Under Construction

As of 2007 there are still those who think there is no problem.
They point to normal waraming cycles (on the order of 100,000 years) and short term (decade) cycles in the north atlantic as the reason for the current changes. There are also warming effects from slight changes in the earth's orbit and solar cycles.

There are also natural checks and balances. e.g. More Carbon Dioxide (CO2) has a fertilizing effect increasing the growth rate of plants which use CO2 in photosynthesis; The increased plant growth absorbs more CO2.

In a 2002 article "Climate Change: The Scientific and Historical Evidence:", Ken Schlichte stated:
"Several climatic phases during the last 11,000 years of the post-glacial period had temperatures which were warmer than present temperatures. These warmer temperatures have been correlated with increased sunspot activity and greater solar energy reaching the earth."

Counter Argument:
In the four interglacial warm periods prior to the present one the CO2 never rose above 300 parts per million and CH4 never went above 800 parts per billion. The current situation is that CO2 is approaching 400 ppm and CH4 is over 1700 ppb.

This is incontrovertible evidence that the present situation is not some natural phase but a massive climate change unprecedented in the past half million years. The August 13, 2007 issue of Newsweek reported how an intense and still ongoing campaign by "well funded naysayers who still reject the overwhelming evidence of climate change" has seeded a lot of confusion in the general public.
See:
WorldClimateReport.com/
The Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP) in Canada


Global Warming Is Lies Claims Documentary in UK

Most of the skeptics above maintain that we are in a normal cycle of warming and cooling that has been documented in the polar ice core samples which show CO2 levels for the last 450,000 years and when you look at the charts CO2 increases follow warming not preceed it.
The cycles are driven by slight variations in the Earth's orbit and the angle of tilt in the Earth's axis towards the sun that cause fluctuations in climate.

In a 2002 article "Climate Change: The Scientific and Historical Evidence:", Ken Schlichte stated:
"Several climatic phases during the last 11,000 years of the post-glacial period had temperatures which were warmer than present temperatures. These warmer temperatures have been correlated with increased sunspot activity and greater solar energy reaching the earth."


Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Project

Dr. Richard Muller, of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who also teaches Physics 10 (Physics and Technology for Future Presidents) at Cal has been one of the most publicized critics. He along with a team of physicists and Climatologist are gathering what will amount to the largest set of surface temperature data available. are using over 39,000 unique stations, which is more than five times the 7,280 stations found in the Global Historical Climatology Network Monthly data set (GHCN-M) that has served as the focus of many climate studies.

In his Statement To The Committee On Science, Space And Technology Of The United States House Of Representatives in Mar. 2011 Muller said:
"Prior groups at NOAA, NASA, and in the UK (HadCRU) [may be CRUTEM not HadCRU] estimate about a 1.2 degree C land temperature rise from the early 1900s to the present. This 1.2 degree rise is what we call global warming. Their work is excellent, and the Berkeley Earth project strives to build on it.

Human caused global warming is somewhat smaller. According to the most recent IPCC report (2007), the human component became apparent only after 1957, and it amounts to "most" of the 0.7 degree rise since then. Let's assume the human-caused warming is 0.6 degrees.

(Note: In a July 28, 2012 NY Times OP-ED, "The Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic", Muller changed his position. See below.)

The magnitude of this temperature rise is a key scientific and public policy concern. A 0.2 degree uncertainty puts the human component between 0.4 and 0.8 degrees - a factor of two uncertainty. Policy depends on this number. It needs to be improved."

Their bigest funder is Charles Koch, the 4th richest man in America. Koch Industries has investments in pipelines, refineries, fertilizer, fibers and polymers, forest and consumer products, chemical technology.
In the Sept/Oct 2011 issue of Sierra Magazine, Carl Pope, chairman of the Sierra Club, says,
"The GOP has been subjected to a hostile takeover by the oil-and-gas industry - and particularly Koch Industries. Think tanks funded by the Koch brothers, Exxon Mobile and others took advantage of the decline of fact-based media to transform climate change into a partisan issue."

A response at Watts Up With That? says,
Why do I think his testimony doesn't help in the slightest? Well, to start with, I've never heard anyone make the claim that the land surface air temperature (excluding oceans) of the earth has warmed 1.2*C since 1900.

The actual land surface air temperature warming since 1900 according to the existing datasets is:

NASA GISTEMP: 0.72°C
   NOAA NCDC: 0.86°C
      CRUTEM: 0.92°C
    0.8°C = 1.4°F
    
Muller releases new results:
In a July 28, 2012 NY Times OP-ED, "The Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic", Muller released his results and said,
"Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I'm now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause."
However he goes on to say,
'It's a scientist's duty to be properly skeptical. I still find that much, if not most, of what is attributed to climate change is speculative, exaggerated or just plain wrong. I've analyzed some of the most alarmist claims, and my skepticism about them hasn't changed.

Hurricane Katrina cannot be attributed to global warming. The number of hurricanes hitting the United States has been going down, not up; likewise for intense tornadoes. Polar bears aren't dying from receding ice, and the Himalayan glaciers aren't going to melt by 2035. And it's possible that we are currently no warmer than we were a thousand years ago, during the "Medieval Warm Period" or "Medieval Optimum,"'

Their results are at BerkeleyEarth.org
Oct. 2007:
Dr William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts, told a packed lecture hall at the University of North Carolina that humans were not responsible for the warming of the earth.

Dr Gray, whose annual forecasts of the number of tropical storms and hurricanes are widely publicised, said a natural cycle of ocean water temperatures - related to the amount of salt in ocean water - was responsible for the global warming that he acknowledges has taken place.
He said his beliefs had made him an outsider in popular science.

However, he said, that same cycle meant a period of cooling would begin soon and last for several years.


Links:
Global Warming Is Lies Claims Documentary in UK
WorldClimateReport.com/
The Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP) in Canada



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last updated 24 Sep 2011