New Scientist: Most Common Climate Myths Reviewed

[Forkboy]

Climate change: A guide for the perplexed
17:00 16 May 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Michael Le Page
Our planet's climate is anything but simple. All kinds of factors influence it, from massive events on the Sun to the growth of microscopic creatures in the oceans, and there are subtle interactions between many of these factors.

There is also a guide to assessing the evidence. In the articles we've included lots of links to primary research and major reports for those who want to follow through to the original sources.

• Human CO2 emissions are too tiny to matter

• We can't do anything about climate change

• The 'hockey stick' graph has been proven wrong

• Chaotic systems are not predictable

• We can't trust computer models of climate

• They predicted global cooling in the 1970s

• It's been far warmer in the past, what's the big deal?

• It's too cold where I live - warming will be great

• Global warming is down to the Sun, not humans

• It’s all down to cosmic rays

• CO2 isn't the most important greenhouse gas

• The lower atmosphere is cooling, not warming

• Antarctica is getting cooler, not warmer, disproving global warming

• The oceans are cooling

• The cooling after 1940 shows CO2 does not cause warming

• It was warmer during the Medieval period, with vineyards in England

• We are simply recovering from the Little Ice Age

• Warming will cause an ice age in Europe

• Ice cores show CO2 increases lag behind temperature rises, disproving the link to global warming

• Ice cores show CO2 rising as temperatures fell

• Mars and Pluto are warming too

• Many leading scientists question climate change

• It's all a conspiracy

• Hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming

• Higher CO2 levels will boost plant growth and food production

• Polar bear numbers are increasing

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn11462

Thanks to nam78_two,who posted this in GD.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I thought Katrina was helped along by warmer ocean temps??

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Yes, but...

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn11661

The chaotic nature of weather makes it impossible to prove that any single event such as Hurricane Katrina is due to global warming. It is also impossible to prove that global warming did not play a part, so debates about the causes of individual events are futile.

It is possible, however, to determine whether global warming is increasing the frequency or intensity of extreme events. It is a bit like throwing dice: getting one six proves nothing, but if sixes keep coming up more often than the other numbers, you know the dice is loaded.

So is global warming loading the dice when it comes to tropical cyclones (also known as hurricanes and typhoons in different parts of the world)? A host of atmospheric factors have to be just right for a cyclone form and grow. Sea surface temperatures play a big role and they are steadily increasing.

But the temperature difference between the sea surface and the air also matters, and global warming might have little effect on this. Then there is the question of how warming will affect factors that weaken storms such as high level winds that chop off the top of developing hurricanes, an effect called wind shear (see Wind shear may cancel climate's effect on hurricanes).

...