James Hrynyshyn is a freelance science journalist and communications consultant based in western North Carolina, where he tries to put degrees in marine biology and journalism to good use.
New Scientist has assembled a marvelous list of 26 of the most-cited objections to the scientific consensus on climate change. Temperatures rise before carbon dioxide; polar bear population is increasing; there is no consensus; it's all there. This handy-dandy resource -- the answers include source materials -- should be bookmarked. Here's the complete list:
• Human CO2 emissions are too tiny to matter
• We can't do anything about climate change
• The 'hockey stick' graph has been proven wrong
• Chaotic systems are not predictable
• We can't trust computer models of climate
• They predicted global cooling in the 1970s
• It's been far warmer in the past, what's the big deal?
• It's too cold where I live - warming will be great
• Global warming is down to the Sun, not humans
• It's all down to cosmic rays
• CO2 isn't the most important greenhouse gas
• The lower atmosphere is cooling, not warming
• Antarctica is getting cooler, not warmer, disproving global warming
• The oceans are cooling
• The cooling after 1940 shows CO2 does not cause warming
• It was warmer during the Medieval period, with vineyards in England
• We are simply recovering from the Little Ice Age
• Warming will cause an ice age in Europe
• Ice cores show CO2 increases lag behind temperature rises, disproving the link to global warming
• Ice cores show CO2 rising as temperatures fell
• Mars and Pluto are warming too
• Many leading scientists question climate change
• It's all a conspiracy
• Hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming
• Higher CO2 levels will boost plant growth and food production
• Polar bear numbers are increasing
And again, the answers are here.
Comments
Another good site is here:
http://gristmill.grist.org/skeptics
Posted by: Cameron | May 17, 2007 6:43 PM
This one kind of throws a wrench in their works. They can't claim that the website isn't scientific since it is called new scientist. Not to mention it might actually educate us all.
Posted by: Scholar | May 18, 2007 1:23 PM