Climate Change Weekly #91
Global warming alarmists are breathlessly filling the media with sensationalist reports of carbon dioxide levels approaching 400 parts per million (that’s 4 parts per 10,000, or a 0.0004 share of the atmosphere, versus 3 parts per million, or a 0.0003 share of the atmosphere, prior to the Industrial Revolution). The central message of alarmist global warming theory is that higher atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations will cause catastrophic global warming. A real-world look at how global temperatures are responding to the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels tells a different story.
Although atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were much higher for much of the Earth’s history, 400 ppm is arguably the highest level in at least several hundred years and perhaps thousands of years. Global warming alarmists assert atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were approximately 280 ppm prior to the Industrial Revolution and up until the year 1900 or so, meaning atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose a little more than 40 percent during the past hundred-plus years.
Assuming for the sake of argument the alarmists’ dubious claim that global temperatures rose by as much as 0.8 degrees Celsius since 1900, and also assuming for the sake of argument the dubious assertion that rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are entirely responsible for the gradual warming since 1900, this reveals that a 40 percent increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels created merely 0.8 degrees Celsius of warming since 1900. This shows much lower climate sensitivity to atmospheric carbon dioxide levels than claimed by global warming alarmists.
Nor is there any sign of a recent increase in the pace of temperature rise. Global temperatures have been flat for approximately 15 years now, even though atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose more than 40 ppm (or more than 10 percent) during that time.
Rather than being a harbinger of doom and gloom, the approaching 400 ppm carbon dioxide threshold presents still more evidence that humans are not creating a global warming crisis.
SOURCES: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Dr. Roy Spencer
IN THIS ISSUE
Antarctic snowfall will mitigate global sea level rise … Cooling temperatures bring climate refugees? … Nenana Ice Classic reveals cooling Alaska … Pacific islands are growing, not shrinking
ANTARCTIC SNOWFALL WILL MITIGATE GLOBAL SEA LEVEL RISE
An increase in snowfall in East Antarctica will significantly mitigate global sea level rise through at least the end of the century, scientists report in a paper accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed Geophysical Research Letters. The increase in snowfall and mitigation of sea level rise will occur even under alarmist global warming predictions, the scientists report.
SOURCE: Geophysical Research Letters
COOLING TEMPERATURES BRING CLIMATE REFUGEES?
Suzanne Goldberg, a consistently alarmist journalist with the U.K. Guardian, wrote a sensationalist article claiming global warming is creating climate refugees in Alaska. Goldberg’s article is the latest rage on alarmist blogs and in the establishment media. However, while Goldberg claims global warming is creating Alaskan climate refuges, Alaskan temperature records show the state is in a deep and prolonged cold spell that is hammering state residents.
SOURCES: The Guardian and Environment & Climate News
NENANA ICE CLASSIC REVEALS COOLING ALASKA
For nearly a century, Alaskans have kept track of the date the ice finally breaks on the Nenana River and spring unofficially arrives. A large tripod is placed on ice at the junction of the Tenana and Nenana Rivers. Once the tripod falls through the ice or is whisked away by the current, residents note the date for posterity and declare an end to that year’s Nenana Ice Classic. Science writer Willis Eschenbach is in Alaska attending the Nenana Ice Classic, where the tripod still remains in place a good 10 days beyond the typical end of the Ice Classic. This year’s delayed ice breakup is consistent with a 15-year trend of longer ice seasons on the Nenana River.
SOURCE: Watts Up With That?
PACIFIC ISLANDS ARE GROWING, NOT SINKING
Islands in Tuvalu and other Pacific regions that served as poster children for global warming and sea level rise are actually growing, scientists acknowledge. Scientists report 80 percent of South Pacific islands are either growing or remaining the same size. “Some of those islands have gotten dramatically larger, by 20 or 30 percent,” according to Australian climate scientist Paul Kench.
SOURCE: Watts Up With That?