One of the things that really confounds me about anthropogenic global warming is the lack of direct evidence of the link between rising CO² levels and the threat of major warming.
Yes, the earth has warmed slightly over the last 100+ year; yes, CO² concentration has been rising as a result of the use of carbon based fuels; and, yes, many scientists claim that because of this correlation, lacking any other cause, CO² produced by human activity is causing the earth’s temperature to rise.
However, correlation does NOT prove causation.
On Joanne Nova’s first post of 2010, Is there any evidence, she lays out what the evidence needs to be.
Scientific evidence for the theory that human emissions of carbon dioxide are the main cause of global warming needs to be:
- Empirical – That which we can see, hear, record, or write down. A measurement of some sort. An observation of the natural world.
- Related to CAUSE and EFFECT. That means evidence that shows that our extra carbon caused most of the recent warming. Not just evidence that the world has got warmer (which could be due to some other reason).
- Evidence that shows carbon has a major role, that doubling the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide would cause, say, 2 – 10 degrees of warming. If doubling carbon only causes 0.5 degrees of warming, who cares?
It doesn’t matter how many associations, unions, or Nobel-Prize-winning Saints believe in a theory. If they claim there is evidence, by thousands of scientists in peer reviewed papers, then it should easy for them to provide it. The problem is, all those thousands of papers are either not empirical, not related to the cause of the warming, or do not show carbon has a major role.
( read all of Joanne’s post at Is there any evidence?)
Contrary the opinions of many, the products of climate computer models are not evidence, but, rather, indicators of what the climate might be based on what is programmed into them. If the programming assumed that warming will occur with rising CO², then as CO² rises in the models’ projections, global temperature also rises.
Where is the evidence? Is there any?
