Global warming
Global warming is the term ascribed to an increase in global average surface temperature. Independent scientists such as Richard Lindzen, Fred Singer, etc., say that the patterns of global warming are naturally caused.
Politicians who support the Kyoto Protocol have made the claim that there is a cause and effect relationship between increases in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and air temperature.
Hansen's group at the Goddard Institute wrote, "Global warming is now 0.6°C in the past three decades and 0.8°C in the past century." [1]
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Natural variability of the climate system
The Earth has experienced numerous ice ages over the past two million years, during which global temperatures dropped approximately 6 degrees Celsius and then returned to normal. The frigid temperatures allowed ice sheets to expand southward, covering much of Asia, Europe, and North America. The cooling associated with ice ages is gradual, while the terminations are relatively rapid. However, even the rapid terminations of ice ages take centuries to millennia, which contrasts with the effects predicted for anthropogenic global warming.
Politics of global warming
The global average surface temperature warmed about 0.5 C over the second half of the 20th Century,Template:Fact-science and to some the warming appears to be related to increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The possibility of adverse consequences has become a major concern for environmentalists.
Assessments of climate science by the United Nations (see IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) have claimed that scientists are 90% sure that over 50% of the observed global warming in recent decades is human-caused, and that continued global warming should be expected over at lease the next century. However, the UN offers no proof of a scientific consensus on the subject, and all polls of scientists show anywhere from 25% to 75% disagreement with the UN position.
One scientist, Michael Mann, was investigated by the U.S. Congress for a scientific fraud uncovered by two persistent statistics experts (see Hockey stick graph).
- Mr. Mann testified before the Senate committee that his research is the "mainstream view" because it is featured in a chapter of the U.N. Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, of which Mr. Mann was a lead author. Mr. Soon and Ms. Baliunas challenged Mr. Mann's claim by reviewing the large body of literature that shows his claims to be unsubstantiated and his research to be fatally flawed. In truth, Mr. Mann's work is the scientific outlier — the one study that does not fit with the wealth of scientific evidence. [2]
Several prominent scientists have pointed out the politicized science of the UN's assessment methods. The scientific reports are submitted to a panel of representatives appointed by each country in the IPCC. Several scientists have complained about their work being misrepresented by the U.N.
Notes
Scientists
External links
- Fighting the Hoax
- An Inconvenient Truth - Film by Al Gore
- Global Warming: The Origin and Nature of the Alleged Scientific Consensus - Richard S. Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Global warming smear targets
