Climate Change settled? I think not!

Climate "deniers" (not a thread count, the ones who do not think Climate Change is threatening our imminent existence) have thankfully been busy.

Lawrence SOLOMON1 of Energy Probe had this article, "Alice in Climateland" recounting his strange debate against Dr. Jay GULLEDGE, an acolyte of Al GORE's think tank ally, the Pew Center.

Dr. GULLEDGE's debating strategy appeared to be based on confusing the audience by "sophistic sleight of lip" but this is exactly what the Climate Changers want. The standard Climate Change (CC) argument goes like this:

• It is indisputable that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is rising.
• It is effectively indisputable that the increase in CO2 is due to human activity, particularly the burning of fossil fuels.
• It is indisputable that increasing the CO2 level in the atmosphere reduces its transparency to infra-red, which reduces the rate at which the earth radiates heat.
• By conclusive inference it follows that increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere will have some effect on the climate, and the probability is overwhelmingly high that one major effect will be an increase in average global temperature ("global warming").
  
• As soon as questions arise about more detailed effects, like possible increases in hurricane activity, reputable scientists start to argue.
• Therefore, global warming is indisputably real, but the details are not clear.

A short recap of a rebuttal of this by a Denier under the handle of "mikegeo" is:

• The question of global warming is still subject to debate. Despite the anecdotal points raised by CC'ers there is still a great deal of debate over this - look to severe problems with "Global Average Temperatures" or ice cover for example.
  
• If the earth is warming, how do we know is it different from any other climate cycle experienced in the past? There have been many kinds of climate catastrophes - some prompted by meteors, volcanoes and or evidenced by past ice ages and associated temperature reversals.
  
• If so the earth is warming, why? The "Greenhouse Gas"theory is full of holes. It can not be reliably put forward as the only reason. Man was not a factor in previous climate catastrophes yet they occurred. How do we know this is the mechanism?
  
• Climate Changers have the process of the process of scientific inquiry backwards if you have already "assumed" that carbon dioxide is responsible for the warming and that man is responsible for the carbon dioxide. (The writer goes on to mention a few other useful facts.)
• To base draconian economic and and environmental regulations on sporadically recalled weather events from year to year may be politically expedient but it is hardly responsible public policy.

In another significant development the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin RUDD released his governments program new commitment to the 2020 Kyoto Protocol, however it has been modified from what many of the "green wing" in his party wished for. Australia will commit to reduce Green House Gas emissions (GHG) by 5-15% by 2020. That could increase to a 25% reduction if other key polluting countries meet specific targets designed by Australia. This is a wonderful solution and one that I hope others adopt. This common sense approach will link countries compliance and no single country will have to "hobble" itself economically only to see others benefit at no cost by ignoring Kyoto.

Furthermore, last week the U. S. Senate Minority issued a 2nd update on debunking Al GORE's outrageous claims from his dramentry "Inconvenient Truths" in this report. They report that 650 distinguished scientists disagree with the UN sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report of 2006. Among the points raised:

• Another 400 scientists have added their names to a growing chorus of skeptics about the so-called global warming “consensus” since this report was prepared last year. Now over 650 prominent international scientists, including many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the UN IPCC. (This is more than 12 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers.)
• The chorus of skeptical scientific voices grew louder in 2008 as a steady stream of peer-reviewed studies, analyses, real world data and inconvenient developments challenged the UN and former Vice President Al Gore's claims that the "science is settled" and there is a "consensus."
• Some of the bad news for "Climate Changers" (aka "anthropogenic warming fears") included: Global temperatures failing to warm; Peer-reviewed studies predicting a continued lack of warming; a failed attempt to revive the discredited “Hockey Stick”; inconvenient developments and studies regarding CO2; the Sun; Clouds; Antarctica; the Arctic; Greenland; Mount Kilimanjaro; Hurricanes; Extreme Storms; Floods; Ocean Acidification; Polar Bears extinction; lack of atmospheric dust; the failure of oceans to warm and rise as predicted.
• In 2008 marked the year that the purported "Global Warming consensus” collapsed as: 1) Russian scientists “rejected the very idea that carbon dioxide may be responsible for global warming”. 2) An American Physical Society editor conceded that a “considerable presence” of scientific skeptics exist. 3) An International team of scientists countered the UN IPCC, declaring: “Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate”. 4) India Issued a report challenging global warming fears. 5) International Scientists demanded the UN IPCC “be called to account and cease its deceptive practices,” and 6) a canvass of more than 51,000 Canadian scientists revealed 68% disagree that global warming science is “settled.”
• Major skeptics and their supporters have popped up among many popular periodicals and newspapers.
• At the launch of the IPCC report in 2004 it was widely repeated that 2500 scientists associated with the IPCC's reports had endorsed the IPCC's conclusions. It is now know that this was a misrepresentation as the 2500 were merely peer reviewers and had not endorsed the final report which was "summarized by the IPCC Secretariat" - basically political appointees and bureaucrats.
  
• The Chair of the IPCC, Dr. R.K Pachauri of India received his doctorate in Industrial Engineering in 1972 from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. He began his career at the Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi, India and before he ascended into the UN bureaucracy he was Director of TERI (Tata Energy Research Institute), a jointly funded government/industry applied research institute.
• Dr. William M. Briggs, a climate statistician who serves on the American Meteorological Society's Probability and Statistics Committee, has described as the behavior as “really outrageous and unethical behavior on the parts of some editors." when colleagues "tried [to] getting papers published that explored non-‘consensus’ views.” Some skeptical scientists have faced threats and intimidation. Dr. Briggs objected to being called a "Flat Earthers"

• Al GORE claimed that Earth was facing an environmental catastrophe if CO2 emissions surpassed 350ppm. See chart below with data from Paleozoic Era.

• 

see - Sept 2008 "Canadiana-odd-but-true"


Footnotes:
1 Lawrence SOLOMON "The Deniers: The world-renowned scientists who stood up against global warming hysteria, political persecution and fraud, and those who are too fearful to do so." Richard Vigilante Books (April 1, 2008)

2) More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims Scientists Continue to Debunk “Consensus” in 2008. (http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm) The report features the names, biographies, academic/institutional affiliation, quotes and of literally hundreds of additional international scientists who publicly dissented from man-made climate fears. This report lists the scientists by name, country of residence, and academic/institutional affiliation. It also features their own words, biographies, and weblinks to their peer reviewed studies, scientific analyses and original source materials as gathered from directly from the scientists or from public statements, news outlets, and websites in 2007 and 2008.