"The only correlation with global warming is solar activity and our climb out of the unusually cool period known as the Little Ice age."
Global warming is not an easy thing to measure. But there is no question that CO2 levels have, and are increasing, especially in the past couple of centuries. CO2, and several other gasses, are know to be able to absorb heavily in the infra-red. Since they do this, there are suspected in being instrumental in raising climatic temperatures higher than they would be otherwise. But, and this is a big point, there are also natural variations in climate. The Little Ice Age is a good example of this on recent record.
Ok, I have gone over basic facts here, what is my point? The point is that global climate is a dynamically stable entity. It is large and complex and can only be described in terms of chaos theory. So here is a large, complex and only dimly understood system and we are throwing large amounts of a chemical that could quite likely be instrumental in determining the balance into the air. Doesn't sound smart to me. When objections are raised, there are those that point out that we have no rock solid proof that it is a problem, many knowing full well that the system is not understood well enough to make anything but crude models. In demanding absolute proof it just guarantees that by the time there is proof, it will be too late to do anything about it. It is like there is an open bear trap on the ground. Someone is gently jostling the trigger with their foot, pointing out there is no proof that it is dangerous, everything has been going well so far...
There are large carbon sinks in the oceans and in bogs that can dump an enormous amount of CO2 (there is roughly twice as much carbon tied up in these areas than is in the atmosphere) into the atmosphere if conditions change. In addition, there are large amounts of a more potent greenhouse gas, methane, in those areas that could be released by, you guessed it, changing the energy balance. So does it make sense to dick around with this?
As far as rising sea level, that article is nonsense. Come on, a single datum is enough to contradict a huge pile of other data? Think about this. Average global temperatures have risen a couple of degrees C over the past century for whatever reason. Now water when warmed expands. A couple of degrees C would only cause the water to expand a very small percentage, but when you factor in the average depth of the oceans is measured in kilometers...
Well, do the math. |
