Skeptic's Corner

4 years ago Environment

Environmental Graffiti is not exactly known for being a hotbed of climate change skepticism.

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In general, we believe that global warming is real and at least partially increasing because of human activity.

That being said, we realized that there are people out there, even a few environmentalists, that don’t hold that opinion. And while we may have our own beliefs on the subject, we think it’s useful to at least hear the alternative viewpoint whether you agree with it or not.

To that end, we’ll be publishing occasional articles in a feature called Sceptic’s Corner. Please note that all views expressed in this column are the author’s alone and don’t represent Environmental Graffiti as a whole

Our first article comes from Tim Bristow. Like us, Tim is not a scientist. He is, however, an intelligent man and accomplished skeptic. He once made a large number of ghost hunters look like idiots after he pretended his house was haunted and they all came by and confirmed it despite the house being completely non-haunted. Here are Tim’s thoughts on global warming:

I would like to put a 'skeptic' view and how in a few years time we will be all laughing at ourselves for having got in such a state about what is fundamentally a natural phenomenon - Climate change. We will also be admiring all those profit making companies who jumped on the money making 'carbon offsetting' bandwagon - well done them. What a delicious scam.

The fact we and every living being breathe out carbon dioxide, and the fact that less than 3% of worldwide CO2 emissions is down to human activity seems to escape the woolly headed ex CND, leftie Environmentalists who are far more concerned with preaching the anti globalisation, capitalism thing. This is why they have been so caught out by the 'CO2-free' use of nuclear power. How do you get round that one you lentil eating bearded one?

Global warming causes CO2 levels to rise in the atmosphere (particularly off a warming sea). It is NOT C02 levels causing global warming - Al Gore and your cronies. How did you get the 'causality' so wrong??? Indeed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US ( http://www.noaa.gov/ ) using the latest satellite records show that global temperatures have dropped by 0.2C in the last 10 years and that the hottest decade in the last century was the 1930s! How does one explain the fact the Chinese charted the whole of Greenland in 1421 by sailing round it? How could they do that? Because it was warmer then than it is now. How many four wheel drives caused that bit of global warming, eh?

We may think Tim's full of it, but if you want to keep up with all the latest from our skeptics, why not subcribe to our RSS feed? We'll even give you a free album.

Written by: Chris

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Comments

Old Comments

R. Karen says

Jul 17th, 2008 at 12am
I have to say, that I could not agree with you in 100%, but it's just my opinion, which could be wrong.

Natalie says

Jan 26th, 2008 at 12am
We may all disagree about whether or not global warming exists, but the whole environmentally conscious phase we are going through affects way more than just global warming. For me, being more environmentally friendly is about minimizing the toxins and gases and such that we are pumping into the rivers and oceans, into the earth and therefore into our selves. Global warming may be a hoax, but we cannot deny that we cannot sustain our current standard of living without completely depleting the earth of all it's resources.

Simmons says

Jan 18th, 2008 at 12am
Link is http://www.noaa.gov/ and then navigate from there TB
Could you give me a direct link?

Simmons says

Jan 16th, 2008 at 12am
Source for average global temperatures not risen for 10 years, in fact gone down by 0.2C, is Satellite records from the US National Oceanic and Atmopsheric Administration in the US. Web site address is on one of my previous comments.
Could you give me a link?

Tim Bristow says

Jan 16th, 2008 at 12am
Link is http://www.noaa.gov/ and then navigate from there TB

Simonpierre says

Jan 16th, 2008 at 12am
Disraeli once said : "There are lies, bloody lies and statistics". But how the devil are these statistics made possible ? Every time I read things such as "THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF THE EARTH" I wonder how this so-called average has been calculated and I remind myself that it will not even be a VERY VERY APPROXIMATE GUESS ... in the best of cases . And, by the way, is any US National Administration reliable when it comes to issuing statistics that will prove that they care for the future ? I dont mean that issuing temperature studies is not more reliable than finding Massive Destruction Weapons in President Saddam Hussein's Irak but still... well, we all know that labs have to prove they work hard and deserve their money. No, worse, that they will get their money if and only if they promise to work within the mainstream ideas and concour to that mainstream. I had a dream. I dreamed that a (at least partially) independent scientist would come and explain that the first quality for being a scientist is to be able to question and confront what he himself thought, and what others said so forcefully, and to check and try and check and try again, and come with some new questions and not always certainties. In France, when Claude Allègre - who is not exactly an ignoramus, explained that he personally did not believe in global warming and a change of climate, he was violently insulted in almost every newspaper and on evry radio and TV. Well, maybe he was wrong - future wil tell - but that was HIS OWN FIELD OF WORK AND KNOWLEDGE while a lot of absolutely incult journalists and absolutely average green wilitants howled wolf on him. Nothing semms to have changed since the good old wars of religion. Whom shall we burn next ?

Roger Helmer MEP says

Jan 15th, 2008 at 12am
Average global temperatures have not risen for ten years. CO2 is certainly a greenhouse gas, but its climate-forcing effect is logarithmic (i.e. a law of diminishing returns), and at current levels of atmospheric CO2, further increases in CO2 will have very small effects. Virtually all the climate models based on CO2 predict the greatest temperature increase in the high atmosphere (10 km+). But observations (both weather balloons and satellites) show what little warming there is at ground level. Sea level is not rising any faster than it has since records began (and probably since the start of the current interglacial, 10,000 years ago). Indeed some research shows the rate of rise slowing through the 20th century. Oh, and Mars and other planets are showing a small degree of warming, which confirms the obvious -- that it was the Sun wot dun it. Even if Kyoto were to be fully implemented (it won't be), it would make a difference to average global temperatures almost too small to measure, even 100 years out (and less in the meantime). If the UK were to close down its economy totally and not even light a candle, our reduction in CO2 would be eaten up by increases in emissions from China in around one year. We could do huge economic damage, for zero result. Instead of worrying about climate change, let´s worry about energy security, and get on and build more nuclear capacity.

Kev Man says

Jan 15th, 2008 at 12am
I live in Pittsburgh PA, just the other day (January 8th, 2008) it was 69 degrees. A few years ago for a week it was 10 below freezing. It seems to me that the seasons have shifted by a couple of months and the extremes are becoming more extreme. I blame pop culture.

Simmons says

Jan 15th, 2008 at 12am
Average global temperatures have not risen for ten years.
Once again, no source. I'm sure it's possible - the earth won't warm as soon as you snap your fingers - but you don't have a source.
Virtually all the climate models...
Isn't it usually skeptics who point out climate models are inaccurate? Scientists don't use climate models to find out if the Earth is warming, they find out how much the Earth will warm. Scientists and and every average person can figure out that the Earth is warming by using basic middle school science.
Oh, and Mars and other planets are showing a small degree of warming, which confirms the obvious — that it was the Sun wot dun it.
Martian eccentricity is about 0.1 - over 5 times larger than Earth's, so the insolation (INcoming SOLar radiATION) variation over the orbit is more substantial than Earth's. By the way, Mars has only been warming for 3 years, compared to Earth's hundreds.
I live in Pittsburgh PA, just the other day (January 8th, 2008) it was 69 degrees. A few years ago for a week it was 10 below freezing. It seems to me that the seasons have shifted by a couple of months and the extremes are becoming more extreme. I blame pop culture.
I'm sorry, but that isn't really legitimate evidence...

Tim Bristow says

Jan 15th, 2008 at 12am
Source for average global temperatures not risen for 10 years, in fact gone down by 0.2C, is Satellite records from the US National Oceanic and Atmopsheric Administration in the US. Web site address is on one of my previous comments.