Posted on 05/14/2002 4:16:45 AM PDT by kattracks
Washington (CNSNews.com) - A team of international scientists Monday said climate models showing global warming are based on a "fairy tale" of computer projections. The scientists met on Capitol Hill to expose what they see as a dearth of scientific evidence about global warming.
Hartwig Volz, a geophysicist with the RWE Research Lab in Germany questioned the merit of the climate projections coming from the United Nations sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC.) The IPCC climate projections have fueled worldwide support for the Kyoto Protocol, which aims to restrict the greenhouse gases thought to cause global warming.
Volz noted that the IPCC does not even call the climate models "predictions" and instead refers to them as "projections" or "story lines." Volz said the projections might be more aptly termed "fairy tales."
Monday's luncheon was sponsored by the Frontiers of Freedom Institute and titled "Whatever Happened to Global Warming? Climate Science Does Not Support the Kyoto Protocol."
S. Fred Singer, an atmospheric physicist with the University of Virginia and the Environmental Policy Project, called the IPCC's global warming projections "completely unrealistic."
"Prediction is a very difficult business, particularly about the future," he said.
Singer accused the IPCC of "assuming extreme scenarios of population growth and fossil fuel consumption" and called on the Bush administration to "assemble another team using the IPCC report -- using the same facts" to "write a different summary."
Dr. Ulrich Berner, a geologist with the Federal Institute for Geosciences in Germany, said global temperatures have varied greatly in the earth's history and are unrelated to human activity.
"The climate of the past has varied under natural conditions without the influence of humans," Berner said.
Berner also declared that an extensive analysis of carbon dioxide (C02) concentrations in the ice core of Greenland showed that elevated C02 in the atmosphere does not necessarily lead to temperature increases.
"There are numerous temperature changes which are not mimicked by the CO2 concentration," Berner explained.
"Carbon Dioxide doesn't police climatic changes. Climatic changes have always occurred and will for the future always occur," Berner added.
Singer agreed, stating, "The balance of evidence suggests that there has been no appreciable warming since 1940. This would indicate that the human effects on climate must be quite small."
Singer pointed to the sun as a major culprit in climate change. "The sun is responsible for most, and perhaps all of the short-term climate changes we observe," he said.
Environmental groups were quick to dismiss the scientific skepticism on global warming. Ariana Silverman, a spokesperson for the Sierra Club's Global Warming & Energy program, disputed the panel's claim that climate science does not support the Kyoto Protocol.
"It is very difficult to make that claim. There is a consensus in the scientific community," Silverman said.
Silverman admitted there is room for some skepticism about global warming models because "nobody knows, we don't have god-like abilities [to predict the future.]"
She noted that the Sierra Club believes we need to "cut down on gasses right now and make cars go further on a gallon of gas." Silverman predicted that if no action is taken, there could be "major changes to our climate and changes to our ecosystems with species dying."
"Climate is not a responsible thing for us to be changing," Silverman added.
E-mail a news tip to Marc Morano.
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I haven't tried to look, but there should be some information on the residence time of an arbitrary CO2 molecule in the atmosphere. A CO2 molecule can be incorporated into plant growth (terrestrial or marine); can be absorbed by ocean water; or can participate in some surface geological processes such as weathering (and be released by others, by the way).
The white cliffs of Dover are composed of calcium carbonate, CaCO3, specifically calcite.
From my understanding in reading this thread, the scientist signing the petition are AGAINST the idea the gobal warming is occuring due to humankind. If I'm not correct, some good FReeper correct me please.
They should have named it the ANTI Global Warimng Petition. The name itself sounds socialist.
Global Warming Petition
We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.
There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.
Please sign here, etc, etc....
The Petition Project disagrees with the scope and extent of "global warming."
The Charts in reply #28, should be tatooed on the hide of every Kyoto proponent with a dull needle & charcoal.
The links to information & experimental validation in #28 nail em to the wall.
Seems to me like in the next few (hundred) years, we're in for some cold weather.
Such a deal I got for yah, a Y2K closeout sale for foul weather & cold climate gear.
CHEAP, jess for you. For a couple of extra bucks & even through in snowshoes & ice grips :O)
Seems to be you're right. Thanks so much for exposing my "rant first and gather facts later" manner of debate 8~).
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