Thursday 11 October 2007

Global Warming - Is the Evidence Misleading?

Everybody is talking about climate change and urging that drastic steps must be taken to reverse the process. Is it not that climate change is a natural phenomenon and the planet Earth has gone through periods in the past when the climate was a great deal warmer than it is now, in the age of the dinosaurs for example? There is certainly a need for the present inhabitants of Earth to conserve the natural environment instead of raping and plundering the earth's resources as is being done today, to stop cutting down vast tracts of forest and denuding the earth of trees. The results of this are seen in landslides, soil erosion and increased CO2, as well as depriving living creatures of their natural habitat.
The emission of carbon gases into the atmosphere has a possible minimal effect on global warming and it is more likely that natural occurrences are responsible for the global rise in temperature and not specifically the fact of human pollution. Nature in any case will always redress the balance as there are checks and balances in place to ensure the continued survival of the planet. This is not to say that we should cease our efforts to enlighten the public on the desire to cut down on the use of fossil fuels but we need to keep things in proportion. Man is the guardian of the planet and its natural environment which is provided for the benefit and sustenance of all life. By destroying and abusing this environment human beings are causing further mayhem and are storing up problems for future generations.
Al Gore has highlighted the problems we are facing in his film "An Inconvenient Truth", but as is shown below we must ensure that there is fair and intelligent debate:

The inaccuracies are:
* The film claims that melting snows on Mount Kilimanjaro evidence global warming. The Government’s expert was forced to concede that this is not correct.
* The film suggests that evidence from ice cores proves that rising CO2 causes temperature increases over 650,000 years. The Court found that the film was misleading: over that period the rises in CO2 lagged behind the temperature rises by 800-2000 years.
* The film uses emotive images of Hurricane Katrina and suggests that this has been caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that it was “not possible” to attribute one-off events to global warming.
* The film shows the drying up of Lake Chad and claims that this was caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that this was not the case.
* The film claims that a study showed that polar bears had drowned due to disappearing arctic ice. It turned out that Mr Gore had misread the study: in fact four polar bears drowned and this was because of a particularly violent storm.
* The film threatens that global warming could stop the Gulf Stream throwing Europe into an ice age: the Claimant’s evidence was that this was a scientific impossibility.
* The film blames global warming for species losses including coral reef bleaching. The Government could not find any evidence to support this claim.
* The film suggests that the Greenland ice covering could melt causing sea levels to rise dangerously. The evidence is that Greenland will not melt for millennia.
* The film suggests that the Antarctic ice covering is melting, the evidence was that it is in fact increasing.
* The film suggests that sea levels could rise by 7m causing the displacement of millions of people. In fact the evidence is that sea levels are expected to rise by about 40cm over the next hundred years and that there is no such threat of massive migration.
* The film claims that rising sea levels has caused the evacuation of certain Pacific islands to New Zealand. The Government are unable to substantiate this and the Court observed that this appears to be a false claim.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gosh, you are better than Fox News Alan.

Vigilante said...

Well, let's just hope that

The emission of carbon gases into the atmosphere has a possible minimal effect on global warming

That would be the best case scenario compared to other possibilities. Let's get to work and see what we can do about emissions, huh?

Unknown said...

Anon : That's not saying much!

Vigilante: Always the optimist!

Anonymous said...

Global warming is a wonderful scam for politicians ... you can quietly ignore all those real problems that the electorate face, dirty hospitals, failing schools, crime, lack of affordable housing etc etc and preach the holier and thou message of global warming secure in the knowledge that its going to be thirty years or more before the chickens come home to roost and the scam is shown for what it is.

Oh and of course it's a wonderful excuse to raise taxes, make loads of lovely money and generally keep the hoi polloi in their places .... which is certainly not at an airport rubbimng shoulders with their betters.

Yep global warming, a religion for some and a great excuse for politicians to pretend their actually doing something useful.

Anonymous said...

There is an article in NATIONAL GEOGRAPIC ADVENTURER from a month or so ago stating there is a voracious worm invading the tropics that is more lethal as to emissions from all the rotting matter they cause than autos.
I am not sure whether I understood it correctly, but nothing would surprise me nowadays. Also, it is the polar bear cubs that will fail to make it to the dwindling ice packs from what I gather as most articles state that the adults are strong swimmers. The thoughts of a polar bear cub drowning is very upsetting to me as I have become a polar bear fan thanks to Cute Knut of Zoo Berlin fame.

Submitted by: Karen V. Stefanini, Back Bay, Boston, MA

Anonymous said...

Norway has always seemed to be an example to a country like Wales which aspires to national self-determination. The annual Nobel Peace Prize is a salutory reminder that small countries can be as just stupid as their larger neighbours.

Kissinger, Trimble, Annan, Carter, Arafat and now Al Gore.

Unknown said...

Depends who is on the committee.