Debunking the Debunkers

Climate Change Simply put: Since the industrial revolution we have been creating a gaseous duvet around the planet which traps heat that radiates from the sun. The heat is trapped within this duvet, which adds to the Earths temperature leading to the melting of the glaciers, which in turn adds to more warming. The southern hemisphere will get hotter while the northern hemisphere will get cooler, if the gulf stream alters due to the changes in the oceanic temperatures.

The text of this news item has its origins in the March 1912 issue of Popular Mechanics, where it appeared as a caption in an article titled “Remarkable Weather of 1911: The Effect of the Combustion of Coal on the Climate — What Scientists Predict for the Future”

Svante Arrhenius and Eunice Newton Foote estimated the extent to which increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide traps the heat of the sun; adding to increasing surface temperature. Eunice Newton Foote’s experiments involving testing vessels put us on the path to understanding how concentration of climatic gasses in the atmosphere absorb and radiate heat. Charles David Keeling was an American scientist, whose recorded Carbon Dioxide at the Mauna Observatory which confirmed Svante Arrhenius’s hypothesis of the potential anthropogenic contribution to the greenhouse effect and global warming, by documenting the steadily rising carbon dioxide levels. The Keeling Curve measures the progressive buildup of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, in the atmosphere. In order to get a better idea of whether C02 increase is related to human activity we need to look at the long term variations to see if this is abnormal or not. All the graphs below tell the same story: We are heading over the cliff if we don’t come together and unify on this global challenge humanity faces.

In 1974 prominent climate scientist Wallace Broecker published a paper titled  Climatic Change: Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?

Pollutants have altered on a global scale the carbon dioxide content of the air and the lead concentrations in ocean waters and human populations.

Broecker’s model predicted the global warming anticipated by 2015 in his best estimate of natural climate cycles. In the figure below, the carbon-caused warming is shown in blue, and in combination with natural cycles in green, as compared to the observed global surface temperatures from NOAA in red. As you can see, the climate model predictions from over 40 years ago turned out to be remarkably accurate.

Wallace Broecker’s 1974 climate model global warming predictions vs NOAA observations.

The Common Sceptical Questions from climate deniers:

The best way to summarize the evidence for climate change is to focus on what the climate change sceptics or deniers say and provide the evidence. Here is a collection of the common questions climate change deniers bring up when debating the issues:

C02 is a small part of the atmosphere

Just because something is small does not mean it cant have a huge effect. A small amount of cyanide can kill a healthy young adult. A thin layer of C02 can have a negative effect on global heat capture. A greenhouse effect is produced with a small amount of carbon which is similar to the windows of a greenhouse trapping in heat.

The Sun is the main cause of our global temperatures increasing or decreasing

One of the “smoking guns” that tells us the Sun is not causing global warming comes from looking at the amount of solar energy that hits the top of the atmosphere. Since 1978, scientists have been tracking this using sensors on satellites, which tell us that there has been no upward trend in the amount of solar energy reaching our planet. NASA [S]

Solar geomagnetic activity has had peaks and troughs since 1900, based on the number of sunspots observed on the face of the Sun each day. The Sun’s activity increased in the early half of the twentieth century, but it can’t be responsible for warming over the past 50 years. Graph by NOAA Climate.gov, based on data from the WDC-SILSO, Royal Observatory of Belgium.

Milankovitch cycles are periodic changes in the planets cycle that changes how much sunlight it receives depending on its rotation. Earths orbital parameter will affect the climate based on its orbital cycle. The Milankovitch cycle has nothing to do with todays climate changes. Using modern measuring methods, the concentrations of carbon dioxide trapped in Antarctic ice sheets from up to 800,000 years old show tiny bubbles in the ice. These are samples of our atmosphere as it was back then. The samples show that even during interglacials, the maximum amount of carbon was nowhere near the amount we have in our atmosphere today.

What about other naturally occuring factors such as volcanic activity?

Changes in global surface temperature relative to 1850-1900 / IPCC

The data is regularly tweaked over time therefore it must be false

All of the data covering the past 150 years has required some adjustment as the science becomes more clearer over time. New climatic measuring methods and data is coming in all of the time, this is part of the scientific process. Each study reinforces our understanding of the climatic changes as we measure more and more areas and delve deeper into places that were not explored and examined before the methods and technological methods were available.

Many people are in denial as it will affect their lifestyles of gluttony and overconsumption. We have become accustomed to a certain standard of living and giving up that will not be easy. When the Titanic was sinking there were probably many people on board who were unconvinced until they met their final demise. No one wants to hear bad news. Our brains are hardwired over millions of years of evolution to be positive and seek out maximal pleasure. We are amusing ourselves to death. Playing the fiddle with inaccurate statistics while the planet burns.

Increasing Ocean Temperature

Many peoples opinions about climate change are shaped by soundbites, comedians and Tik Tok videos. They are like pond skaters dancing on the surface of the water. These surface level observations do not compare to the understanding and research of those who have devoted thousands of hours of research into fully understanding the subject.

British Antarctic Survey

The Evidence for Rapid Climate Change

The Oceans are warming up as well acidifying. Since the industrial revolution the acidity of ocean surface waters have increased by around 30%. The carbon sink is overflowing thus heating up the oceans.
The glaciers are shrinking all over the world. The Greenland and Artic sheets have decreased to an alarming rate. Greenland ice has shrunk by 279 billion tons and Antartica Ice Sheets by 148 billion tons according to NASA's research. The Graph and Images below show the extent of the losses.
The weather patterns are changing all over the world from extreme heat, floods and forest fires. Pakistan saw extreme monsoon rains which devastated its livestock, housing and infrastructure to an estimation of $15.2 billion. Since the record monsoon season began in June, 90 percent of the country’s crops have been damaged and more than 1.1 million livestock animals lost. As of 4 October, 20.6 million people are now in need, with at least 7.9 million people displaced and 2 million houses damaged by the floods.
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