I used to accept that the Earth was warming because of rising concentrations of carbon dioxide, although I was a little troubled by some of the media buzz around it. The electric power company I worked for had committed to limiting its carbon emissions at or below its 2000 levels, so there had to be substance behind global warming theory.
I’m not sure at what point I stopped simply accepting anthropogenic (human caused) global warming. I can say that for well over a year I’ve been reading a lot of climate change related material and have a much better understanding of the topic than I once had. My first blog post on climate was It’s not a hypothesis… It’s not a theory… it’s a CONSENSUS! eleven months ago.
Below is some of what I’ve come to believe and understand related to the Earth’s climate.
- Anthropogenic global warming is an unproven hypothesis.
- Even though anthropogenic global warming is an unproven hypothesis, it is likely that some warming has resulted from carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere by humans.
- There is no proof that continued rise in CO2 will result in continued rise in global temperatures.
Carbon Dioxide Absorption Peaks
- Carbon dioxide acts as a greenhouse gas by absorbing infrared radiation in three narrow bands of frequencies, (2.7, 4.3 and 15 micrometers (µM)), meaning that most of the heat producing infrared radiation frequencies escapes absorption by CO2. The main peak, 15 µM, is absorbed completely within about 10 meters of the ground meaning that there is no more to absorb. Doubling the human contribution of CO2 would reduce this distance. Reducing the distance for absorption would not result in an increase in temperature.
- The science of climate change is not settled. Science is never settled. There is always more to learn, more to add.
- Consensus on climate change is not science. It’s politics. Science isn’t done by consensus, as I understand it.
- For a scientist to be a skeptic on climate change is not a bad thing. Scepticism and questioning are important aspects of science.
- The Earth appears to have been cooling overall for most of this young century.
- The reports of the danger to polar bears are premature. The reports are also recycled over and over again.
- The prediction of an Arctic free of ice is premature. AMSRE-A Sea Ice Extent has 6 1/2 years of history. The sea arctic sea ice extent currently is higher than any of the other years at this point in the annual cycle. AMSRE-A (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer – Earth Observing System).
- Antarctic sea ice extent is getting larger.
- A recent survey found Arctic ice to be thicker than expected. (radiobremen)
