts include:
Czech President Vaclav Klaus sharply criticized a U.N. meeting on climate change on Tuesday at which U.S. President Barack Obama was among the top speakers, describing it as propagandistic and undignified. "It was sad and it was frustrating," said Klaus.

Klaus said there were increasing doubts in the scientific community about whether humans are causing changes in the climate or whether the changes are simply naturally occurring phenomena.

Klaus said global warming has turned into a new religion, an ideology that threatens to undermine freedom and the world's economic and social order.

Harrison Schmitt doesn’t believe that humans are causing global warming.

Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon and once served New Mexico in the U.S. Senate, doesn’t believe that humans are causing global warming.

Boston Herald Feb 16, 2009

A couple excerpts:
"Schmitt contends that scientists "are being intimidated" if they disagree with the idea that burning fossil fuels has increased carbon dioxide levels, temperatures and sea levels."

"Of the global warming debate, he said: "It’s one of the few times you’ve seen a sizable portion of scientists who ought to be objective take a political position and it’s coloring their objectivity."

Prominent Scientist Fired By Gore Says Warming Alarm ‘Mistaken

From US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
Prominent Scientist Fired By Gore Says Warming Alarm ‘Mistaken

Excerpts include:
“I am convinced that the current alarm over carbon dioxide is mistaken,” Happer, who has published over 200 scientific papers, told EPW on December 22, 2008.

Senator Inhofe said that the continued outpouring of prominent scientists like Happer -- who are willing to publicly dissent from climate fears -- are yet another strike to the UN, Gore and the media’s claims about global warming. “The endless claims of a 'consensus' about man-made global warming grow less-and-less credible every day," Inhofe said.

Happer said this week. “Fears about man-made global warming are unwarranted and are not based on good science. The earth's climate is changing now, as it always has. There is no evidence that the changes differ in any qualitative way from those of the past,” he added.

Skeptics

Interesting summary of skeptics atmy-test-blog:

Monday, December 8, 2008
[Global Warming] Climate Momentum Shifting: Prominent Scientists Reverse Belief in Man-made Global Warming - Now Skeptics
Climate Momentum Shifting: Prominent Scientists Reverse Belief in Man-made Global Warming - Now Skeptics