Title: IS GLOBAL WARMING A THREAT?
1IS GLOBAL WARMING A THREAT?
- Or is it just hot air?
- www.friendsofscience.org
2GLOBAL WARMING DOOM AND GLOOM CIRCA 1990
- According to the U.N., some environmental
activists, and even some governments, the
greatest threat facing mankind is global warming.
The earth is warming at an unprecedented rate
and will soon become unlivable, sea levels will
rise, crops will fail, weather will become wild
and unpredictable.
3GLOBAL COOLING DOOM AND GLOOM CIRCA 1975
- There are ominous signs that the Earths
weather patterns have begun to change
dramaticallywith serious political implications
for just about every nation on earth.- Newsweek
April 28, 1975 - Present climate is highly abnormalThere is a
finite possibility that a serious worldwide
cooling could befall the earth within the next
hundred years. - - National Academy of Sciences, 1975
- If present trends continue, the world will be
about four degrees colder for the global mean
temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder by
the year 2000.This is about twice what it would
take to put us in an ice age. - - Kenneth E. F. Watt on air pollution and global
cooling, Earth Day 1970 - WHAT HAPPENED?
4GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1
- The earth has had stable temperatures for a long
time, and the 20th century has seen a dramatic
rise in temperature, in the shape of a hockey
stick.
5GLOBAL WARMING FACT 1
- The math behind the hockey stick shaped graph
has been proven wrong by Canadian statisticians
Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick. Here are 4
graphs. One is the global warming hockey stick
used by the UN and governments around the world
to justify Kyoto, the other ones use the same
computer program, with COMPLETELY RANDOM data. - Which one is which?
http//www.climate2003.com/
6GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 2
- The 1990s were the hottest years ever recorded
on earth, and this was caused by human greenhouse
gas emissions.
http//www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/info/warming/
http//www.ipcc.ch/present/graphics.htm
7Global Warming Fact 2
- Why then, did the global temperature of the
earth decline from 1940 to the late 1970s
(causing the global cooling scare)? During which
time the human emissions of CO2 were increasing
like crazy (due to increased industrialization
after WWII). - The Earth is actually coming out of a cold
period, known as the Little Ice Age. Global
climate has been colder than present. It has
also been warmer and that warmth had nothing to
do with man-made CO2. -
Little Ice Age
Last Ice Age
Medieval Warm Period
Present Day
8Global Warming Myth 3
- The consensus of world scientists is that
humanity is causing significant climate change. - The overwhelming majority of scientific
experts, whilst recognizing that scientific
uncertainties exist, nonetheless believe that
human-induced climate change is already occurring
and that future change is inevitable. - - Robert T. Watson, Chairman of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
in November, 2000 - The consensus is that global warming is real,
that it's happening and that we humans -- with
our cars, and especially our power plants,
burning coal, oil and gas, and releasing carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere -- are partly or
mostly or entirely responsible. - Eugene Robinson. Ignoring the Smoke.
Washington Post, February 4, 2005, P.A17
9Global Warming Fact 3
- There is no consensus!
- Oregon Global Warming Petition - Signed by more
than 17,100 basic and applied American
scientists, two-thirds with advanced degrees - - Urges the United States government to reject
the global warming agreement that was written in
Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other
similar proposals - http//www.oism.org/pproject/
-
- Heidelberg Appeal States there is no
scientific evidence for man-made global warming - - Started in 1992, it has now been signed by
more than 4000 scientists from around the world - http//www.sepp.org/heidelberg_appeal.html
10Global Warming Myth 4
-
- Global Warming will be disastrous for the
environment and human society - Warming is bringing unpredictable changes.
Melting glaciers and precipitation are causing
some rivers to overflow Diseases are spreading.
Some crops grow faster while others see yields
slashed by disease and drought. Clashes over
dwindling water resources may cause conflicts - Thermal expansion of the oceans, combined with
melting ice on land, is also raising sea levels.
In this century, human activity could trigger an
irreversible melting of the Greenland ice sheet.
This would condemn the world to a rise in sea
level of six meters - enough to flood land
occupied by billions of people. -
- - Fred Pearce, New Scientist Magazine
- http//www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate
-change/
11Global Warming Fact 4
- Dr. Tim Patterson, Professor of earth sciences
(Paleoclimatology) at Carleton University, and
climate historian Hubert H. Lamb demonstrate that
during warm periods civilization flourished and
weather was more moderate. In cold periods, there
was more drought, famine, wars and disease. - Between 900 and 1300 A.D., the Earth warmed 1
to 2Capproximately what climate models now
predict for the 21st century. This warming
resulted in one of the most favorable periods in
history. Food production surged due to mild
winters and longer growing seasons. Primary
agricultural regions had fewer droughts and
floods When Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland
for murder in 980 AD, he was fortunate that his
banishment coincided with this unusually warm
climatic period. Open sea-lanes allowed him to
make his way to a wholly new and, at the time,
reasonably hospitable land - calling it
Greenland - Source http//www.envirotruth.org/myth4.cfm
12Global Warming Myth 5
- Extreme weather events will become more and more
common as the world warms. This can already be
seen with the increase of drought, floods, forest
fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, and tsunamis. - Extreme weather threatens Canadian ecosystems,
security and health, and imposes severe costs on
key sectors of our economyThe cost of
weather-related disasters in Canada increased
significantly during the 1990s. A number of
sectors in the Canadian economy including
forestry, agriculture and fisheries can be
easily devastated by climate change-induced
weather disasters. Government of Canada,
Project Green Moving Forward on Climate Change,
2005 -
-
-
13Global Warming Fact 5
- Could the increased costs be due to people
building structures in extreme weather prone
areas such as floodplains and tornado alleys, and
not due to increased extreme weather events? - Dr. Madhav Khandekar, a meteorologist with 25
years experience at Environment Canada, has
showed that extreme weather events (heat waves,
floods, winter blizzards, thunderstorms, hail,
tornadoes) are not currently increasing anywhere
in Canada. "Extreme weather events are definitely
on the decline over the last 40 years," concludes
Dr. Khandekar. - According to Dr. John Christy, Professor and
Director, Earth System Science Center at the
University of Alabama, the frequency of
hurricanes, thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes
have not increased in recent years either.
Weather just seems unusual and dangerous these
days because of media focus. If the planet warms,
the temperature differential between the Earth's
poles and equatorial regions will drop, resulting
in weather that is even more tranquil. -
Hurricane Frequency, 1940 - 2000
14Global Warming Myth 6
- Alternative energy sources such as solar, wind,
tidal, and hydrogen cells can soon be significant
contributors to the energy needs of the human
population.
15Global Warming Fact 6
- Environmentalists tell us that we can break the
fossil fuel habit by massively expanding our use
of "clean" wind and solar power to provide much
of Canada's power needs. Unfortunately, this is
hopelessly impractical. Both of these energy
sources are far too diffuse and intermittent to
ever provide more than a small fraction of the
energy needs of any major industrialized nation,
let alone vast, northern countries like Canada
and United States. The problems of diffuseness
and intermittency are ones that can never be
completely overcome, no matter how much research
and development is done in the field. - "To produce an average of 1000 MW, the power
produced by any large conventional (coal, oil,
nuclear, gas) power plant, would require about
833 square kilometers of wind turbines. That's
the area of a mile-wide swath of land extending
from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Multiply that
by about 30 and you have California's
electricity. - Dr. Howard C. Hayden, Emeritus
Professor of Physics, University of Connecticut - Consider that in 2001 there was a total global
installed capacity of eight gigawatts (GW) of
geothermal power, 25 GW of wind power and
negligible photovoltaic solar power. Even
assuming the wind blows all the time, geothermal,
wind and photovoltaic add up to only one quarter
of one per cent of worldwide primary energy
production. To replace fossil fuels, you would
need to increase all these renewables by a
staggering 33,000 per cent! - Source http//www.envirotruth.org/myth9.cfm
16Global Warming Myth 7
- Kyoto will reduce air pollution and will save
lives. - Climate change is already killing 150,000 people
a year. - - Greenpeace
- http//www.greenpeace.org.uk/climate/?CFID202606
9CFTOKEN33577989 - Climate change is likely to have wide-ranging
and mostly adverse impacts on human health, with
significant loss of life - David Suzuki Foundation
- Last, J., Trouton, K., and Pengelly, D. 1998.
Taking Our Breath Away The Health Effects of Air
Pollution and Climate Change. Vancouver David
Suzuki Foundation. - http//www.davidsuzuki.org/files/healthFULL.pdf
17Global Warming Fact 7
Kyoto is about greenhouse gases only. Kyoto only
addresses carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide,
hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur
hexafluoride. It does not address any SOX or NOX
particulate matter, nor does it address ozone,
the main cause of smog. Thus, Kyoto will not
reduce atmospheric pollution, it will only
attempt to reduce the amount of CO2 emitted by
human activities. The irony is that CO2 is
required by all primary life (plants) to grow.
Without it, there would be no plant or animal
life on earth.
18To Help Fight Kyoto
- 1) Write letters to your elected government
officials, as well as to the editor of your local
newspaper and the media, and contribute to
websites and blogs as well as other avenues of
communication, that you dont want Kyoto
implemented, and you want a real solution to real
pollution, which CO2 is not. - 2) Visit the Friends of Science at
www.friendsofscience.org often, to keep up to
date and join us in fighting against the abuse of
science and promotion of hysteria.