CLIMATE CHANGE SKEPTICS

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CLIMATE CHANGE SKEPTICS
David Lowry, Zawadi Baharanyi, Greg Kremler,
Ricardo Carreno
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OVERVIEW

• How do climate change skeptics construct their
  argument?
• How do climate change skeptics dispute evidence
  that suggests global warming is real?
• From whom do climate change skeptics receive
  their funding?
• How are climate change skeptics viewed within the
  larger scientific community?

3
Rising Temperatures

• Temperatures have actually cooled since 1989.
• Response 1989 was the warmest year on record due
  to an unusually strong El Niño event
  (cherry-picking).
• Atmospheric water vapor contributes more to the
  greenhouse effect than CO2 emissions ever will.
• Response Atmospheric water vapor levels vary as
  a function of temperature, not vice-versa.

4
Melting Glaciers and Ice Sheets

• The Greenland Ice Sheet is growing.
• Response They are accumulating snow in the
  center, but actually melting around the edges
  (net loss approximately 100 gigatons per year)
• The Western Antarctic Ice Sheet is accumulating
  mass.
• Response Ross Ice Streams are becoming inactive,
  leading to accumulation of ice mass (process is
  independent of global warming)

5
Increased Droughts and Floods

• Paleoclimatic archives preserve evidence of
  abrupt climate change
• Multidecadal drought implicated in the collapse
  of the classic Mayan civilization in the ninth
  century (P D Review 30(3), 2004)

(http//links.jstor.org/sici?sici009879212820040
929303A33C5633AACCIS3E2.0.CO3B2-6)
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Increased Droughts and Floods

• Multiple climate models predict weather
  polarization
• Areas already wet are likely to get wetter while
  those water stressed are likely to feel it more
  (Harder B, 2005)

(http//links.jstor.org/sici?sici0036-8423282005
1119291683A213C3253AGWAD3E2.0.CO3B2-1)
7
Hurricane/Tropical Cyclone Activity

• Whereas overall frequency of hurricane occurrence
  remains stable, there has been a prevalence of
  higher intensity storms that correlates with
  global warming
• Power-dissipation index of storms has doubled in
  past thirty years (Emanuel K, 2005)

(ftp//texmex.mit.edu/pub/emanuel/PAPERS/NATURE039
06.pdf)
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What is Mass Extinction?
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What does global warming have to do with Mass
Extinction?
EVERYTHING

• Minimum Predicted warming 18
• Mid range Predicted warming 24
• Maximum Predicted warming 35
• Predications as reported in Peer-reviewed Nature
  Magazine in 2004.
• IPCC predictions 1.45.8 degrees Celsius.

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Or NOTHING

• Species often thrive well outside their gross
  climatic "envelope."
• Temperatures have been bouncing up and down a lot
  more than 0.8C during the past several hundred
  thousand years.
• Global climate models, in general, predict a
  warmer surface and an increased rate of rainfall.
  As long as there is adequate moisture, the most
  diverse ecosystems on earth are in the warmest
  regions, the tropical rainforest being the prime
  example. Consequently, the general character of
  future climate is one which is more, not less
  hospitable for biodiversity.
• AS TOLD BY PATRICK MICHAELS
• Not Peer-reviewed, not substantially supported
  with scientific evidence!

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Sea Levels!
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Sea Levels

• IPCC (2001) predicts that the average temperature
  will increase by between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees
  Celsius (2.5- 10.4 F).
• Scientists have calculated that if the average
  temperature in Greenland increases by almost 3
  Celsius, its ice sheet will begin to melt.
• Many experts believe the concentration of C02 in
  the atmosphere will have reached levels around
  the year 2100 that would cause the temperature to
  rise to such levels.
• (Stefan Lovgren for National Geographic News)

13
The Issue with Greenland

• If Greenland's ice sheet melted the oceans would
  raise seven meters (23 feet), threatening to
  submerge cities located at sea level from London
  to Los Angeles.
• Even partial melting ( 1 meter rise) would have
  vast negative consequences for countries like
  Bangladesh.

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Sea Levels Contd

• The fact is, that planet Earth has been losing
  ground. It seems to be like a battle between
  land and sea and the ocean is slowly, but surely
  gaining the advantage. Glaciers are slowly
  melting and retreating. It will be no surprise
  for this generation to see a dramatic change in
  landscape. We are going to have to come with
  ways to deal with this threat now for those the
  come after us.