IS GLOBAL WARMING A THREAT?

IS GLOBAL WARMING A THREAT? Or is it just hot air? www.friendsofscience.org

GLOBAL 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.

GLOBAL COOLING DOOM AND GLOOM CIRCA 1975 “There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically…with serious political implications for just about every nation on earth.”- Newsweek April 28, 1975 Present climate is “highly abnormal…[There 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?

GLOBAL 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.

GLOBAL 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/

GLOBAL WARMING MYTH #2 The 1990’s 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

Global Warming Fact #2 Why then, did the global temperature of the earth decline from 1940 to the late 1970’s (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. Temperatures over the last 18,000 years Source: http://www.atmo.arizona.edu/students/courselinks/fall04/atmo336/lectures/sec5/holocene.html Little Ice Age Last Ice Age Medieval Warm Period Present Day

Global 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

Global 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

Global 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/

Global 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 2°C…approximately 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

Global 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 economy…The 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 Economic costs of great natural disasters (US$billion), 1950-2000. Source: Munich Re 2001

Global 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. Source: http://www.envirotruth.org/myth5.cfm; Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine Hurricane Frequency, 1940 - 2000

Global 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.

Global 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

Global 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/?CFID=2026069&CFTOKEN=33577989 “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

Global 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.

To 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 don’t 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.

IS GLOBAL WARMING A THREAT?