President Donald Trump took The United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement for economic reasons, but there would have been an equally compelling climate reason for saying so long.
Opinions abound with the topic of global warming as some believe the earth is getting warmer because of greenhouse gases produced by man. Others believe the earth is getting warmer as part of a natural process with cycles of warming and cooling trends, while still others think the truth is somewhere in the middle. So what does the science say?
In 2015 Harvard Law student, Tyler Vigen published a book that contained a detailed graph which showed that over a ten-year period from 1999 to 2009, there was an undeniable correlation between the overall trend in the increasing amount of energy generated by nuclear power plants and the growing trend in the number of people drowning in swimming pools.
Vigen entitled his book, “Spurious Correlations” for a reason, because although his graph showed a close correlation between these two events, they are in fact completely unrelated. Seeking a remedy based on a belief that correlation equals causation can be problematic, even dangerous. Only forty years ago, scientists made catastrophic predictions that the earth was heading for life-threatening temperature drops because of air pollution. Imagine the damage that would have occurred if there were a 1970’s Paris Climate Agreement and trillions of dollars were wasted to find the best ways to heat the planet?
In his 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” former U.S. Vice President Al Gore made a compelling argument regarding the correlation between CO2 and the warming of the earth. While standing in front of an impressively large graph, Gore pointed to the eye-catching correlation between the CO2 and temperature levels based on ice core surveys going back some 650,000 years. “There is one relationship that is more powerful than all the others.” explains Gore, “When there is more carbon dioxide, the temperature gets warmer.”
But according to a 2007 documentary, by British television producer Martin Durkin, although Gore is correct that there is a relationship seen in the ice samples between CO2 and temperature, what Gore fails to mention is that it’s the temperature that rises first followed by an increase in CO2 and not the other way around as Gore’s documentary suggests. After studying the ice core survey graph and data used to produce Gore’s documentary conclusions, as well as several ice core surveys taken at later times, leading Arctic paleoclimatologist, Dr. Ian Clark stated that CO2 is seen lagging behind temperature by about 800 years. “CO2 clearly cannot be causing temperature changes,” said Clark. “It’s a product of temperature. It’s following temperature changes.”
At its core, the global warming advocates believe that it’s the CO2 produced by man that is the cause. But climate analyst and authority on polar history and exploration, Dr Fred Goldberg points out that CO2 from all sources comprises only about 1.5% of the greenhouse effect while water vapor accounts for 95%. So according to Goldberg, any impact that CO2 may have on the warming of the earth is “insignificant.”
Also, Goldberg states that man-made CO2 accounts for only 4% of that 1.5% total CO2 amount. Thus man’s’ CO2 contribution to the greenhouse effect is 0.06%.
So although many scientists agree that the earth is warming, many also believe that all CO2, let alone just the CO2 produced by man is not the cause and that the warming trend is not unusual, permanent or harmful. There is plenty of evidence that shows that the earth has gone through hotter periods for longer durations and that many of the warmer trends ushered in times of prosperity, advances in technology as well as architecture.
And for a study to be seen as scientific, it must be based on facts and not opinions. The evidence collected as well as the conclusion must be measurable. So even if the statement is true that man-made CO2 is the cause for the planet getting warmer, it would be still premature to commence any remedy until scientists determine the exact measurable impact man is having.
There is no doubt that many honest individuals are completely convinced that man-made global warming is real and needs to be corrected. However, the more one looks at the recent comments by the media and politicians the more suspicious the motives seem to be and the more divisive the discussion becomes. To start, Al Gore and others have routinely categorized CO2 as a pollutant. But all scientists agree that CO2 is far from being a pollutant and in fact is needed for life to grow. So why the apparent mischaracterization?
A 50-year veteran in geology, Dr. Don Easterbrook, addressed several other common falsehoods by the media as well as other supporters of man-made global warming. Holding original temperature data, Easterbrook said, “1936 was the hottest year of this century, and the 1930’s were the hottest decade.” But Easterbrook added that NASA and NOAA are constantly manipulating the data. He said that every time there is an “adjustment,” the original 1930’s temperature data decreases while the temperature data after the year 2000 increases.
“A fraudulent statement.” is what Easterbrook said about the frequently used comment by politicians and the media that, “97 percent of scientists believe humans contribute to man-made global warming,”
Easterbrook pointed out that the 97% figure is based on manipulated data and that only 77 scientists agreed with man-made global warming. On the other hand, he said that 31,487 scientists including 9,022 holding Ph.D.’s, signed “The petition project,” which rejected man-made global warming but the media and politicians never report this fact to the public.
Of course, he’ll be labeled an anti-environment capitalist thug by the leftist media, but the U.S. economy may have just dodged a costly bullet because of the recent actions by Trump. The left is not predisposed to having an open mind, but the facts presented by dedicated scientists should at least be sufficient evidence that the debate as to the exact nature of man-made global warming is far from over.