Global Warming: The Greatest Scam in the History of Man

The climate of the earth is changing. It always has, for millennia. The earth warms, the earth cools. There is evidence that the earth is warming slightly in the present day and age. However, there is little evidence that a crisis is in our midst, threatening the existence of mankind. Theories of catastrophic climate change spring more from the political imagination then from the realm of scientific inquiry. While the data suggest a problem of modest proportions, the proposed solutions are radical. In the hysteria of the climate alarmist movement, the end objective is to achieve a political agenda which will strip America of much of its wealth and sovereignty. By taking into account scientific fact, and leaving out political bias, one can discover the truth about global warming. The earth's temperature is moderately rising but by no means is it an impending doom for Earth caused by mankind. The debate is over only for those whose narrow focus does not allow room for honest and straightforward investigation of scientific fact.

There are many topics to consider when viewing global warming. The most apparent of these is temperature and the causes of its fluctuation. As presented in An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore claims that the temperature has accelerated over the past 50 years. While this sounds as if it is backed up by scientific evidence, it is actually not. In the vast geological record of this planet, average temperatures have risen, and fallen, many dozens of times. It is hardly scientific to dismiss as a possible cause whatever produced the first multitude of global warming episodes. That, however, is precisely what is being done in this current propaganda campaign because obviously those aforementioned episodes occurred long before the industrial age of man. Gore makes the claim in his film that the current warming period is far more dramatic as compared to the previous phases Earth has undergone. In fact, the average temperature over the past 30 years has risen a whopping 0.51°C (2007 IPCC Climate Report, Graph 9). More specifically, the temperature has stabilized and has never surpassed the temperatures of 1998, indicating a drop-off in average temperature since that year (IPCC 4th Assessment Report, 4-5). In October of 2007, Dr. Don Easterbrook gave a presentation at a geological society meeting in Philadelphia. He demonstrated that temperature trends for the past 15,000 years included 10 swings which were “at least 20 times greater than the warming in the past century” (Dr. Easterbrook 4)

In his film, Al Gore takes a broad look at graphs of CO2 and temperature measurements, assuming that CO2 increased before temperature. The proposed theory of a rise in carbon emissions causing a rise in temperature has been disproven. As Steven Hayward puts the graphs together in his documentary, the viewer notices that temperature influx preceded a rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Another disputed topic is that of glacial and ice cap melting across the globe. Although it is true that the Arctic's overall ice mass has decreased over the last century, there is a different story in the Antarctic. According to a study by Ohio State University headed by David Bromwich, temperatures over much of Antarctica have decreased since the onset of the 20th century. The only area in which climate has increased is in the Antarctic Peninsula which is farther north than the rest of the continent (David Bromwich 3). The overall ice mass of Antarctica is actually increasing (D. J. Wingham 8). In the Arctic, it has been suggested that storms and the loss of ice have caused a decline in the polar bear populations. This is completely false. Of the 13 polar bear populations in Canada, 11 are increasing (Iain Murray, Gorey Truths 2). In the northern hemisphere, there are claims that Greenland's ice mass could break off and seriously damage the currents, namely the Gulf Stream (Al Gore, AIT). The Greenland Ice Sheet “sits in a bowl-like depression surrounded by mountains that restrict glacial outflow to the sea” (Marlo Lewis, Jr. 3). Therefore, it is impossible for this ice sheet to ever make its way into the Atlantic. In addition to this, the Gulf Stream is incapable of ever stopping regardless of any sized mass of ice melting such as Greenland (Mr. Justice Burton 86).

Nowhere is the weakness of the alarmist case more evident than in their linking of storm intensity and global temperature rise. Barack Obama has summed it up thusly: “All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.” This quote certainly represents a kind of hot air but it is one caused by political ambition, not CO2. As a matter of fact, several scientists who specialize in hurricane studies resigned from the IPCC panel because the UN report insisted on making a connection between global warming and violent weather that was not based on actually research (Chris Landsea 1-3). Nevertheless, the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was too good an opportunity to warn of the dire new era of monster storms. Inconveniently, the seasons that followed, in 2006 and 2007, were among the quietest hurricane seasons in the last 50 years (William M. Gray, 2006-2007 Tropical Reports). The frequency of tornadoes has not increased either. “If we consider the tornadoes that have been detectable for many decades (F-3 or greater), there is actually a downward trend since 1950” (Marlo Lewis, Jr. 3). Now the connection between violent storms and global warming is not often heard.

There are many other facts which Gore and the Greens will find unfortunate. Sea levels will rise 40 centimeters over the next century, not 7 meters (Iain Murray Gorey Truths 2). The Kyoto treaty is essentially meaningless because it never included India and China (China has now exceeded the CO2 emissions of the United States.) The European Union was praised for adopting Kyoto, but it has never met its emissions goals (Chris Horner 17-18). Gore and his allies want to censor any further discussion of this matter. Maintaining silence is the best argument if one's argument is weak. Anyone who thinks a minimal temperature rise of .17°C/decade poses a threat equivalent to nuclear war, global poverty, or Islamic fascism, should find a cool place in the shade to sit down, chill out, and get a grip.