POSTED ON JULY 27, 2016 BY WILLIAMSON DAILY NEWS
Climate change rhetoric
often meaningless
COLUMNS, EDITORIALS
https://williamsondailynews.com/opinion/columns/5799/climate-
change-rhetoric-often-meaningless
By Tom Harris
and Tim Ball
Guest Columnists
The best answer to many of the excited claims by climate activists
and their political allies is simply: of course!
1
“Climate change is real,” they say. Of course! Gravity and sunrise are
also real. But that doesn’t mean we cause them or we would be
better off without them. Climate has been changing since the origin of
the atmosphere billions of years ago.
But, “manmade climate change is a fact,” they respond. Of course! It
is obviously warmer in urban areas than in the countryside because
of manmade impacts. However, the only place where carbon dioxide
(CO2) increase causes a temperature increase is in computer models
preprogrammed to show exactly that. All records show that
temperature increase precedes CO2 increase.
All that should matter to public officials is whether our CO2 emissions
are in any way dangerous. Since they are almost certainly not, the $1
billion spent every day across the world on climate finance is mostly
wasted.
But, they tell us, “2014 was the hottest year on record, until 2015
surpassed even that. The last two decades include the 19 hottest
years on record.”
Of course! One would naturally expect the warmest years to be at the
top of a warming record. And thank goodness we have been in a
gradual warming trend since the depths of the Little Ice Age in the
late 1600s.
Regardless, 2014 set the record by seven hundredths of a degree
Fahrenheit; 2015 by 29 hundredths of a degree. These amounts are
too small to even notice and one is even less than the government’s
uncertainty estimates of 14 hundredths of a degree.
But “observations of extreme weather events are increasing.
Insurance claims are skyrocketing,” we are told.
Of course! As human habitation increases in areas that were
previously sparsely populated, there will naturally be more reports of
extreme weather and more related insurance claims. The database of
the State Climate Extremes Committee (see
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/extremes/scec/records) clearly shows that
the incidence of state-wide extreme weather records has been
decreasing in recent years.
The next alarmist claim? “Sea levels rose 7 inches in the last
century!”
Of course! Sea level has been rising since the end of the last glacial
period, 15,000 years ago. There has been no recent acceleration,
and the current rate of rise is less than one tenth that of 8,000 years
ago.
2
Climate campaigners are upset that fossil fuel companies support
some of the groups who question political correctness on climate
change.
Of course! But the amounts being funneled to entities which support
the climate scare is enormously greater. The latest Foundation
Center report (2010) shows that the California-based William and
Flora Hewlett Foundation alone donated over one half billion dollars
to climate change programs in 2008, over one hundred times as
much as the average annual donation activists complain that the
Koch brothers have given to skeptics.
All this would be humorous if it did not have such serious
ramifications. In the vain hope of stopping trivial changes in climate,
activists and compliant politicians are working hard to force us to
switch from coal and other fossil fuels, America’s least expensive and
most abundant power sources, to unreliable and expensive
alternatives such as wind and solar power. The public need to ask
them, “Why are you doing this? Who are you trying to please?”
Tom Harris is executive director of the Ottawa, Canada-based
International Climate Science Coalition. Dr. Tim Ball is an
environmental consultant and former climatology professor at the
University of Winnipeg in Manitoba.
James Matkin • a few seconds ago
Tom Harris is right and well supported by highly reputable
climate scientists which is more than you can say for the
alarmists. Here is an example by Professor Woodstock -
A former NASA scientist has described global warming as
"nonsense" saying that it is "absolutely stupid" to blame the
recent UK floods on human activity.
"It's absolutely stupid to blame floods on climate change, as I
read the Prime Minister did recently. I don't blame the politicians
in this case, however, I blame his so-called scientific advisors."
Professor Woodcock dismissed evidence for global warming,
such as the floods that deluged large parts of Britain this winter,
as "anecdotal" and therefore meaningless in science.
3
"Events can happen with frequencies on all time scales in the
physics of a chaotic system such as the weather. Any point on
lowland can flood up to a certain level on all time scales from
one month to millions of years and it's completely unpredictable
beyond around five days," he said.
Professor Les Woodcock, who has had a long and distinguished
academic career, also said there is "no reproducible evidence"
that carbon dioxide levels have increased over the past century,
and blamed the green movement for inflicting economic
damage on ordinary people.
"The theory is that the CO2 emitted by burning fossil fuel is the
'greenhouse gas' causes 'global warming' - in fact, water is a
much more powerful greenhouse gas and there is 20 time more
of it in our atmosphere (around one per cent of the atmosphere)
whereas CO2 is only 0.04 per cent, Professor Woodcock told
the Yorkshire Evening Post, adding "Even the term 'global
warming' does not mean anything unless you give it a time
scale. The temperature of the earth has been going up and
down for millions of years, if there are extremes, it's nothing to
do with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it's not permanent
and it's not caused by us."
Professor Woodcock is Emeritus Professor of Chemical
Thermodynamics at the University of Manchester and has
authored over 70 academic papers for a wide range of scientific
journals. He received his PhD from the University of London,
and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a recipient of
a Max Planck Society Visiting Fellowship, and a founding editor
the journal Molecular Simulation.
According to him, the only reason we regularly hear that we
have had the most extreme weather "since records began" is
that records only began about 100 years ago
https://sputniknews.com/voiceo...
Rising
sea
levels
have
been
the
norm
If
you
run
the
numbers
(see
below),
you’ll
find
that
sea
levels
have
been
rising
an
average
of
.42
to
.48
inches
(just
under
4
half-‐an-‐inch)
per
year
for
the
past
10,000
years.
Rising
sea
levels
have
been
the
norm,
in
other
words,
for
10,000
years.
And
that
brings
us
to
today.
What
are
sea
levels
doing
right
now?
Sea
levels
now
rising
slower
than
normal
According
to
NASA,
sea
levels
are
rising
3.24
mm
(about
1/8th
of
an
inch)
per
year.
That’s
about
the
thickness
of
two
nickels
stacked
on
top
of
each
other.
Not
the
diameter
of
the
nickels,
but
the
thickness,
In
other
words,
sea
levels
are
rising
slower
than
normal.
Sea
levels
declined
in
2010
and
2011
That
doesn’t
even
take
into
account
the
fact
that
sea
levels
declined
in
both
2010
and
2011.
Yes,
no
matter
how
assiduously
the
media
tries
to
ignore
it,
sea
levels
actually
declined
in
both
of
those
years.
Where
is
the
water
going?
It’s
being
locked
up
on
land
as
snow
and
ice.
That’s
how
ice
ages
begin.
If
we
keep
getting
record
snowfall
as
we
have
during
the
past
few
years,
sea
levels
will
begin
falling
and
won’t
begin
rising
again
until
the
end
of
the
next
ice
age.
This
talk
of
unprecedented
rising
sea
levels
and
catastrophic
global
warming
is
complete
nonsense.
It
is
just
simply
not
true.
https://iceagenow.info/whats-‐new-‐sea-‐levels-‐rising-‐10000-‐years/#more-‐18725
'Climate change' is
meaningless, global warming is
nonsense - former NASA
scientist
5
Photo: RIA Novosti
"The term 'climate change' is
meaningless. The Earth's climate has
been changing since time immemorial,
that is since the Earth was formed 1,000
million years ago. The theory of 'man-
made climate change' is an
unsubstantiated hypothesis," says former
NASA scientist, Professor Dr. Leslie
Woodcock, challenging the theory
promoted by left-leaning Democrats,
some in the US government, and
President Obama that increased global
warming is caused by man, Breitbart
News reports.
A former NASA scientist has described global warming as
"nonsense" saying that it is "absolutely stupid" to blame the recent
UK floods on human activity.
6
"It's absolutely stupid to blame floods on climate change, as I read
the Prime Minister did recently. I don't blame the politicians in this
case, however, I blame his so-called scientific advisors."
Professor Woodcock dismissed evidence for global warming, such
as the floods that deluged large parts of Britain this winter, as
"anecdotal" and therefore meaningless in science.
"Events can happen with frequencies on all time scales in the
physics of a chaotic system such as the weather. Any point on
lowland can flood up to a certain level on all time scales from one
month to millions of years and it's completely unpredictable
beyond around five days," he said.
Professor Les Woodcock, who has had a long and distinguished
academic career, also said there is "no reproducible evidence" that
carbon dioxide levels have increased over the past century, and
blamed the green movement for inflicting economic damage on
ordinary people.
"The theory is that the CO2 emitted by burning fossil fuel is the
'greenhouse gas' causes 'global warming' - in fact, water is a much
more powerful greenhouse gas and there is 20 time more of it in
our atmosphere (around one per cent of the atmosphere) whereas
CO2 is only 0.04 per cent, Professor Woodcock told the Yorkshire
Evening Post, adding "Even the term 'global warming' does not
mean anything unless you give it a time scale. The temperature of
the earth has been going up and down for millions of years, if there
are extremes, it's nothing to do with carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere, it's not permanent and it's not caused by us."
Professor Woodcock is Emeritus Professor of Chemical
Thermodynamics at the University of Manchester and has authored
over 70 academic papers for a wide range of scientific journals. He
received his PhD from the University of London, and is a Fellow
of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a recipient of a Max Planck
Society Visiting Fellowship, and a founding editor the journal
Molecular Simulation.
According to him, the only reason we regularly hear that we have
had the most extreme weather "since records began" is that records
7
only began about 100 years ago.
"The reason records seem to be being frequently broken is simply
because we only started keeping them about 100 years ago. There
will always be some record broken somewhere when we have
another natural fluctuation in weather."
When asked how can say this when most of the world's scientists,
political leaders and people in general are committed to the theory
of global warming, Prof Woodcock answered bluntly: "This is not
the way science works. If you tell me that you have a theory there
is a teapot in orbit between the earth and the moon, it's not up to
me to prove it does not exist, it's up to you to provide the
reproducible scientific evidence for your theory. Such evidence for
the man-made climate change theory has not been forthcoming."
This lack of evidence has not stopped a whole green industry
building up, however, he said, arguing that at the behest of that
industry, governments have been passing ever more regulations
that make life more difficult and expensive.
"...the damage to our economy the climate change lobby is now
costing us is infinitely more destructive to the livelihoods of our
grand-children. Indeed, we grand-parents are finding it
increasingly expensive just to keep warm as a consequence of the
idiotic decisions our politicians have taken in recent years about
the green production of electricity."
Professor Woodcock is not the only scientist to come out against
the theory of man-made global warming. James Lovelock, once
described as a "green guru", earlier this month said that climate
scientists "just guess", and that no one really knows what's
happening.
Judith Curry, chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric
Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, also said that she
was "duped into supporting the IPCC" and added "If the IPCC is
dogma, then count me in as a heretic."
The issue of so-called man-made global warming has been a topic
of liberals for several years who use such false hypothesis in
advancing their causes that has caused millions of people
8
economic hardship when data proves otherwise, not to mention,
failed alternative energy companies, some scientists claim.
While environmentalists and left-wing liberals continue to state
that man is the cause of the global warming, the data is proving
otherwise. Several scientists as well as others, have pointed out
through scientific facts, not theories, that the surface of the earth
acquires nearly all of its heat from the sun, not from humans and
the only exit for this heat to take is through the form of radiation.
In 2012, Robert W. Felix, author and owner of the website,
OfIceAgeNow, said and presented visual data of climate change
over the past 10,000 years and that it has been warmer in the past
than it is today and that warming and cooling cycles have gone on
throughout that time.
Felix said, “GISP Greenland Ice Core Data shows that it has been
warmer than today for almost all of the past 10,000 years. Not only
warmer, it shows that temperatures have been declining in a zig-
zag fashion for several thousand years.”
“If you talk to real scientists who have no political interest, they
will tell you there is nothing in global warming. It is an industry,
which creates vast amounts of money for some people,” said
Woodcock
“The reason records seem to be being frequently broken is simply
because we only started keeping them about 100 years ago. There
will always be some record broken somewhere when we have
another natural fluctuation in weather,” Woodcock concluded.
Olga Yazhgunovich
https://sputniknews.com/voiceofrussia/2014_04_29/Climate-‐change-‐is-‐
meaningless-‐global-‐warming-‐is-‐nonsense-‐former-‐NASA-‐scientist-‐2998/
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is Not Pollution
9
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is not a pollutant and the global warming debate has
nothing to do with pollution. The average person has been misled and is
confused about what the current global warming debate is about -
greenhouse gases. None of which has anything to do with air pollution.
People are confusing smog, carbon monoxide (CO) and the pollutants in
car exhaust with the life supporting, essential trace gas in our atmosphere
- carbon dioxide (CO2). Real air pollution is already regulated under the
1970's Clean Air Act and regulating carbon dioxide (CO2) will do
absolutely nothing to make the air you breath "cleaner"….
"To suddenly label CO2 as a "pollutant" is a disservice to a gas that
has played an enormous role in the development and sustainability of
all life on this wonderful Earth. Mother Earth has clearly ruled that
CO2 is not a pollutant."
- Robert C. Balling Jr., Ph.D. Professor of Climatology, Arizona State
University
"C02 is not a pollutant as Gore infers. It is, in fact essential to life on
the planet. Without it there are no plants, therefore no oxygen and no
life. At 385 ppm current levels the plants are undernourished. The
geologic evidence shows an average level of 1000 ppm over 600
million years. Research shows plants function most efficiently at
1000-2000 ppm. Commercial greenhouses use the information and
are pumping C02 to these levels and achieve four times the yield with
educed water use. At 200 ppm, the plants suffer seriously and at 150
ppm, they begin to die. So if Gore achieves his goal of reducing C02
he will destroy the planet."
- Tim F. Ball, Ph.D. Climatology
"Many chemicals are absolutely necessary for humans to live, for
instance oxygen. Just as necessary, human metabolism produces
by-products that are exhaled, like carbon dioxide and water vapor.
So, the production of carbon dioxide is necessary, on the most basic
level, for humans to survive. The carbon dioxide that is emitted as
part of a wide variety of natural processes is, in turn, necessary for
vegetation to live. It turns out that most vegetation is somewhat
'starved' for carbon dioxide, as experiments have shown that a wide
variety of plants grow faster, and are more drought tolerant, in the
presence of doubled carbon dioxide concentrations. Fertilization of
10
the global atmosphere with the extra CO2 that mankind's activities
have emitted in the last century is believed to have helped increase
agricultural productivity. In short, carbon dioxide is a natural part of
our environment, necessary for life, both as 'food' and as a by-
product."
- Roy Spencer, Ph.D. Meteorology, Former Senior Scientist for Climate
Studies, NASA
http://www.populartechnology.net/2008/11/carbon-dioxide-
co2-is-not-pollution.html
Rising
sea
levels
have
been
the
norm
If
you
run
the
numbers
(see
below),
you’ll
find
that
sea
levels
have
been
rising
an
average
of
.42
to
.48
inches
(just
under
half-‐an-‐inch)
per
year
for
the
past
10,000
years.
Rising
sea
levels
have
been
the
norm,
in
other
words,
for
10,000
years.
And
that
brings
us
to
today.
What
are
sea
levels
doing
right
now?
Sea
levels
now
rising
slower
than
normal
According
to
NASA,
sea
levels
are
rising
3.24
mm
(about
1/8th
of
an
inch)
per
year.
That’s
about
the
thickness
of
two
nickels
stacked
on
top
of
each
other.
Not
the
diameter
of
the
nickels,
but
the
thickness,
In
other
words,
sea
levels
are
rising
slower
than
normal.
Sea
levels
declined
in
2010
and
2011
That
doesn’t
even
take
into
account
the
fact
that
sea
levels
declined
in
both
2010
and
2011.
Yes,
no
matter
how
assiduously
the
media
tries
to
ignore
it,
sea
levels
actually
declined
in
both
of
those
years.
Where
is
the
water
going?
It’s
being
locked
up
on
land
as
snow
and
ice.
That’s
how
ice
ages
begin.
If
we
keep
getting
record
snowfall
as
we
have
during
the
past
few
years,
sea
levels
will
begin
falling
and
won’t
begin
rising
again
until
the
end
of
the
next
ice
age.
11
This
talk
of
unprecedented
rising
sea
levels
and
catastrophic
global
warming
is
complete
nonsense.
It
is
just
simply
not
true.
https://iceagenow.info/whats-‐new-‐sea-‐levels-‐rising-‐10000-‐years/#more-‐18725
http://climate.nasa.gov/vital-‐signs/sea-‐level/
12
