Text 5841, 182 rader
Skriven 2007-09-09 04:58:00 av Martin Atkins
     Kommentar till en text av JANIS KRACHT
Ärende: Re: Global Warming
==========================
-=> JANIS KRACHT wrote to ROSS CASSELL <=-

 JK> Hi Ross,

 JK> Knew you couldn't resist :)

 >>>> What do you do for a living, Martin?
 >>> I'm retired.
 >> So you're not a climatologist then.

 >What would that have to do with him not buying into the global warming who 
 >hee ha?

 JK> Just making a point, he's not a climatologist.  Why should his opinion
 JK> hold any weight at all when it's contradicted by almost every
 JK> climatologist.
______________________________________________________________________
         THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH

 Global Warming: Why Can't the Mainstream Press Get Even Basic Facts Right?
                 
DATE: March 22, 2004

BACKGROUND: The Associated Press ran a global warming story (1) this past 
weekend that makes the following statements:

"Carbon dioxide, the gas largely blamed for global warming, has 
reached record-high levels in the atmosphere after growing at 
an accelerated pace in the past year..."

"Carbon dioxide, mostly from burning of coal, gasoline and 
other fossil fuels, traps heat that otherwise would 
radiate into space."

"Global temperatures increased by about 1 degree Fahrenheit 
(0.6 degrees Celsius) during the 20th century, and international 
panels of scientists sponsored by world governments have concluded 
that most of the warming probably was due to greenhouse gases."

TEN SECOND RESPONSE: How many scandals does the mainstream press need b
efore it starts routinely running stories through fact-checkers?

THIRTY SECOND RESPONSE: Faulty "news" stories like this one, which 
mislead people all over the world, are one of many alarmist global 
warming reports by the news media that do not reflect a consensus of 
scientists. What is more alarming than what scientists genuinely know 
about global warming is that a media outlet as influential as the AP 
would run a wire story this faulty, and that so many news editors would 
be gullible enough to run it.

        DISCUSSION: A brief refutation:

 Quote 1: The AP said: "Carbon dioxide, the gas largely blamed for global 
 warming, has reached record-high levels in the atmosphere after growing 
 at an accelerated pace in the past year..."

Facts: Carbon dioxide is not the major greenhouse gas (water vapor is). (2)
Carbon dioxide accounts for less than ten percent of the greenhouse effect, 
as carbon dioxide's ability to absorb heat is quite limited. (3)

Only about 0.03 percent of the Earth's atmosphere consists of carbon 
dioxide (nitrogen, oxygen, and argon constitute about 78 percent, 
20 percent, and 0.93 percent of the atmosphere, respectively). (4)
        
The sun, not a gas, is primarily to "blame" for global warming -- and plays a
very key role in global temperature variations 
as well.

Quote 2: The AP said: "Carbon dioxide, mostly from burning of coal, gasoline 
and other fossil fuels, traps heat that otherwise would radiate into space."

Fact: Most of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere does not come from 
the burning of fossil fuels. Only about 14 percent of it does. (5)

Quote 3: The AP said: "Global temperatures increased by about 1 degree 
Fahrenheit (0.6 degrees Celsius) during the 20th century, and international 
panels of scientists sponsored by world governments have concluded that most of

the warming probably was due to greenhouse gases."

Facts: Most of 20th Century global warming occurred in the first few decades 
of that century, (6) before the widespread burning of fossil fuels 
(and before 82 percent of the increase in atmospheric CO2 observed in 
the 20th Century (7)).

The Earth does not have "world governments." It doesn't even have even one, 
as the United Nations is not a government, but an association of nations.

If the AP is referring to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel 
on Climate Change, the AP should become aware that the IPCC report 
itself (the part written by scientists) reached no consensus on climate 
change. What did reach a conclusion was an IPCC "summary for policymakers" 
prepared by political appointees. (8) 

Most reporters quote only the summary, being either too lazy or too 
undereducated to understand the actual report. This does not explain, 
however, why reporters don't more frequently interview scientists who 
helped prepare it -- scientists such as IPCC participant Dr. Richard 
Lindzen of MIT, who says the IPCC report is typically "presented as a 
consensus that involves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of scientists... 
and none of them was asked if they agreed with anything in the report 
except for the one or two pages they worked on." Lindzen also draws a 
sharp distinction between the scientists' document and its politicized 
summary: "the document itself is informative; the summary is not." (9)

        by Amy Ridenour

        Contact the author at: 202-543-4110 or aridenour@nationalcenter.org
        The National Center for Public Policy Research
        501 Capitol Court, N.E.
        Washington, D.C. 20002

        Footnotes: (Watch for word wrap)

 (1) Charles J. Hanley, "CO2 Buildup Accelerating in Atmosphere," Associated 
 Press, available on various websites, including 
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2004-03-21-co2-buildup_x.htm, 
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/3/21/170709.shtml, 
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/8241534.htm, 
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0304/21climateside.html, 
and many, many others (note: the headline used on the story varies).

 (2) See "The Greenhouse Effect and Greenhouse Gases: 
An Overview," Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy 
(available at http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/pubs_html/attf94_v2/chap2.html) 
for a good summary of this issue understandable to the layman.

 (3) Gerald Marsh, "Climate Change Science? National Academy of Sciences 
Global Warming Report Fails to Live Up to Its Billing," National Center 
for Public Policy Research National Policy Analysis #349, August 2001, at 
http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA349.html.

 (4) Edward Klappenbach, "Examining the Carbon Dioxide in Our Atmosphere,
" About.com, downloaded from 
http://weather.about.com/cs/atmosphere/a/aa062003a.htm?terms=carbon+dioxide 
on March 21, 2004. Klappenbach gives the CO2 figure as .033 percent. Note: 
The Associated Press article being critiqued in this Ten Second Response 
alludes to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations as 
meaured at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 
Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. 

The average annual percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere determined by 
researchers measuring there for 2002 was .0373 percent. 
A chart showing average annual CO2 concentrations as measured at 
the Mauna Loa Observatory from 1958-2002 is available at 
http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/ftp/maunaloa-co2/maunaloa.co2 
as of March 22, 2004.

 (5) "Frequently Asked Global Change Question: What percentage of the CO2 
in the atmosphere has been produced by human beings through the burning 
of fossil fuels?," Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge 
National Laboratory, March 2004, available at 
http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/pns/faq.html as of March 21, 2004.

 (6) This is based on a review of global satellite and balloon 
temperature measurements and high-quality U.S.-based surface temperature 
station measurements. For additional details understandable to laymen, 
we recommend the short document "There Has Been No Global Warming for 
the Past 70 Years," published by The Center for the Study of Carbon 
Dioxide and Global Change and available online at 
http://www.co2science.org/edit/v3_edit/v3n13edit.htm as of March 22, 2004.

 (7) "Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide," 
Oregon Institute of Science and Health, 2001, 
http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p36.htm.

 (8) Richard S. Lindzen, PhD., "Scientists' Report Doesn't Support the Kyoto 
Treaty," Wall Street Journal, June 11 2001 (a copy of this article is 
available unofficially online at 
http://www.enerne.dk/lindzen_i_wall_st__j_.htm). 
Dr. Lindzen, who is a professor of meteorology at MIT, participated -- as 
a scientist -- in the preparation of the IPCC report cited above and 
also was a member of the National Academy of Sciences panel on climate 
change that summarized the IPCC report for the U.S. government.

  (9) Paul Georgia, "IPCC Report Criticized by One of Its Lead Authors,
" Environment News, Heartland Institute, June 2001, available at 
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=1069. 
 

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