Let me start off by saying that I don’t particularly like talking about global warming with a firm believer of the theory that humans are the main cause behind climate change. It’s a waste of time, as I’ve never really seen anybody change their views on the matter, even when presented with the cold hard facts. But I’d like to present to you today my opinion, and I hope that you are able to take something from this article.
I presume that many of you have seen Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth. If you have not yet watched it, don’t. I’m also pretty sure that if you did manage to make it through the entire duration of the film, you felt guilty and thought that you must change your ways, or be responsible for the destruction of the planet. But after a week, all you can remember is that it featured Al Gore on a scissor lift, pointing to a graph with a concerned look on his face. However, your opinion will have been formed. When Al Gore showed you his graph with the global temperature and carbon dioxide levels steadily rising, any thoughts of skepticism on your part were vanquished and you immediately dashed around the house, turning off lights and kitchen appliances.
But just think for a minute. If I were to plot the values of, let’s say, the number of people on the earth and the annual military budget of the United States over the past 100 years, both would show a constant increase. But quite obviously, these two are completely unrelated. The number of nuclear submarines that the United States clearly has no effect on how many people are born in China. The same may well be true in the case of carbon dioxide and temperature change.
But wait, you are saying. Surely in I can’t just dismiss your views that quickly? Surely Al Gore, and other tree huggers for that matter, provides more proof of his point?
Just think about it for a moment. No, not really. He just rambles on about the possible consequences of the world getting hotter, such as fluffy polar bears not having anywhere to live, and winter not being quite so cold and wet. The reason for people’s current beliefs in global warming is because that is all they’ve ever been told.
The truth is that the IPCC, which is the intergovernmental panel on climate change, skewed facts to show what Al Gore wanted us to see. Al Gore also tells quite a few lies in his movie, to try and scare people into believing him1. This is often referred to as ‘alarmism’, and is commonly used by people such as Al Gore.
Sure, we’re pumping billions of tons of Carbon into the atmosphere every year, but that doesn’t mean to say that it is causing the earth to heat up. After all, there was a medieval warming period larger than the current one. During this time, it is known that the Vikings grew crops in Greenland, far before we had factories and lawn mowers.
Source: UIG
www.uigi.com/air.html
Now that I’ve successfully discredited Al Gore, the IPCC and the United Nations, I’ll tell you about the more likely scenario, and it is, as you’ll be pleased to know, much simpler than the theory of greenhouse gasses. The sun, which is the big yellow thing in the sky, is actually quite erratic at doing its job of heating us and providing light. Some years it is particularly active, and some years it’s not. When it’s active, the earth receives more energy from the sun, and the planet heats up. When it’s not active, the earth receives less energy from the sun, and begins to cool down. Simple as that. Even NASA agrees with me.
Source: NASA
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/01apr_deepsolarminimum.htm
Then why, I ask, do so many believe the theory of man-made global warming? Well, it’s partially because it’s all we’ve ever been told, and partly because of human religious morals, which are: that we have sinned (due to our industrial society), we face disaster (by the planet warming dangerously), and we must repent and change our ways (by all hopping to work).
Now, if you’re an Al Gore fan, I’m sure this is coming across as extremely biased. In a world where every such expert is influenced by something, usually money, we scoff at reports released by corporations that vindicate their product. And we should be skeptical. It’s not a good idea to follow the advice given by tobacco corporations. But this does not mean that we should not listen to their side of the story. If you have some time on your hands, read Climate Change Considered: The 2009 report of the Nongovernmental Institute on Climate Change (NIPCC). In the report’s 880 pages, (don’t worry, there is a summary) a clear rebuttal of the IPCC’s findings is presented.
Source: NIPCC
http://www.nipccreport.org/
And if you think good ol’ Al Gore is a saint, think again. He makes huge amounts of money through giving speeches on global warming; receiving £100 000 to deliver a poorly received 30 minute speech at the Fortune Forum2. He has also refused to take a pledge, dreamt up by eco-mentalists like himself, that states that he will use less energy than the average USA household3. But if you still think that everybody, including the NIPCC, has some sort of agenda, what about me? I’m not very cozy with Al Gore, and neither am I receiving funding from Chevron.
But right now, the world has enough real problems, such as the financial crisis, poverty, conflict, diseases, and the release of Donte Stallworth from prison, to be concerned about problems like global warming, which we have no control over. If global warming does one day become a problem, we will do what we have always done: get used to our new conditions. I hope people realize this, and eventually come to their senses. And just remember, there is no scientific consensus on man-made global warming, no matter how much people tell you4!
By James Graham
PS: If anyone has any rational points or arguments they would like to address, please do.
Notes
1 –
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3308582/Al-Gores-climate...
2 -
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-500586/Al-Gore-criticised-l...
3 -
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Pledge
4 -
http://www.warmingscaretactics.com/Consensus.php (many links from page)
Sources
- Warming Scare Tactics -
http://www.warmingscaretactics.com
- U.S Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works -
http://epw.senate.gov
- Climate Realists -
http://climaterealists.com
- Wall Street Journal -
http://online.wsj.com/home-page
- Article: Superstition, not science, feeds top folly of our age
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4908350