I recently heard a group of campaigners marching passionately up Nassau Street in Dublin chanting ‘Stop Climate Chaos’ with reference to man-caused climate change. To me the only chaos seems to be the debate that has arisen between two opposing views – those who say humans are responsible for climate change and those who say humans are not responsible for climate change. Climate is chaotic by its very nature. It almost seems now that every calamitous climatic event, whether it be flash flooding, hurricanes or heat waves is somehow a result of human activity.
This is not an unusually warm time. As the Earth recovers from the ‘Little Ice Age’ the current cycle of glacier melting began around 1800 and is unaffected by hydrocarbon use. The Sun, not hydrocarbons, controls temperature, and temperature varies for reasons unrelated to hydrocarbons.
The Milankovitch theory suggests that normal cyclical variations in three of the Earth’s orbital characteristics are what are responsible for past climatic change. The basic idea behind this theory assumes that over time these three cyclic events vary the amount of solar radiation that is received on the Earth’s surface and it is this which in turns varies our climate.
There are also claims made about the weather. There is no indication it is getting worse. U.S. rainfall is increasing at 1.8 inches per century. The number of violent tornados is actually decreasing. Atlantic hurricanes making landfall have not increased. In any given year it might be low, it might be high, but the trend is basically flat. Violent hurricanes and maximum hurricane wind speeds have not increased. Graphs show a flat line. But the fact is that atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) has risen 30% in the last century almost exclusively, (we’re told), due to hydrocarbons produced and released by human activity. But there’s another very important point.When you warm the oceans, CO2 is naturally released from ocean because it is less soluble in warmer water, and so the level of CO2 in the atmosphere rises. During previous interglacial periods (periods between Ice ages, like now), CO2 rose 50% due to temperature dependent ocean out-gassing. In his documentary, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, Al Gore displayed two graphs showing inclining temperature and inclining atmospheric CO2 to indicate to audiences that CO2 drives temperature. If he had superimposed the two graphs we would see that temperature goes up first, then CO2 lags behind, not the other way round.
One of the first things I learned in Junior Freshman biology lectures was that ‘We are a carbon-based life form’. Plants obtain their carbon atoms from CO2. Animals obtain their carbon atoms from plants.
Carbon is the structural element of all organic molecules in living things. The most important substances that make life possible are water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. They are definitely not atmospheric pollutants.
We do get one benefit from the CO2 we are releasing into the atmosphere, and this relates to plants. All the carbon in your body comes from atmospheric carbon. When atmospheric CO2 increases, plant fertilization is increased. Recent studies indicate that elevated CO2 causes a more persistent stimulation of biomass increment and photosynthesis than previously expected. Not only do plants grow faster when CO2 level is higher – plants actually require less water and respond more when under stress than when not under stress. Percentage growth enhancement will increase 50-100% if CO2 levels in the atmosphere go to 600ppm (parts per million). CO2 has risen from just under 300ppm a hundred years ago to the current 383ppm level: already young pine trees are growing 72% faster because of the higher CO2 levels.
It is expected that if we continue to use hydrocarbons, as we should, because we need them for our energy, the CO2 level may eventually reach 600ppm. At that level these plants will all be growing even faster. This is a wonderful and unexpected gift from the Industrial Revolution.
To summarise, I believe there is little or no evidence to categorically implicate human hydrocarbon use as the source of our supposed climate woes. Hydrocarbon use is increasing the amounts and diversity of plants and animals on the Earth. Global taxation and rationing of energy will end this environmental improvement.
Challenging a consensus is an amazing tool for people to remain free and independent thinkers.
