Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Top 5 problems with “Climate Change”

Today is "blog action day". The goal of blog action day is to get many bloggers writing on the same issue in order to further the discussion. This year's topic is "Climate Change". My contribution to this discussion is likely to be a little different from most of the other posts you will read today. Today, I am writing about my top 5 concerns with the theory of "man-made catastrophic global warming". For brevities sake, I will simply refer to this as "global warming". These five points represent my biggest issues with the theory of global warming. To be upfront, I have seen no real evidence to convince me that there is any significant global warming caused by man. For those of you who think I am wrong, here are my challenges to you:



The Name. Just a short time ago, every politician and activist was referring to this theory as "global warming". Now they are calling it "climate change". Why? If they call it global warming, it is easy to to point out holes in the theory. As "climate change" any varying weather pattern (floods, droughts, record heat, record cold, record hurricanes, or lack of hurricanes) can be blamed on "climate change". As "global warming" it's to blame opposite occurrences (such as record highs and record lows) on the same phenomenon.



The Temperature record. If you have read anything about global warming you may have read that 1998 is the hottest year on record. For a while it was. Then it was discovered that NASA had an error in their temperature data. When this was discovered, 1998 was no longer the hottest year on record. Now, we believe 1934 was the hottest year on record. Additionally, six of the ten hottest years were prior to 1990. To add further insult to injury, it has also been discovered that world wide temperatures have been declining since 1998, not increasing. If CO2 is directly related to temperature, and we are releasing record amounts of CO2, the temperatures should be getting hotter and hotter. They're not.



The "hockey stick" graph. If you saw An Inconvenient Truth, you might remember a scene where Al Gore reveals a graph showing temperature increasing at a steady pace, then suddenly flying vertically off the top of the chart. While this graph is very impressive, it has also been debunked. Turns out if you put ANY data set into the equations used to predict that graph, it will give you the same graph. That isn't very good science. While we are talking about good science…



Computer models. In writing a computer model to predict something in the future, you check it to see if it can predict something that has already occurred. For example, if you write a computer program to predict future climate patterns, you might stick data from the 1970's or 1980's in to see if the program can accurately predict the climate in the 1990's. If it can "predict" this known event, then you have a little more confidence in your model. If it doesn't predict the known occurrence, then you should be very suspicious of the model. In the case of global warming, no computer program that is being used to argue the theory of global warming accurately predicts any known data. In any other field, these models would be considered failures, and no importance would be attached to them.



Clouds. This is perhaps the least known argument against global warming, and perhaps the most critical. Climatologists don't understand how or why clouds form, exactly what they do, or what causes them to disappear. However, climatologists agree that clouds play a very significant role in our weather and our climate. Think about that for a minute. A major component of our climate we don't understand at all. That means any model that includes clouds includes a guess, and any climate model that doesn't include clouds is worthless.


Many Global Warming and Climate Change believers have called for radical new requirements in both the United States and across the world to limit our CO2 emissions. Most of these proposals would cause radical changes in our culture that would immediately kill any economic growth. Conserving and recycling to protect our natural resources is a very admirable project. However, passing legislation to prevent something that is only a theory, and something that has holes like those mentioned above can be economic suicide.


This list is by no means an exhaustive list of the challenges to Global Warming. There are other very good arguments against this theory.This list represents what I consider to be the most damning arguments against the theory of Global Warming or man made climate change. As you read other articles today supporting climate change and calling people to action to prevent climate change, I would encourage you to keep these arguments in mind.


5 comments:

Patrick said...

Andy-

I too have problems with the climate change (global warming) argument. However, I'm more concerned with whether or not the idea is right, and the approach is wrong. Take for instance the ban on CFCs for the ozone layer. After studying the depletion of the ozone layer, it was determined that CFCs (from man made products) were in fact depleting the ozone layer rapidly. Sometime later, that theory was debunked and the ban on CFCs was done away with. Then after another study, it was proven that CFCs were in fact dangerous and depleting the ozone layer. Thus, legislation banned CFCs yet again. This time is stuck and the theories were not debunked.

Rebecca said...

Very thought provoking post. While I don't agree with the theory of global warming either, I still believe we need to take care of the earth.

I guess I think more of it as climate change because of the drastic changes in weather and increases in the amount of violent storms and natural disasters in recent years.

Andy D said...

Patrick,

I won't get into the CFC argument only because I honestly don't know a lot about it. I have read about Global Warming / Climate Change so I am much more familiar with it.

I think I understand what you are saying with the idea / approach. If by the idea you mean man-made global warming or climate change, I do believe it is wrong. I think many of the approaches to dealing with it are way off base as well. I will get into more approaches when I respond to...

Rebecca,

In recent years, there has been less and less evidence of storms caused by global warming / climate change. However, I also believe we should take care of our planet...


I think we have a responsibility to take care of our planet for future generations. However, there is a delicate balance between taking care of our planet and leaving a strong, vibrant country in place for future generations. We have to find that right balance, and trying to do that doesn't mean trying to avert "catastrophe's" that don't exist.

the anonymous guy said...

This would be a really powerful set of ideas if they made any sense.

The list here is boilerplate climate change denial, and has been debunked so many times it's really boring to read it again.

Go back to school here.

Anonymous said...

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