It's December and cold days have returned and make an appropriate counterpoint to the Climate Change Conference being held in Europe. Most nations have representatives at the conference who, in turn, are advised experts on the subject. Interestingly, they are all avoiding a few specific facts in order to promote the urgency of Climate Change.
1. Why do they so carefully avoid saying that there is no consensus that anything unusual is happening?
2. Many meteorologists (and other scientists) believe our planet may not be warming (or cooling) any faster than it has during it's entire known history.
3. Human beings, with their industries and synthetic chemicals probably influence our climate to some degree but most informed people question the amount.
4. Antarctica is getting cooler, not warmer.
5. Western Antarctica ice is melting - but is offset by the cooling of ice on the Eastern side.
6. Melting sea ice doesn't raise the water level of the ocean. The ice is already in the ocean.
9. North America and Europe experienced cool weather from 1500 to 1800, and the time period became known as the Little Ice Age.
10. During the winter of the mid 1600's the Baltic Sea froze over, allowing people to walk from Poland to Sweden across the ice.
11. During the winter of 1780, New York Harbor froze over, allowing people to walk from Manhattan to Staten Island, and that's not so long ago.
1. Why do they so carefully avoid saying that there is no consensus that anything unusual is happening?
2. Many meteorologists (and other scientists) believe our planet may not be warming (or cooling) any faster than it has during it's entire known history.
3. Human beings, with their industries and synthetic chemicals probably influence our climate to some degree but most informed people question the amount.
5. Western Antarctica ice is melting - but is offset by the cooling of ice on the Eastern side.
6. Melting sea ice doesn't raise the water level of the ocean. The ice is already in the ocean.
7. Only ice melting sheets & polar cap ice that is over land can raise sea levels.
8. Long before the protective ozone layer formed 300 million years ago, life could not emerge from the oceans without being fried. The earth had to have cooled.
9. North America and Europe experienced cool weather from 1500 to 1800, and the time period became known as the Little Ice Age.
10. During the winter of the mid 1600's the Baltic Sea froze over, allowing people to walk from Poland to Sweden across the ice.
11. During the winter of 1780, New York Harbor froze over, allowing people to walk from Manhattan to Staten Island, and that's not so long ago.
At the Climate Change Conference they formally adopt the (existing) goal of limiting global warming by 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. They have concluded that the goal can be reached by reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The idea of de-carbonization is something that has appeared recently. It's meaning has not yet been defined. A few experts say it means that there has to be a sharp reduction of carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Is this truly an emergency?
Stay tuned.
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