‘Borderline Impossible’: Noted Scientist Tackles Sea Level Rise Alarmism

dailycaller.com ^ | 12/10/2018 | Michael Bastasch

[rktman]

When it comes to alarming projections of global warming-induced sea level rise, veteran climate scientist Judith Curry says people need to cool it.

“Projections of extreme, alarming impacts are very weakly justified to borderline impossible,” Curry told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Curry’s latest research, put together for clients of her consulting company near the end of November, looks in detail at projections of sea level rise. Curry’s ultimate conclusion: “Some of the worst-case scenarios strain credulity.”

“With regards to 21st century climate projections, we are dealing with deep uncertainty, and we should not be basing our policies based on the assumption that the climate will actually evolve as per predicted,” Curry told TheDCNF.

“Climate variability and change is a lot more complex than ‘CO2 as control knob’,” Curry said. “No one wants to hear this, or actually spend time understanding things,” Curry said.

[rlmorel]

Climate alarmists often look at atmospheric CO2 levels like a window that gets whitewashed.

In their view, a single thin whitewash will impede but not block the light coming through the window (heat radiating into space)

Another coat over that will impede even more. Adding additional coats will cause light to be blocked (reflected) completely.

It is a simplistic view, but that is how many of them view it. There is no evidence that CO2 levels function in the atmosphere in that manner.

[Bob434]

[[2.). Do you dispute that rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere are a lagging indicator to atmospheric temperatures (that temperatures increase first, causing CO2 outgassing from the ocean) and that the lag time is between 200-1200 years?]]

Precisely- proof positive that CO2 is not causign climate change- it can’t- the facts simply don’t support it-

It’s just simply stunning that the world has fallen for the lie that man is causing climate change- Not sure your religious beliefs, but The bible does talk about the end times where man will rather believe the lie than the truth

[[because they are almost always ideologues who aren’t interested in facts,]]

Exactly- Facts simply don’t matter to them- they just keep repeating the baseless mantra- over and over again- that is how indoctrination works- We are told things like ‘CO2 causes water vapor’ yet we are not given the % that we supposedly cause- and the fact that this water vapor is localized only, and not global is ignored- Heat rises, and always finds the paths of least resistance (ask any home builder, they will tell you how important it is to cover every possible means of escape so that heating bills aren’t through the roof- even a little spot around a window that isn’t insulated well will make a huge difference)- ie it finds the holes, where there is no cover, to escape- and the fact is the atmosphere is mostly all hole (Where there is no cloud cover), and it in no way stymied by areas where there is very very little cover (cloud cover I mean)-

It’s frustrating discussing this issue with those that have bought into the lie- because they have no math- no facts, only wide ranging unsupported claims-

[rlmorel]

I don’t even think it is that. I think it is simply a matter of enabling a global entity (the UN) to regulate and tax sovereign nations.

Because they are mostly socialists/statists at the global level, they don’t believe in bringing every floating boat up (except their own) they believe in depressing everyone DOWN to the same level of misery and industrial ineptitude.

Because they cannot figure out how to hold on to their socialist “principles” (if I may call them that) and bring the living standards of undeveloped nations up, they will take the easier course and try to hobble the developed nations.

A happy side effect for them is the diminishment and destruction of industry in developed nations. The fact that they may live in some of those developed nations is of no matter to them, since they always feel that they will be the “Party Members” whose standard of living will always be a privileged one.

[rlmorel]

All true. We make the mistake as conservatives of not attacking and deconstructing the underlying flawed foundations of Leftism.

We end up bickering with them over the huge edifices they have built on those unsound foundations, and so Leftism lives on and finds new followers all the time.

Man-caused climate change is a good example of that. If we allow them to get away with the premise (and we do) that rising CO2 levels due to human activity are directly related to:

Acne, agricultural land increase, Afghan poppies destroyed, Africa devastated, Africa in conflict, African aid threatened, African summer frost, aggressive weeds, air pressure changes, airport malaria, Agulhas current, Alaska reshaped, moves, allergy season longer, alligators in the Thames, Alps melting, Amazon a desert, American dream end, amphibians breeding earlier (or not), anaphylactic reactions to bee stings, ancient forests dramatically changed, animals head for the hills, animals shrink, Antarctic grass flourishes, Antarctic ice grows, Antarctic ice shrinks, Antarctic sea life at risk, anxiety treatment, algal blooms, archaeological sites threatened, Arctic bogs melt, Arctic in bloom, Arctic ice free, Arctic ice melt faster, Arctic lakes disappear, Arctic tundra to burn, Arctic warming (not), Atlantic less salty, Atlantic more salty, atmospheric circulation modified, attack of the killer jellyfish, avalanches reduced, avalanches increased, Baghdad snow, Bahrain under water, bananas grow, barbarisation, beer shortage, beetle infestation, bet for $10,000, better beer, big melt faster, billion dollar research projects, billion homeless, billions face risk, billions of deaths, bird distributions change, bird loss accelerating, birds shrinking, bird strikes, bird visitors drop, birds confused, birds decline (Wales), birds driven north, birds return early, bittern boom ends, blackbirds stop singing, blackbirds threatened, Black Hawk down, blood contaminated, blue mussels return, bluetongue, brain eating amoebae, brains shrink, bridge collapse (Minneapolis), Britain one big city, Britain Siberian, brothels struggle, brown Ireland, bubonic plague, budget increases, Buddhist temple threatened, building collapse, building season extension, bushfires, business opportunities, business risks, butterflies move north, camel deaths, cancer deaths in England,cannibalism, cannibalism again, caterpillar biomass shift, cave paintings threatened, childhood insomnia, Cholera, circumcision in decline, cirrus disappearance, civil unrest, cloud increase, coast beauty spots lost, cockroach migration, coffee threatened, cold climate creatures survive, cold spells (Australia), cold wave (India), computer models, conferences, conflict, conflict with Russia, consumers foot the bill, coral bleaching, coral fish suffer, coral reefs dying, coral reefs grow, coral reefs shrink , coral reefs twilight, cost of trillions, cougar attacks, crabgrass menace, cradle of civilisation threatened, creatures move uphill, crime increase, crocodile sex, crops devastated, crumbling roads, buildings and sewage systems, curriculum change, cyclones (Australia), danger to kid's health, Darfur, Dartford Warbler plague, death rate increase (US), deaths to reach 6 million, Dengue hemorrhagic fever, depression, desert advance, desert retreat, destruction of the environment, disappearance of coastal cities, disasters, diseases move from animals to humans, diseases move north, dog disease, Dolomites collapse, dozen deadly diseases, drought, ducks and geese decline, dust bowl in the corn belt, early marriages, early spring, earlier pollen season, Earth biodiversity crisis, Earth dying, Earth even hotter, Earth light dimming, Earth lopsided, Earth melting, Earth morbid fever, Earth on fast track, Earth past point of no return, Earth slowing down, Earth spins faster, Earth to explode, earth upside down, earthquakes, earthquakes redux, earthquakes redux 2, Egypt revolt, El Niño intensification, end of the world as we know it, erosion, emerging infections, encephalitis, English villages lost, equality threatened, Europe simultaneously baking and freezing, eutrophication, evolution accelerating, expansion of university climate groups, extinctions (human, civilisation, logic, Inuit, smallest butterfly, cod, ladybirds, pikas, polar bears, possums, walrus, toads, plants, salmon, trout, wild flowers, woodlice, a million species, half of all animal and plant species, mountain species, not polar bears, barrier reef, leaches, salamanders, tropical insects) experts muzzled, extreme changes to California, fading fall foliage, fainting, famine, farmers benefit, farmers go under, farm output boost, fashion disaster, fever, figurehead sacked, fir cone bonanza, fish bigger, fish catches drop, fish downsize, fish catches rise, fish deaf, fish get lost, fish head north, fish stocks at risk, fish stocks decline, five million illnesses, flames stoked, flesh eating disease, flood patterns change, floods, floods of beaches and cities, flood of migrants, flood preparation for crisis, Florida economic decline, flowers in peril, fog (more) in San Francisco, fog (less) in San Francisco, food poisoning, food prices rise, food prices soar, food security threat (SA), football team migration, footpath erosion, forest decline, forest expansion, frog with extra heads, frostbite, frost damage increased, frosts, fungi fruitful, fungi invasion, games change, Garden of Eden wilts, geese decline in Hampshire, genetic diversity decline, gene pools slashed, giant oysters invade, giant pythons invade, giant squid migrate, gingerbread houses collapse, glacial earthquakes, glacial retreat, glacial growth, glacier grows (California), glacier wrapped, global cooling, global dimming, glowing clouds, golf course to drown, golf Masters wrecked, grandstanding, grasslands wetter, Great Barrier Reef 95% dead, Great Lakes drop, great tits cope, greening of the North, Grey whales lose weight, Gulf Stream failure, habitat loss, haggis threatened, Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, harmful algae, harvest increase, harvest shrinkage, hay fever epidemic, health affected, health of children harmed, health risks, heart disease, heart attacks and strokes (Australia), heat waves, hibernation affected, hibernation ends too soon, hibernation ends too late, HIV epidemic, homeless 50 million, hornets, high court debates, human development faces unprecedented reversal, human fertility reduced, human health risk, human race oblivion, hurricanes, hurricane reduction, hurricanes fewer, hurricanes not, hydropower problems, hyperthermia deaths, ice age, ice sheet growth, ice sheet shrinkage, icebergs, illegal immigration, illness and death, inclement weather, India drowning, infrastructure failure (Canada), industry threatened, infectious diseases, inflation in China, insect explosion, insurance premium rises, Inuit displacement, Inuit poisoned, Inuit suing, invasion of cats, invasion of crabgrass, invasion of herons, invasion of jellyfish, invasion of king crabs, invasion of midges, island disappears, islands sinking, itchier poison ivy, jellyfish explosion, jets fall from sky, jet stream drifts north, Kew Gardens taxed, kidney stones, kidney stones again, killer cornflakes, killing us, kitten boom, koalas under threat, krill decline, lake and stream productivity decline, lake empties, lake shrinking and growing, landslides, landslides of ice at 140 mph, lawsuits increase, lawsuit successful, lawyers' income increased (surprise surprise!), lawyers want more, legionnaires' surge, lives saved, Loch Ness monster dead, locust plagues suppressed, Lopsided Earth, lush growth in rain forests, Malaria, mammoth dung melt, mango harvest fails, Maple production advanced, Maple syrup shortage, marine diseases, marine food chain decimated, Meaching (end of the world), Mediterranean rises, megacryometeors, Melanoma, Melanoma decline, methane emissions from plants, methane burps, methane runaway, melting permafrost, Middle Kingdom convulses, migration, migration difficult (birds), migratory birds huge losses, microbes to decompose soil carbon more rapidly, minorities hit, monkeys on the move, Mont Blanc grows, monuments imperiled, moose dying, more bad air days, more research needed, mortality increased, mountain (Everest) shrinking, mountaineers fears, mountains break up, mountains green and flowering, mountains taller, mortality lower, Myanmar cyclone, narwhals at risk, National security implications, native wildlife overwhelmed, natural disasters quadruple, new islands, next ice age, NFL threatened, Nile delta damaged, noctilucent clouds, no effect in India, Northwest Passage opened, nuclear plants bloom, oaks dying, oaks move north, ocean acidification, ocean acidification faster, ocean dead zones unleashed, ocean deserts expand, ocean waves speed up, oceans noisier, opera house to be destroyed, outdoor hockey threatened, ozone repair slowed, ozone rise, Pacific dead zone, penguin chicks frozen, personal carbon rationing, pest outbreaks, pests increase, phenology shifts, plankton blooms, plankton destabilised, plants lose protein, plants march north, plants move uphill, polar bears aggressive, polar bears cannibalistic, polar bears deaf, polar bears drowning, polar bears eating themselves, polar tours scrapped, popcorn rise, porpoise astray, profits collapse, prostitution, psychiatric illness, puffin decline, radars taken out, railroad tracks deformed, rainfall increase, rape wave, refugees, reindeer endangered, release of ancient frozen viruses, resorts disappear, rice threatened, rice yields crash, rift on Capitol Hill, rioting and nuclear war, Rise and Fall of Rome, river flow impacted, rivers raised, roads wear out, robins rampant, rocky peaks crack apart, roof of the world a desert, rooftop bars, Ross river disease, ruins ruined, Russia under pressure, salinity reduction, salinity increase, Salmonella, Salmon Decline, satellites accelerate, school closures, sea level rise, sea level rise faster, seals mating more, sewer bills rise, severe thunderstorms, sex change, sexual promiscuity, shark attacks, sharks booming, sharks moving north, sheep shrink, shop closures, short-nosed dogs endangered, shrinking ponds, shrinking shrine, ski resorts threatened, skin cancer, slow death, smaller brains, smog, snowfall increase, snowfall heavy, soaring food prices, societal collapse, soil change, songbirds change eating habits, sour grapes, space problem, spectacular orchids, spiders invade Scotland, squid aggressive giants, squid population explosion, squid tamed, squirrels reproduce earlier, stingray invasion, storms wetter, stormwater drains stressed, street crime to increase, subsidence, suicide, swordfish in the Baltic, Tabasco tragedy, taxes, tectonic plate movement, teenage drinking, terrorism, threat to peace, ticks move northward (Sweden), tides rise, tigers eat people, tomatoes rot, tornado outbreak, tourism increase, trade barriers, trade winds weakened, traffic jams, transportation threatened, tree foliage increase (UK), tree growth slowed, trees in trouble, trees less colourful, trees more colourful, trees lush, tropics expansion, tropopause raised, truffle shortage, truffles down, turtles crash, turtle feminised, turtles lay earlier, UFO sightings, UK coastal impact, UK Katrina, uprooted - 6 million, Vampire bats, Vampire moths, Venice flooded, violin decline, volcanic eruptions, volcanic eruptions redux, Iceland volcano eruption, walrus pups orphaned, walrus stampede, war, war between US and Canada, wars over water, wars sparked, wars threaten billions, wasps, water bills double, water scarcity (20% of increase), water stress, weather out of its mind, weather patterns awry, Western aid cancelled out, West Nile fever, whales lose weight, whales move north, whales wiped out, wheat yields crushed in Australia, wildfires, wind shift, wind reduced, wine - harm to Australian industry, wine industry damage (California), wine industry disaster (US), wine - more English, wine - England too hot, wine -German boon, wine - no more French , wine passé (Napa), wine stronger, winters in Britain colder, winter in Britain dead, witchcraft executions, wolves eat more moose, wolves eat less, workers laid off, World at war, World War 4, World bankruptcy, World in crisis, World in flames, Yellow fever, and [INSERT SOME NEW THING EVERY DAY HERE]

then we will lose the argument. Every single day, some new thing gets added to this insane list, and run of the mill people, even some who think themselves conservatives, swallow it hook line and sinker.

[Bob434]

[[n their view, a single thin whitewash will impede but not block the light]]

I know that’s how they present their arguments, but it’s a false argument, because there is so little CO2, that it wouldn’t be akin to whitewashing a whole window- it would only be akin to whitewashing say a 1 mm by 1 mm spot of an 8 foot by 8 foot window (Note, I don’t know the exact correlation of measurements- just winging it here- too dumb to figure out a correct correlation of dimensions), and claiming that that small amount is causing ‘massive catastrophic cooling of the 12x12 room the windows resides in

Where CO2 by man is just 0.00136% of the atmosphere, how thin must that blanket layer be? A molecule thin? Less even? the whitewash paint layer on a windows would actually be much thicker than the layer of CO2- also, when the layer gets saturated with IR molecules, it can’t absorb any more, and so the following IR molecules that are escaping from earth’s surface, will slip right past the already saturated molecules

Here’s the real kicker- what little IR molecules do get absorbed, and radiated out, get radiated out in all directions, not just back towards earth- most gets radiated outwards, away from earth- only a tiny fraction makes it’s way back towards earth in the form of heat-

And here’s another kicker- when that small tiny fraction of heat makes it’s way back to earth, it’s cooling on the way, and is being overwhelmed by the now cooler lower climate conditions (remember, the heat rose towards the atmosphere- so the lower climate region was cooling off)

Remember my Olympic pool scenario? Well it applies here too- the hotter radiated heat gets overwhelmed by the massive amount of cooler temps, and the hotter molecules almost instantly reach stasis- ie, they become the same as the surrounding air temp- Why? Because there simply is nowhere near enough hotter air to overcome the cooler mass-

These things are never explained to us because they don’t support the alarmism

[hinckley buzzard]

Perhaps you are not familiar with the record and work of Judith Curry. Be assured she does not need your help. She is one of the few true scientists studying climate and she has paid her dues big time.

[Bob434]

[[Perhaps you are not familiar with the record and work of Judith Curry.]]

I already stated that I misunderstood what the excerpt was saying— but thanks for chiming in-

[Armscor38]

You don’t need a thick blanket of any substance in order to warm the earth. Remember, we are talking parts per million. What keeps the earth from becoming a frozen snowball now? Green house gasses. Notably CO2 and CH4. About 715 million years ago, something, possibly due to rapid silicate weathering on the continents, caused a drop in CO2 levels and this in turn caused a plummet in the Earth’s average temp and thus was born Snowball Earth. For about 120 million years, Earth remained that way till volcanoes had pushed enough CO2 into the atmosphere to warm the Earth.

[Armscor38]

I don’t think most anyone argues that CO2 functions in that manner. 50% or more of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is made up of water vapor. A slight increase in one greenhouse gas, CO2 for example, would cause a slight increase in the Earth’s average temperature. This slight increase would cause an increase in water vapor in the atmosphere due to evaporation which would lead to an increase in temp which causes more evaporation and on and on. Conversely, lowering CO2 levels would cause a slight decrease in temp which would lower evaporation which would cause a decrease in water vapor which leads to more lowering of temperature and so on and so on.

[Bob434]

[[You don’t need a thick blanket of any substance in order to warm the earth. Remember, we are talking parts per million.]]

Sorry that is silly- it still amounts to just 0.00136% of the atmosphere- stating it differently, as ppm- doesn’t change that fact- and yes, you do need a thick blanket to warm a globe and 0.00136% does not provide anywhere near enough to trap enough heat to warm the globe- our atmosphere at one time had over 800 ppm and life thrived- i suggest climatedepot.org to find out some of these facts- they are chockerblock full of scientific evidence refuting ‘man-caused climatechange’

[[About 715 million years ago, something, possibly due to rapid silicate weathering on the continents, caused a drop in CO2 levels and this in turn caused a plummet in the Earth’s average temp and thus was born Snowball Earth.]]

you do know that in the past ppm was around 800 ppm right? Life thrived then- We’re nowhere near a ‘tipping point’ now-

[Armscor38]

In answer to Question # 1, I believe that it doesn’t take much a change in the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to start a chain effect. A small increase in CO2 and CH4, from human activity, can lead to a small uptick in average mean temperature. This in turn allows the atmosphere to hold more water vapor, water vapor is the largest greenhouse gas by far, which in turn causes an increase in temperature. A higher temp allows the atmosphere to hold even more water vapor and there is an increase in evaporation. Warmer oceans release more CO2. Basically, a small change in one or more of the greenhouse gasses can, over time, have a dramatic effect on climate as things cascade. I’ll answer Question #2 in another post.

[Armscor38]

“you do know that in the past ppm was around 800 ppm right? Life thrived then- We’re nowhere near a ‘tipping point’ now-”

Long before humans walked the Earth. And what was the earth’s average mean temperature during the time CO2 levels were 800 ppm? What were the sea levels in comparison to today?

[rlmorel]

Any thinking person who buys into this is simply swallowing and regurgitating what they are told in the media. And that includes some conservatives and people who present themselves as such.

What really turned the worm for me came in at least four separate parts, and it did so because if you have to resort to alarmism, falsifying data, and misrepresenting reality, that is a pretty good indicator you aren't dealing with the facts, and that is the modus operandi of the Left with respect to nearly every single issue of substance, but in this case, climate change. These were the points that made me realize that man-caused global warming is a religion, not science:

1.). The falsifying of data to produce the Mann "Hockey Stick" graph. Here are the emails from that hack back in 2009. (I cannot find the climate modeling computer code they stole from East Anglia University that had comments in the code describing what they were doing and why...they had to find a way to get rid of what is called the "Medieval Warming" to. make their hysterical claims stick):

This is the raw data before they began their "tricks" as described in the email below to flatten it out and get rid of it. They had to do that, otherwise, normal thinking people might look at the data and say "Hey, this looks like a natural cyclical process, not something caused by humans!" So here is what the data looked like before and after all on the same graph:

And then, to read these emails and see the code comments:

• From: Phil Jones. To: Many. Nov 16, 1999
  "I've just completed Mike's Nature [the science journal] trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie, from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline."

• From Phil Jones To: Michael Mann (Pennsylvania State University). July 8, 2004
  "I can't see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin and I will keep them out somehow — even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!"

• From: Kevin Trenberth (US National Center for Atmospheric Research). To: Michael Mann. Oct 12, 2009
  "The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't... Our observing system is inadequate"

• From: Phil Jones. To: Many. March 11, 2003
  “I will be emailing the journal to tell them I’m having nothing more to do with it until they rid themselves of this troublesome editor.”

• From Phil Jones. To: Michael Mann. Date: May 29, 2008
  "Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise."

• From: Michael Mann. To: Phil Jones and Gabi Hegerl (University of Edinburgh). Date: Aug 10, 2004
  "Phil and I are likely to have to respond to more crap criticisms from the idiots in the near future."

  2.). The deliberate misrepresenting of data at the highest levels from a statistical perspective to buttress the argument for man-caused (anthropogenic) global warming.. In the 2007 IPCC Statement on Global Warming, they included the graph below three times to demonstrate that the rate of warming was accelerating. Remember, this is the IPCC, the highest level official organization in the world dedicated to climate change.

  

  I have worked with data, and even I can see the issue with this IPCC official graph that they buttress their argument (as did Obama's EPA) with: when calculating the rate of change in a trend line as they have done here with the red, blue, and orange lines, is that you can make that graph say anything...ANYTHING you want it to just by changing your starting and ending points. You could even make the temperature change decline if you wished. This fraud was not unintentional. It was fully intentional. I believe it was pulled and discredited after the criticism.

  Furthermore, this one is interesting, because it highlights the dynamic that has completely and absolutely taken over the scientific community. You cannot deviate from the religion. Lord Christopher Monckton (mentioned below) called the head of the Statistics Department at Cambridge University to ask him to opine on this graph. The Department Chair looked at the data, and said something like "I know what you are going to ask me to answer about this data, and knowing you, I know what this data is, so I cannot go on the record. I have a job to consider."

  That is telling. It was a simple statistical question that even someone like me who doesn't have the breadth of the educational underpinnings on this could answer, but he could not get this person to comment publicly on it because it would endanger his livelihood. That's Science? Really? That people are afraid to SPEAK THE SIMPLE TRUTH ON ANY ASPECT OF IT? Dissent from the religion is a third rail for the scientific community. Look at what happened to Dr. Willie Soon, who came out with a peer reviewed paper and was attacked on it because it didn't support the global warming narrative. Not only was his paper attacked, he was personally attacked because he publicly deviated from the narrative, and was labeled a tool of the fossil fuel industry because he accepted grants from them for research. We all know peer review is an utter joke now anyway, but...if someone gets money from groups to buttress global warming, are they similarly labeled as shills of that industry? Of course not. Any thinking person can see that double standard.

  3.). The recognition that some of the same people who scream the loudest about global warming are the same people who were warning us back in the Seventies that we were entering another ice age and that the projections from decades ago show a complete lack of man-caused climate change. (Paul Ehrlich in particular. If you are interested, this is an interesting article about that arrogant loser, and how wrong he has been on everything: What Paul Ehrlich's “Eco-Catastrophe!” Tells Us about Climate Change Alarmism. It puts him and the alarmism in proper context). See the graph below:

  

  This is what Christopher Monckton showed to Congress, and his suggestion was, instead of spending tens of trillions of dollars to combat "global warming"...do nothing.

  4.). This part, I admit, came after I was already long opposed to man-caused global warming but it cemented it for me. As an American, you want to get Damned Hopping Mad about treatment of a foreigner Lord Christopher Monckton from the UK) who was invited to appear in front of a special Congressional hearing regarding man-caused climate change:

  LINK TO VIDEO: Lord Christopher Monckton appears as an invited guest in front of Congress to discuss anthropogenic climate change.

  Boy, did this ever piss me off watching this. I was ashamed as an American. All the Leftist Democrats on this committee simply insulted him, attacked him personally, attacked his credentials, shouted him down, filibustered him, and so on. I give him a huge amount of credit for not losing his cool, because I sure did.

  As I said, this last one cemented it for me. Because this is what Leftists, and nearly everyone who is a rabid adherent of man-caused global warming does. They resort to ad hominem attack, because that is all they have. And to see it from our elected officials was disturbing and disgusting. If you can't pound the facts, pound the podium.

[rlmorel]

"...I don’t think most anyone argues that CO2 functions in that manner.."

Any thinking person. But there are a lot of them out there who eat crap like that up.

[Armscor38]

In regards to Question #2. From what I’ve read, temperatures followed CO2 levels during the Snowball Earth period. The lowering of CO2 levels caused a drop in global mean temperature which plunged the Earth into a deep freeze. Over the course of millions of years, volcanic activity put enough CO2 back into the atmosphere to warm it enough to start melting the ice and snow. At both the beginning an end of the Snowball Earth era, global mean temperatures followed CO2 levels.

[Bob434]

certainly not enough to kill of species- species thrived durign that high CO2 period, and humans are no different- high CO2 levels will not kill of the species as proven by past high CO2 levels

“Like an increasing number of scientists Reynen finds that the doubling of the atmospheric CO2 concentration from 400 ppm to 800 ppm will have no dangerous impact on climate. Here he gives an increase of the surface temperature of dTs = 0.032 C. A further increase towards the optimum of 1600 ppm, from the agriculture point of view, gives a surface temperature increase of dTs = 0.1 C.

In short, IPCC authors have misinterpreted the results of the spectroscopic computer program MODTRAN.

Instead, independent analysts such as Ferenc Miskolczi use the spectroscopic line-by-line program HARDCODE and find hardly any influence of CO2 on the surface temperature. “

https://principia-scientific.org/study-co2-not-causing-climate-change/

“CO2 (carbon dioxide) is not causing global warming or climate change. I can’t say it more boldly, but it doesn’t seem to matter; the belief persists that CO2 is the cause and therefore a problem. The belief is enhanced by government policies and plans, which spawn businesses to exploit the opportunities they create. A majority of the mainstream media pushes the belief because of political bias rather than understanding of the science. Evidence continues to show what is wrong with the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), but it is complex and so most don’t understand. The fact they hold definitive positions without understanding is disturbing. However, ignoring the fact that IPCC predictions are always wrong doesn’t require the understanding that the science is completely unacceptable and proof of the political bias.
Contradictory Evidence

The 2007 IPCC Report claimed with over 90% certainty that human produced CO2 is almost the sole cause of global warming. But the evidence shows this can’t be true; temperature changes before CO2 in every record of any duration for any time period; CO2 variability does not correlate with temperature at any point in the last 600 million years; atmospheric CO2 levels are currently at the lowest level in that period; in the 20th century most warming occurred before 1940 when human production of CO2 was very small; human production of CO2 increased the most after 1940 but global temperatures declined to 1985; from 2000 global temperatures declined while CO2 levels increased; and any reduction in CO2 threatens plant life, oxygen production, and therefore all life on the planet.”

http://drtimball.com/2011/co2-is-not-causing-global-warming/

[rlmorel]

Well, at least from the Snowball Earth era, they didn't have to worry about figuring out how to either measure CO2 levels or correlate it to any kind of temperature data proxies like tree rings.

We saw what the advocates of the global warming religion did when using tree ring data that didn't fit the narrative.

[Bob434]

[[temperatures followed CO2 levels during the Snowball Earth period.]]

No it didn’t- as posted above, temperatures, by most records available, preceded CO2 rises and falling- as well, other factors contributed to rising and falling CO2, like the earth greening when tmps rose and plants abounded, which in turn helped cool the earth, at which point CO2 began falling - temps were already falling- falling CO2 levels didn’t precede the fall in temps-

“the evidence shows this can’t be true; temperature changes before CO2 in every record of any duration for any time period; CO2 variability does not correlate with temperature at any point in the last 600 million years; atmospheric CO2 levels are currently at the lowest level in that period;”

[Bob434]

Myth: The close correlation of CO2 and temperature, as temperature has gone up and down over the last 400,000 years, proves that CO2 is causing the climate changes.

Fact: Since 1999, multiple technical, peer reviewed articles have been available that demonstrate exactly the opposite conclusion. CO2 changes lagged temperature changes as temperature increased or decreased. Temperature changed and then, several hundred years later, CO2 levels changed. Since a cause does not follow an effect, this indicates that CO2 is not a primary driver of climate change.

http://plantsneedco2.org/default.aspx?menuitemid=371

[Paul R.]

I believe that it is more technically correct to state that the Earth is in a long term (many millions of years) Ice Age punctuated periodically by short interglacial (warmer than the Ice Age average) periods. The glacial and interglacial periods appear to be initiated by orbital forcing (though there may be other causes as well.)

Certainly, humans did not cause the long record of interglacial periods, nor what appear to be the increasingly large swings in climate, as the overall Ice Age has progressed.

That said, the long term trend (40 million years or more) IS toward less CO2 in the atmosphere, and cooling. Earth might well be headed toward another “Snowball Earth” episode, such as you mention, or perhaps a “Slushball Earth”, unless something else intercedes.