Thursday, March 01, 2007

And the Oscar for Best Propaganda goes to...
Al Gore has won the Oscar for his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." I call it propaganda, a noted climatologist calls it science fiction. The main gist of Gore's argument is that because of carbon dioxide emissions from human activity, Greenland's 630,000 cubic feet of ice will melt into the sea and raise sea levels by 20 feet or more, wrecking havoc around the globe. There are several problems with this theory:

  • According to the U.N.'s recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's estimation (which I would trust with all my heart, since the U.N. knows all), sea levels are predicted to rise 8-17 inches by 2100. And this estimate is based on rapidly increasing levels of methane, which haven't increased over the last seven years. 8-17 inches (which I wouldn't count on) vs. 20 feet. I'd go with the guy who invented the internet.
  • According to satellite data published in Science in 2005, Greenland is losing 25 cubic miles of ice a year. This sounds like a lot, but it is only .4% per century! And the latest data, published last month in Science, shows Greenland is now gaining ice instead of losing it.
  • Over the last century, global temps have gone up by .7 degrees Celcius. We have no idea what percentage of this increase is due to carbon emissions, urbanization, or changes in solar activity. Global temperatures have gone up and down since God created the planet.
  • For more info on what the Kyoto Protocol would do to stop global warming (little to none) and our economy (a lot) check out George Will's column.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html

seems mars is suffering from some global warming in recent years too. Must me those darn rovers pumping out too many greenhouse gases.

Unknown said...

Link

seems blogger likes to cut off long links.