Preaching to the Climate Choir

[rhoenix]

Well, at least here, anyway.

There has been some attacking of NewScientist as a valid science news source before, but they published a good article to help gather some conversational ammo against those people who still espouse myths about global warming.

Our planet's climate is anything but simple. All kinds of factors influence it, from massive events on the Sun to the growth of microscopic creatures in the oceans, and there are subtle interactions between many of these factors.

Yet despite all the complexities, a firm and ever-growing body of evidence points to a clear picture: the world is warming, this warming is due to human activity increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and if emissions continue unabated the warming will too, with increasingly serious consequences.

Yes, there are still big uncertainties in some predictions, but these swing both ways. For example, the response of clouds could slow the warming or speed it up.

With so much at stake, it is right that climate science is subjected to the most intense scrutiny. What does not help is for the real issues to be muddied by discredited arguments or wild theories.

So for those who are not sure what to believe, here is our round-up of the 26 most common climate myths and misconceptions.

There is also a guide to assessing the evidence. In the articles we've included lots of links to primary research and major reports for those who want to follow through to the original sources.

(Editor's note: I chopped off the quote here, as all the Myths listed were links to further articles. In the interest of legibility, the rest is presented without quote tags.)

- 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

Some of the myths listed were certainly new to me. All in all, an interesting read.

[Admiral Valdemar]

At least, something to rival realclimate.org's extensive debunking of anti-climate change bullshit.

[Darth Wong]

They missed the extremely common myth that climatologists somehow stand to rake in cash from agreeing with global warming, when in fact it is far more lucrative to join the Dark Side.

[Gil Hamilton]

Don't you remember GI Joe? Clearly, all climatologists are under the thumb of COBRA, and are spreading their propaganda so that COBRA can make BILLIONS on sunscreen sales. And it's cheaper than their original plan of depleting the ozone layer by releasing a massive amount of CFCs.

[K. A. Pital]

I'm so bookmarking this. I can't believe people can still excuse their anti-climate science rants with shit like "well human CO2 is a minor fraction of the gases" without counting the absorption of natural gases.

Nor does the fact that it has been warmer in the past mean that future warming is nothing to worry about. The sea level has been tens of metres higher during past warm periods, enough to submerge most major cities around the world.

Yeah, that's right. I mean, you can't really excuse the fact that New York will sink by pointing to the Medival warm period and saying "it was warmer!! waaah waaah, why did the coastal cities sink?"

[Admiral Valdemar]

See, it happened in the past, therefore, nothing to worry about.

Supervolcanoes happened in the past, therefore, nothing to worry about.