HUMAN-CAUSED GLOBAL WARMING – SOME CONTEXT
1. We are told that human CO2 emissions cause dangerous warming.
Using surface thermometer measurements, global average temperature has not
increased since 1995, and has been cooling since 2002.
Using satellite measurements, the global temperature in 2008 is the same as it was in
1979.
Using weather balloon radiosonde measurements, there has been no increase in global
temperature since 1958.
Meanwhile, there has been more than a 20% rise in CO2 since 1958. Que?
2. We are told that cutting CO2 emissions will prevent
dangerous future warming.
If Australia or New Zealand instituted severe cuts to their CO2 emissions (such as the
mooted 80% by 2050), the global warming prevented or delayed in each case would
be less than an unmeasurable one-thousandth of a degree. Que?
3. We are told that the planet is threatened should a mythical
20 C of warming occur beyond present temperature.
Planetary temperature has been more than 20 C warmer than today on many previous
occasions, without discernible damage (as opposed to quite natural ecological change)
and without runaway warming.
A person relocating from Invercargill to Whangarei “suffers” an increase in annual
average temperature of almost 100 C; and from Hobart to Darwin, an increase of 180C.
Not too many persons move the other way.
When you take your dog for a walk up a 100-m high hill, or take a tramp for 100 km
towards the equator, you will encounter the same 0.60 C temperature rise that the world
experienced in the whole 20th century.
Daily temperature ranges in mid-latitudes not infrequently attain 150 C, i.e. about
seven times the increase that we are supposed to fear. Not too many of us fall over as
a result, and nor do other species. Que?
AN EMISSIONS TRADING SCHEME IS A NON-SOLUTION TO A NON-PROBLEM