THE
EARTH'S CLIMATE IS UNDERGOING CHANGE!
BUT WHAT IS THE
CAUSE?
Latest news - The Royal Society (UK) has published a new
paper on Climate Change
http://royalsociety.org/Royal-Society-launches-new-climate-change-guide/
This revised view was apparently brought about by
internal pressure from a significant number of its
members.
This new paper can be summarised by:
“We don’t really
understand what causes climate change and consequently
cannot accurately predict what might happen in the
future”.
THE CARBON DIOXIDE DEBATE - IS CO2 GOOD OR BAD?
CO2 is odourless, colourless, and tasteless. Plants
absorb CO2 and emit oxygen as a waste product. Humans and
animals breathe oxygen and emit CO2 as a waste product.
Carbon dioxide is a nutrient, and all life -- plants and
animals alike -- benefit from it.
All life on earth is carbon-based and CO2 is an essential
ingredient. When plant-growers want to stimulate plant
growth, they introduce more carbon dioxide. In China,
there are plans to use CO2 waste from coal-fired power
stations to feed the nutrient to gigantic greenhouses.
Of the 186 billion tons of CO2 that enter earth's
atmosphere each year from all sources, 6 billion tons are
from human activity. Approximately 90 billion tons come
from biologic activity in earth's oceans and another 90
billion tons from such sources as volcanoes and decaying
land plants.
CO2 that goes into the atmosphere, unlike ozone, does not
stay there, but is continually recycled by terrestrial
plant life and earth's oceans -- the great retirement
home for most terrestrial carbon dioxide. There is some
current scientific debate as to whether the oceans are
stressed in dealing with the current level of CO2.
There is also current scientific debate as to whether
atmospheric CO2 causes global warming or is caused by
global warming. Historically, rises in atmospheric CO2
levels have lagged atmospheric temperature increase
cycles by around 800 years.
Actual
temperature changes since 1995
At the Earth’s surface
Above the Earth’s surface
Observations -
1. There is a strong correlation between the temperature
change at the earth’s surface and that above the earth.
2. The earth’s temperature appears to be relatively
steady, if not dropping slightly.
Historical sea
levels
Observations-
3. Manly ferries weren’t needed just
10,000 years ago - you could walk to there from Circular
Quay!
4. If a natural interglacial cycle is now occurring, we
can expect a further temperature rise of around 3c and
sea levels to rise another 4m to 6m over the next few
thousand years.
5. Scientific debate is currently whether an increase in
atmospheric CO2 levels will accelerate these almost
inevitable increases in temperature and sea level.
6. Another interesting theory is that the result of
man-made global warming will actually delay or even
prevent the onset of the next ice age.
Current sea
level study results (The Maldive Project)
-
“In a
common greenhouse global-warming scenario, the Maldives
have been condemned to become flooded in 50 years or, at
the most, 100 years. However, our study of past and
present sea-level changes shows no sign of any sea-level
rise. On the contrary, the Maldives have seen a sea-level
fall in the past 30 years. This sea-level fall is likely
to be the effect of an increased evaporation and
intensified northeast monsoon over the central Indian
Ocean. We are confident that the people of the Maldives
are not condemned to become flooded in the near future”.
- Nis Axel Morner
The causes of Earth’s
glacial cycle
Some scientists believe that the glacial cycle is caused
by minor variations in the Earth’s orbit and rotational
axis. Others believe that the Earth’s magnetic field
plays a part. The earth's magnetic field strength was
measured by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1835 and has been
repeatedly measured since then, showing an exponential
decay with a half-life of about 1400 years. This could
also be stated as a relative decay of about 10% to 15%
over the last 150 years.
The Earth’s magnetic field is the major barrier to the
‘solar wind, or solar particulate radiation which is
prevented from entering the atmosphere by the magnetic
field and is trapped in The Van Allen radiation belt.
Solar wind that does penetrate is known to have severe
effects on the earth’s climate. It prevents cloud
formation and causes atmospheric cooling by reducing the
level of the Earth’s most significant greenhouse gas -
water vapour.
4 differing points of view on
climate change:
1. It is caused
largely by CO2 generated by human
activity.
"Nobody is interested in solutions if they don't think
there's a problem. Given that starting point, I believe
it is appropriate to have an over-representation of
factual presentations on how dangerous (global warming)
is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen
to what the solutions are..."
former USA Vice
President Al Gore - (ed note
: just
to further complicate things, at the beginning of his
award winning movie “An Unfortunate Truth” , Al misread
the graph showing the historical relationship between
global temperature and CO2 - he said that the chart
showed that global temperature follows increased CO2
concentration - the chart he showed indicated exactly the
opposite! - i.e. the chart showed that CO2 concentration
increases after the global
temperature increases).
Al Gore is now
now, chairman and co-founder of Generation Investment
Management-- a London-based business that sells carbon
credits) (in an interview with Grist Magazine May 9,
2006, concerning his book, ‘An Inconvenient
Truth’
2. It may or may not
be the cause of climate change, but efforts to improve
sustainability are good in themselves.
"Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will
be doing the right thing -- in terms of economic policy
and environmental policy."
Tim Wirth U.S.
Senator, Colorado. After a short stint as United Nations
Under-Secretary for Global Affairs he now serves as
President, U.N. Foundation.
3. CO2 is definately not the cause, it is a natural and
ongoing process, so plan for it.
" What we are seeing really is just another interglacial
phase within our big icehouse climate." Dismissing
political calls for a global effort to reverse climate
change, she said, " It's really farcical because the
climate has been changing constantly... What we should do
is be more aware of the fact that it is changing and that
we should be ready to adapt to the change.
British scientist
Jane Francis.
4.
Climate change can be of benefit.
"Unfortunately, it is a common view
within the Russian Government that the whole issue of
climate change is important but not urgent. Instead of
seeing threats and dangers, the most important government
people here think an open Arctic Ocean (sic free of ice)
will actually be a good thing."
Alexey
Kokorin, the
Moscow-based climate change analyst for international
conservation group WWF.
The view of the Garnaut
Report
The view of a reformed CO2
alarmist!
OUR VIEW? - WE CHOOSE TO TRANSCEND THE CO2 DEBATE. OUR
ECO SUSTAINABILITY SYSTEM IS GROUNDED IN :
'THE
NATURAL STEP'
WHAT IS THE 'NATURAL STEP'?