When the popular press reports on “global warming,” there are a number of facts they avoid. Here are a few of them, courtesy of Fred Singer PhD, professor emeritus of climatology at the University of Virginia:
- Satellite temperature measurements of the Earth show a steady cooling the last third of this century (with the exception of 1998, which had a strong El Nino).
- Greenland ice boring shows a maximum Earth temperature occurred approximately 1,000 years ago, and that a mini ice age occurred from about 1250 to 1850.
- The Earth’s temperature did increase about half a degree Celsius is this century, but that increase occurred prior to 1940–before our dramatically increased use of fossil fuels.
- Global warming models fail to take into account the two greatest factors in determining the Earth’s temperature: solar activity and water vapor.
- North America is a net sequester of carbon dioxide. Its plants absorb more of the gas than its factories, power plants, and vehicles emit.
- The Kyoto Protocol, even if adopted and rigidly enforced, would reduce the calculated increase in global temperatures by 0.05 degrees Celsius by the year 2050.
- Many economists have determined that there would be numerous benefits from global warming and increases in carbon dioxide.
