Read more at... http://cei.org/pdf/5331.pdf


Global Warming FAQ
Overview. Alarm over the prospect of the Earth warming is not
warranted by the agreed
science or economics of the issue. Global warming is happening and man
is responsible
for at least some of it. Yet this does not mean that global warming
will cause enough
damage to the Earth and humanity to require drastic cuts in energy
use, a policy that
would have damaging consequences of its own. Moreover, science cannot
answer
questions that are at heart economic or political, such as whether the
Kyoto Protocol is
worthwhile
1. The Science
Isn't there a scientific consensus that global warming is real and bad
for us?
· There is no "scientific consensus" that global warming will cause
damaging
climate change. Claims that there is mischaracterize the scientific
research of
bodies like the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change
(IPCC) and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
What do scientists agree on?
· Scientists do agree that: (1) global average temperature is about
0.6°Celsius-or
just over 1°Fahrenheit-higher than it was a century ago; (2)
atmospheric levels
of carbon dioxide (CO2) have risen by about 30 percent over past 200
years; and
(3) carbon dioxide, like water vapor, is a greenhouse gas whose
increase is likely
to warm the Earth's atmosphere.1
What don't scientists know yet?
· Scientists do not agree on whether: (1) we know enough to ascribe
past
temperature changes to carbon dioxide levels; (2) we have enough data
to
confidently predict future temperature levels; and (3) at what level
temperature
change might be more damaging than beneficial to life on Earth.
Didn't the National Academy of Science say greenhouse gases cause
global warming?
· The NAS reported in 2001 that, "Because of the large and still
uncertain level of
natural variability inherent in the climate record and the
uncertainties in the time
histories of the various forcing agents...a causal linkage between the
buildup of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the observed climate changes
during the
20th century cannot be unequivocally established." It also noted that
20 years'
worth of data is not long enough to estimate long-term trends. 2
Hasn't the Earth warmed alarmingly over the past 100 years?
· The temperature rise of 0.6°C over the last century is at the bottom
end of what
climate models suggest should have happened. This suggests that either
the
climate is less sensitive to greenhouse gases than previously thought
or that some
unknown factor is depressing the temperature.3
Don't climate models warn of alarming future warming?
· Predictions of 6°C temperature rises over the next 100 years are at
the extreme
end of the IPCC range, and are the result of faulty economic modeling,
not
science (see economics section below).
What are the realistic current estimates of future warming?
· Both James Hansen of NASA (the father of greenhouse theory) and
Richard
Lindzen of MIT (the most renowned climatologist in the world) agree
that, even if
nothing is done to restrict greenhouse gases, the world will only see
a global
temperature increase of about 1°C in the next 50-100 years. Hansen and
his
colleagues "predict additional warming in the next 50 years of 0.5 ±
0.2°C, a
warming rate of 0.1 ± 0.04°C per decade."4
What about satellite temperature measurements?
· Evidence from satellite and weather balloon soundings suggests that
the
atmosphere has warmed considerably less than greenhouse theory
suggests.5
There is a disparity between the surface temperature measurements,
which cover
only a small fraction of the Earth but show sustained warming, and
these
measurements, which cover the whole atmosphere and show only a very
slight
warming.