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Follow Up to 'Convenient Lie'
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In James Robertson’s trenchant response to my article ‘The Convenient Lie’ he seemed to be keener on discrediting Martin Durkin (the producer of the Channel 4 programme ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’) and myself, rather than critically analyzing facts. So let’s deal with the facts. Here are two he might like to consider. The Earth has had many temperature variations, some of the more recent fluctuations having been encapsulated in ice core samples. Detailed analysis of these samples shows that temperatures either rose or fell before there were similar changes in CO2 concentrations, hence the deduction that CO2 levels rose naturally in a response to temperature changes on earth associated with variances of the Sun. |
It is correct to suggest, as some have, that as the earth’s temperature rises naturally, then CO2 concentrations rise naturally as CO2 is released from the oceans. To then conjecture that as CO2 acts as a ‘greenhouse gas’, the initial increases in CO2 levels will hence activate a further temperature rise by the release of yet more CO2, is ingenious but incorrect.
The essential flaw in the latter argument lies in identifying where all the energy trapped by this ‘greenhouse’ gas effect is actually located. Since the ’80s the ambient temperature has risen by over ½ C. The energy needed to create this temperature increase is vast. If CO2 is doing the trapping, and was absorbing this massive amount of re-radiated energy, then its kinetic energy would be enormous and temperatures above the surface of the earth would rise considerably, as any schoolboy would understand. But this phenomenon has not occurred.
It was interesting to note references to the two Georges, Monbiot and Bush. Both are tied to their masters: one, a journalist, tied to his proselytizing newspaper, and the other, a Republican, to a Democrat-ruled congress. Their part in any discussion on these matters can be ignored, much as Mr Robertson has chosen to ignore the views of other eminent scientists who contributed to The Global Warming Swindle (yet dwelt upon the modifications made by Professor Carl Wunsch - who has obviously been under considerable pressure from the gauleiters of the New Age Religion)
It might be more helpful to take a classical ecological view about cloud formations and link these with temperature variations, rather than insisting that the small concentration of human-made CO2, (in comparison to the total amount of CO2 in the atmosphere) affects anything other than the encouragement of vegetative growth.
Bob Arthy
