Is Climate change a hoax? Or are the swindle claims the real swindle?
June 12th 2007 03:11
And creating sensationalist headlines to cater for the natural cynic in all of us.. .. .. ..
Every time I publish a Blog on Climate Change and the Google Ads come up on the side the Ad for the Channel 4 Doco "The Climate Change Swindle" comes up next to my stories. Other Orble Bloggers have also mentioned the Documentary.
Does it have substance or are these guys merely jumping on the bandwagon and profiting out of the natural tendency for all of us to be cynical. I am cynical by nature so the thought of all this being a hoax and me not having to feel bad for how my fellow mankind is f$%cking the world is a VERY appealing thought. Imagine that we can just go on the way we have been, seems like a fantastic easy way out of all of this.
What exactly are the arguments of the Channel 4 Doco. Here is an extract from their web-site - no I didn't click through the Ad off my Website
-
"The Arguments
Greenhouse gases trap heat from the sun within the earth's atmosphere. This is the greenhouse effect. Traditional models predict that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases lead to runaway heating.
If greenhouse warming were happening, then scientists predict that the troposphere (the layer of the earth's atmosphere roughly 10-15km above us) should heat up faster than the surface of the planet, but data collected from satellites and weather balloons doesn't seem to support this.
Others would argue that carbon dioxide isn't the only greenhouse gas and that human emissions could tip up a finely balanced system.
New evidence shows that that as the radiation coming from the sun varies (and sun-spot activity is one way of monitoring this) the earth seems to heat up or cool down. Solar activity very precisely matches the plot of temperature change over the last 100 years. It correlates well with the anomalous post-war temperature dip, when global carbon dioxide levels were rising.
In fact, what is known of solar activity over the last several hundred years correlates very well with temperature. This is what some scientists are beginning to believe causes climate change. Others feel that solar activity only explains the fine details of temperature change.
So how does the sun affect the earth's temperature? The process scientists suggest is that as earth moves through space, the atmosphere is constantly bombarded by ever-present cosmic rays. As these particles hit water vapour evaporating from the oceans, clouds form in the atmosphere. Clouds shield Earth from some of the sun's radiation and have a cooling effect.
When solar activity is high, there is an increase in solar wind and this has the effect of reducing the amount of cosmic radiation which reaches Earth.
When less cosmic radiation reaches Earth, fewer clouds form and the full effects of the sun's radiation heats the planet.
But is the effect of solar activity really enough to explain away global warming caused by the greenhouse effect?
The Programme
The film brings together the arguments of leading scientists who disagree with the prevailing consensus that carbon dioxide released by human industrial activity is the cause of rising global temperatures today.
That Earth's climate is changing and always has done is not disputed by anyone. That it is warming now is also not disputed by anyone. But some people think that the warming is our fault, whilst others believe we have nothing to do with it.
The film argues that rises in atmospheric carbon dioxide have nothing to do with climate change. Further, the present single-minded focus on reducing carbon emissions may have the unintended consequence of stifling development in the third world, prolonging endemic poverty and disease.
Recent research, presented in this film, apparently shows that the effect of cosmic radiation, and solar activity may explain fluctuations in global temperatures more precisely than the carbon dioxide theory.
An alternative explanation for rising global temperatures is based on research by the Danish Space Center. They found that as solar activity increases, cloud formation on Earth is significantly diminished and temperature rises.
‘Solar activity over the last hundred years, over the last several hundred years, correlates very nicely, on a decadal basis, with temperature.’
A respected Kenyan development expert says: ‘I don't see how a solar panel is going to power a steel industry, how a solar panel is going to power a railway network… There is somebody keen to kill the African dream, and the African dream is to develop. We are being told don't touch your resources, don't touch your oil, don't touch your coal; that is suicide.’
The film features an impressive roll-call of experts, in climatology, oceanography, meteorology, environmental science, biogeography and paleoclimatology, from such reputable institutions as MIT, Nasa, the International Arctic Research Centre, the Institut Pasteur, the Danish National Space Center and the Universities of London, Ottawa, Jerusalem, Winnipeg, Alabama and Virginia."
Your CLick HERE to go to the Shows Website.
It seems to me that this whole Doco is a creation designed to create a sensationalist headline but I guess at the end of the day it is up to all of us if we want to believe or not. Like most things you can always find someone to argue the other side of the coin especially in a high profile topic such as this. Let's face it, Climate change is creating indsutries and the stakes are getting very high. By speaking out an obscure scientist gets his otherwise unobtainable 15minutes of fame and a possiblr fortune.
My opinion..... no-one can argue that we have been treating the planet with respect. Whether Climate Change exists or not is largely irrelevant, it is simply time to STOP treating the earth like our Garbage dump and treat it properly. If Climate Change gets the larger population on the banwagon to be environmentally freindly then so be it.
cheers
Carbon8tor
Every time I publish a Blog on Climate Change and the Google Ads come up on the side the Ad for the Channel 4 Doco "The Climate Change Swindle" comes up next to my stories. Other Orble Bloggers have also mentioned the Documentary.
Does it have substance or are these guys merely jumping on the bandwagon and profiting out of the natural tendency for all of us to be cynical. I am cynical by nature so the thought of all this being a hoax and me not having to feel bad for how my fellow mankind is f$%cking the world is a VERY appealing thought. Imagine that we can just go on the way we have been, seems like a fantastic easy way out of all of this.
What exactly are the arguments of the Channel 4 Doco. Here is an extract from their web-site - no I didn't click through the Ad off my Website
- "The Arguments
Greenhouse gases trap heat from the sun within the earth's atmosphere. This is the greenhouse effect. Traditional models predict that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases lead to runaway heating.
If greenhouse warming were happening, then scientists predict that the troposphere (the layer of the earth's atmosphere roughly 10-15km above us) should heat up faster than the surface of the planet, but data collected from satellites and weather balloons doesn't seem to support this.
Others would argue that carbon dioxide isn't the only greenhouse gas and that human emissions could tip up a finely balanced system.
New evidence shows that that as the radiation coming from the sun varies (and sun-spot activity is one way of monitoring this) the earth seems to heat up or cool down. Solar activity very precisely matches the plot of temperature change over the last 100 years. It correlates well with the anomalous post-war temperature dip, when global carbon dioxide levels were rising.
So how does the sun affect the earth's temperature? The process scientists suggest is that as earth moves through space, the atmosphere is constantly bombarded by ever-present cosmic rays. As these particles hit water vapour evaporating from the oceans, clouds form in the atmosphere. Clouds shield Earth from some of the sun's radiation and have a cooling effect.
When solar activity is high, there is an increase in solar wind and this has the effect of reducing the amount of cosmic radiation which reaches Earth.
When less cosmic radiation reaches Earth, fewer clouds form and the full effects of the sun's radiation heats the planet.
But is the effect of solar activity really enough to explain away global warming caused by the greenhouse effect?
The Programme
The film brings together the arguments of leading scientists who disagree with the prevailing consensus that carbon dioxide released by human industrial activity is the cause of rising global temperatures today.
That Earth's climate is changing and always has done is not disputed by anyone. That it is warming now is also not disputed by anyone. But some people think that the warming is our fault, whilst others believe we have nothing to do with it.
The film argues that rises in atmospheric carbon dioxide have nothing to do with climate change. Further, the present single-minded focus on reducing carbon emissions may have the unintended consequence of stifling development in the third world, prolonging endemic poverty and disease.
Recent research, presented in this film, apparently shows that the effect of cosmic radiation, and solar activity may explain fluctuations in global temperatures more precisely than the carbon dioxide theory.
An alternative explanation for rising global temperatures is based on research by the Danish Space Center. They found that as solar activity increases, cloud formation on Earth is significantly diminished and temperature rises.
‘Solar activity over the last hundred years, over the last several hundred years, correlates very nicely, on a decadal basis, with temperature.’
A respected Kenyan development expert says: ‘I don't see how a solar panel is going to power a steel industry, how a solar panel is going to power a railway network… There is somebody keen to kill the African dream, and the African dream is to develop. We are being told don't touch your resources, don't touch your oil, don't touch your coal; that is suicide.’
The film features an impressive roll-call of experts, in climatology, oceanography, meteorology, environmental science, biogeography and paleoclimatology, from such reputable institutions as MIT, Nasa, the International Arctic Research Centre, the Institut Pasteur, the Danish National Space Center and the Universities of London, Ottawa, Jerusalem, Winnipeg, Alabama and Virginia."
Your CLick HERE to go to the Shows Website.
It seems to me that this whole Doco is a creation designed to create a sensationalist headline but I guess at the end of the day it is up to all of us if we want to believe or not. Like most things you can always find someone to argue the other side of the coin especially in a high profile topic such as this. Let's face it, Climate change is creating indsutries and the stakes are getting very high. By speaking out an obscure scientist gets his otherwise unobtainable 15minutes of fame and a possiblr fortune.
My opinion..... no-one can argue that we have been treating the planet with respect. Whether Climate Change exists or not is largely irrelevant, it is simply time to STOP treating the earth like our Garbage dump and treat it properly. If Climate Change gets the larger population on the banwagon to be environmentally freindly then so be it.
cheers
Carbon8tor
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Comment by Damo
Interesting.
Difficult subject but I still think the weight if evidence is pointing toward climate change.
The problem is the vested interests that muddy the waters.
Comment by Jonathon
Anthroblogogy