The IPCC is the international group that has announced the phenomenon of Global Warming over the last few decades. Today, that group issued a summary of its fifth report on the subject. In the past, IPCC issued its entire report including the summary at one time; this time the summary came first and alone. In that way, IPCC can make statements that will get picked up by the media without having to met that annoying problem of having evidence to back up the statements. In other words, the new procedure lets IPCC ignore the flaws in the models that predict global warming while telling everyone that the process is still underway without any stopping. The main issue here, however, is that the models that predict global warming have been shown to be wrong. These models predict temperatures would fall within certain ranges over time. Of course, there are natural variations which could cause the actual result to be higher or lower than what was expected, but statistical methods allow the scientists to determine if the actual results are close enough to the predicted result so as to be considered correct. For the last ten years at least, the actual temperatures have moved in a way that was not predicted by the models and which fall outside the expected levels of natural variation. That is a long way of saying that the models don't work; they are wrong. In short, the entire basis for the Global Warming hysteria is just plain wrong!
Now this does not mean that the Earth is not warming. It may be. Certainly, the global climate has warmed since the beginning of the 19th century. That is a fact and is not subject to dispute. It is important to remember, however, that between the 14th and the 19th century there was a period of cooler temperatures on a global basis which is known as a mini ice age. That mini ice age reached its worst in 1816 which was known in the USA at the time as the "year without summer". By the following decade, global temperatures began to rise and they have been generally going up since that time. Even now, however, global temperatures are not as high as they were 2000 years ago when the Roman Empire ruled the world.
The issue that underlies most of the Global Warming debate is not warming; it is the cause and duration of the warming. The alarmists blame warming on man's activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuel which adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. It is this mechanism of warming due to increased carbon dioxide that forms the basis for the computer models that have now been proven wrong by the actual data. Carbon dioxide may play a role in determining the climate, but it is not the role that the Global Warming crowd claims for it.
The importance of the failure of the Global Warming models cannot be overstated. This failure means that the control of so called "carbon footprints" is not the means to stop warming. Even if the world absorbs the huge cost of limiting carbon dioxide emissions, there will not be much, if any, impact on the pace of climate change. The failure of the models make clear that it is factors other than carbon dioxide which are determining global temperatures.
Now this does not mean that the Earth is not warming. It may be. Certainly, the global climate has warmed since the beginning of the 19th century. That is a fact and is not subject to dispute. It is important to remember, however, that between the 14th and the 19th century there was a period of cooler temperatures on a global basis which is known as a mini ice age. That mini ice age reached its worst in 1816 which was known in the USA at the time as the "year without summer". By the following decade, global temperatures began to rise and they have been generally going up since that time. Even now, however, global temperatures are not as high as they were 2000 years ago when the Roman Empire ruled the world.
The issue that underlies most of the Global Warming debate is not warming; it is the cause and duration of the warming. The alarmists blame warming on man's activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuel which adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. It is this mechanism of warming due to increased carbon dioxide that forms the basis for the computer models that have now been proven wrong by the actual data. Carbon dioxide may play a role in determining the climate, but it is not the role that the Global Warming crowd claims for it.
The importance of the failure of the Global Warming models cannot be overstated. This failure means that the control of so called "carbon footprints" is not the means to stop warming. Even if the world absorbs the huge cost of limiting carbon dioxide emissions, there will not be much, if any, impact on the pace of climate change. The failure of the models make clear that it is factors other than carbon dioxide which are determining global temperatures.
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