Global warming is a hot topic of debate amongst scholars and politicians. Many countries have sat down to discuss cut backs on emission of CO2 and greenhouse gases in Kyoto and Copenhagen, both of which have failed. Many critics still remain unsettled and skeptic about global warming. This article looks at the reasons why climate change skeptics remain skeptics. It highlights 10 skeptics and their arguments in the process.
1. Pat Michaels:
Michaels is a climatologist and senior fellow for policy and economic development at Cato Institute. His books highlight the dangers of global warming and he believes that CO2 emissions are having a warm effect on the earth. Additionally, Michaels is distraught over the inaccurate temperature measurements made in ‘urban heat islands’. The temperatures are much higher than the temperatures in surrounding areas and have thus been inaccurate. Before he believes in the global warming effect, he needs to be persuaded that the temperature rise is not part of the 1,500-year Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle.
2. Bob Carter:
Carter believes that temperatures have not become warmer since 1998. . He remains to believe this because the period concurs with the constant pushing of CO2 into the atmosphere.
3. Professor Henrik Svensmark & Mojif Latif:
Svensmark believes that the global warming has stopped. The cooling period for him has thus begun. He remains skeptic because the star that keeps us alive has been free of sunspots for most of the time in the contemporary age.
Latif adds to Svensmark by stating that this will continue for another 10-20 years. He believes in the cooling of the earth because it is part of a natural North American circulation.
4. Danish Meteorologist Institute:
Danish Meteorological Institute remains skeptic because of studies done in Greenland. After extensive work in Greenland, the institute found that the country/island was cooler than it was in 1940. The idea that the poles are melting is thus not accurate for them.
One can view their report on http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/greenland/vintheretal2006.pdf.
5. Fred Singer:
Fred Singer believes that CO2 concentration will not double as economies are become are relying less on carbon. He is also skeptic about climate change because he sees no evidence of CO2 contributing to global warming.
For him warmer temperatures are a good thing. Settlement is made possible in areas such as Greenland. Vikings were one group that were able to occupy Greenland with the help of warmer temperatures.
6. Michael Crichton:
Crichton, who was a notable writer examined the increasingly cold temperatures in Antarctica. For him this contradicts global warming as one of two poles is not becoming warmer.
7. Fred Seitz:
Seitz wrote a twelve page review of information regarding global warming. He noted the United States’ closeness to adopting an international agreement (Kyoto Protocol) that rations the use of energy and technologies that depend on coal, oil and natural gas. The agreement for Seitz was flawed and did not show how the human use of hydrocarbons was harmful. He insisted that they were rather useful.
8. Richard Lindzen:
Lindzen believes that there is no consensus on global warming. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1977 and is a professor at MIT. He has widely written about his criticisms in the Wall Street Journal and spoke in front of the Congress.
9. Fox News:
Fox agrees with Lindzen that there is no consensus on global warming and how it exists.
They did a whole broadcast on the issue which can be viewed on Youtube and www.logicalscience.com.
10. Oregon Petition:
17,000 signatures were verified by those who do not believe in global warming. They wrote, “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.”
Resources:
http://www.oism.org/pproject/
http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2010/0103/comm/smolnikov_cope.html
http://www.petitionproject.org/
The Evangelical Christian in the good old USA are saying it’s not happening because because God told Noah he would never destroy the world again. Don’t know about other religious groups but it must be good to know God’s got our back.