Contrary to the current media hype...
There is considerable dispute as to whether or not we are currently experiencing a short duration warming trend. The preponderance of credible scientific evidence indicates that the recent warming cycle ended 8-10 years ago. Before that there was a period of warming that lasted around three decades. Before that a period of cooling of similar length and before that a earlier cycle of warming. Before that was another period of cooling and all the while atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels were rising.
The recent changes in ocean and atmospheric currents indicate a decadal period of global cooling began several years ago and actual temperature measurements back this up. Solar activity, the most dominant driving force behind global temperature, has been dimminishing for several years and there are indications that we may be entering a longer term period of global cooling even though atmospheric CO2 continues to increase.
Why are CO2 emissions, particularly the relatively small amount emitted by human activity, the sole focus of most climate change debates? In scientific circles, CO2 is referred to as a ‘trace gas’ that, for hundreds of thousands of years, has remained at or below five ten-thousandths of the atmosphere by volume. Even among the so-called greenhouse gases, CO2 accounts for less than 4%, with water vapour being by far the most significant. CO2 is clearly a miniscule component of the massive mechanisms that create climate and cause climate change.
At 385 parts per million (ppm) by volume, CO2 levels are now, in a geologic sense, at their lowest in 600 million years. For example, during the exceptionally cold Ordovician glaciation, about 440 million years ago, CO2 levels were more than ten times higher than today. During this period, there was an inverse correlation between temperature and CO2 levels. At other times, warm temperatures occurred when CO2 levels were high. In the more recent millennia, a correlation appears evident, temperature changes precede changes in CO2 levels. Aside from forecasts of still primitive and unreliable computer models, modern climatological research consistently shows that there is no scientific justification for the CO2/climate hysteria that has so gripped mass media and politicians.
Attempts to maintain the focus against CO2, a colourless, odourless benign gas essential for plant photosynthesis, have become truly ludicrous. Incredibly, CO2 is branded as a ‘pollutant’ by many activists.
Poster board and Hi-light pens: $10
Snow coat, cap, mittens, long johns: $150
Idiots protesting global warming in a snowstorm: PRICELESS