Stephen Hawking, in a recent article, stated that we should start looking around for a new planet to colonise because ‘with climate change, overdue asteroid strikes, epidemics and population growth, our own planet is increasingly precarious’. If all that’s coming, maybe we should just leave now! Stephen Hawking is a clever man, but he’s obviously looking for a big grant to fund research or something. Now, let’s be logical about it and look at the reality. We’re miles from anywhere habitable and he suggests colonies on the Moon or Mars. Why would we leave a planet that is rich in water, plant and animal life to live on a barren wasteland with no water, life or atmosphere? This is another of those statements paraded all over the media that terrorize the population and keep us in a constant state of fear.
Coincidentally, I have been looking into the science behind ‘global-warming’ and ‘climate change’, for several weeks now and (I have to get the language right here) from the evidence I have gathered, I have concluded that we’ve all been taken for huge ride.
When it comes to man-made global-warming and climate change, I’ll be the first to admit, I believed it. I didn’t even bother with the science because I thought, ‘well, you can’t lie about science; it’s all based on evidence and research, isn’t it?’ I’ve always enjoyed science programmes, never missed Tomorrow’s World and I even wanted to study it at school but we had a rubbish science department. I remember looking through the biology books, a subject you weren’t allowed to do until 3rd year, and the pages on human reproduction were torn out because they had a picture of a naked man and woman in them. We sneaked a look at the teacher’s book, they were still in his. So, everything in nature procreated except humanity, in the narrow world of the Convent Grammar.
Going back to the early 1990’s, some doubts were raised. I was doing a Life Sciences course as part of a Foundation course at Magee College and I remember reading this in one of the journals, and it always stuck with me. It said, ‘there is no such thing as an environmental crisis in nature, because nature is always working to repair the damage’. That, and the fact that the teacher didn’t believe any of the environmentalist’s warnings about what was happening. We also discussed the fact, that back in the 1960’s, they were talking about another ice-age which I remember too…barely that is!
But, courses end and life moves on, and you become distracted by other things, and I didn’t give it much more thought. I could see the benefits of recycling and trying to cut back on energy usage if for no other reason than to save a few pounds, and assumed we were being told the truth because the general consensus in the media seemed to confirm there were problems with the climate. There were stories about El Nino and a hole in the ozone layer and, in 1995, we had the summer from heaven, 3 months of the most beautiful warm, sunny weather and we thought, ‘well, if this is global warming, bring it on!’
And as I sit here and write this, I’m thinking, it’s June, my roses have only bloomed in the last couple of weeks, last year one rose bush didn’t bloom until July and even then it was only for about 2 weeks. I had my heating on last night, I still have the quilt on my bed and I’ve even had to wear pyjamas a couple of nights this month as it was so cold.
Now, this all came about because I’ve been having more political debates and discussions with my sister (Me: for Jeremy Corbyn. Her: not) Then, the topic of climate-change came up; and there’s another thing I noticed recently, there’s less talk about ‘global-warming’ now. The language of the debate is changing and it’s becoming more about ‘climate change’, have you noticed that? Anyway, she has always been a sceptic and has complained a lot about paying taxes for something she said wasn’t true so after some debate she said, check out Piers Corbyn’s website, Weatheraction.com. At this point, neither she nor I knew Jeremy and Piers were brothers. So, I did.
Weather forecasting is Piers Corbyn’s area of expertise and when he started studying, he noticed a correlation between solar (sunspot) activity and temperature and climate change on earth. He was so successful in using this information in weather-forecasting that he was able to live off the money he won, betting on the weather when he was at university.
Now, when you actually read the science you come to understand that the earth has always had periods of warming and cooling. There was a warming period in medieval times, when Greenland was green and the Vikings lived and farmed there. There was a mini ice-age about 600 years ago (we’ve warmed up a bit since then) but scientists on several sites seem to agree that we are now in a cooling period again. This data is derived from studies on solar activity.
On the website climatescienceinternational.org, 6 leading British scientists, including Piers and the well-known botanist, David Bellamy, Phd; and many others from around the world, have put their name to this statement:
We, the undersigned, having assessed the relevant scientific evidence, do not find convincing support for the hypothesis that human emissions of carbon dioxide are causing, or will in the foreseeable future cause, dangerous global warming."
It also states their reason for compiling a register of scientists:
‘A common misunderstanding amongst the general public, mainstream media and politicians is that only a small proportion of experts in the climate science community have serious problems with the concept of a carbon dioxide-driven climate crisis. In reality, thousands of climate experts are highly skeptical of this hypothesis.
This fact has been repeatedly demonstrated through open letters, petitions and other declarations. However, these documents have not had sufficient impact on government policy largely because mainstream media have generally ignored them and so only a minority of the public is aware of their existence’.
On petitionprojectorg, 31,487 US scientists, 9029 of them Phd’s, have signed their name to another petition whose purpose is:
‘to demonstrate that the claim of “settled science” and an overwhelming “consensus” in favor of the hypothesis of human-caused global warming and consequent climatological damage is wrong. No such consensus or settled science exists.
Publicists at the United Nations, Mr. Al Gore, and their supporters frequently claim that only a few “sceptics” remain…It is evident that 31,487 Americans with university degrees in science – including 9,029 PhDs, are not "a few."
These scientists are instead convinced that the human-caused global warming hypothesis is without scientific validity and that government action on the basis of this hypothesis would unnecessarily and counterproductively damage both human prosperity and the natural environment of the Earth.
So, I started really looking in to this and gathering data about ‘global warming’, I typed in ‘facts about global-warming and I got a site called Co2earth which gives the Co2 levels in the atmosphere which at this time are 400ppm (parts per million) which doesn’t sound like a lot. (I wonder what’s making up the other 999,600 parts.). Anyway, back in the Cambrian period, Co2 levels were at 7000ppm and I also found out that the Cambrian period is ‘famed for its explosion of abundant and diverse life forms’. So no harm done there then!
Now, to be fair, I also checked out the other side. The first thing I noticed about the pro GW/CC sites was that they didn’t have a lot of actual scientists, scientific papers or links to all the evidence and one of the first things I came across, on one of the sites, was a statement that said there was a global consensus among scientists about ‘man-made climate change’, which I knew straightaway from my research, was a lie. According to the GW/CC ‘science’, rising Co2 levels are causing the earth to warm up but the actual real science shows us that reverse is true. Temperature rises cause Co2 levels to increase. Part of the reason for this is that warm water cannot hold as much Co2 as cold water and the oceans contain huge amounts of Co2. So, when the water warms up it releases Co2 but Co2 levels are not static anyway and are moving all the time. As a greenhouse gas, Co2 isn’t very big either. They largest greenhouse gas is water vapour, yes, I know, I couldn’t believe that one either. Water vapour coming off the oceans makes up about 96% of greenhouse gases. Co2 is contained in the other 4% along with methane and other gases. As a proportion of the atmosphere, Co2 is about 0.039% with nitrogen making up 78% and oxygen 21%. Again, that’s not a lot, as Paul Daniels used to say. (Gawd, I’m really starting to show my age!)
Anyway, back to the science! Co2 or carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring element on earth; it is in everything, plants, animals, the oceans, the land, us, everywhere. As a matter of fact, if there were no Co2, everything would die. We even breathe it in and out. We breathe in 400ppm of Co2 but we breathe out 40,000ppm and as the man says, I don’t think anyone has died from Co2 poisoning while receiving CPR. We could actually do with some more Co2 as it makes everything grow bigger and better, it’s the very food of life for plants and trees.
Now, the earth itself is about 71% water to 29% land. 33% of the land is deserts and 3% is urbanised which doesn’t really sound like a lot either. So if you were worrying about the impact of your non eco- friendly light bulbs, stop now because how much of a difference is that going to make when you look at the big picture?
Here’s another piece of info, 99.9% of the energy that drives the earth’s climate comes from the sun. And this is backed up time and again by data. When the sun is active the temperature goes up and then the oceans release Co2. Water vapour rises forms clouds and helps to insulate the earth, keeping it warm. You’ll know this from the difference in a clear sky at night and a cloudy one. Clear skies in autumn, winter and spring bring frosts. So, if we’re causing the planet to heat up, then it is only a fraction of a percent and again, light bulb vs sun? Think about the proportions.
We also have to remember when we hear stories of the highest temperature or warmest month since records began, they have only been keeping records since 1880. (I think parts of England had a hottest day since 1976 last week, didn’t they?) Again, let’s think about it proportionally, that’s 137 years out of 4 500 000 000. The earth has been around for many years and has gone through many changes so keep that in mind the next time you hear the hottest, wettest, driest day/week/month since records began!
The main body promoting climate change is the IPCC which stands for the International Panel on Climate Change which was established by the United Nations and the World Meteorogical Organisation in 1988. A lot of their scientific data was drawn from what they call proxy studies which take information from many sources and are notoriously unreliable as models for predicting anything. They have used the Mann ‘hockey stick’ graph to show the rising temperature but this graph is still the subject of debate as to the authenticity of the results and has been subjected to charges of manipulation. Some of the temperature data is taken from urban sites which are naturally warmer. There have also been difficulties in replicating the study which is a really big deal in science. It’s like reverse plagiarism, you have to be able to follow the exact same procedures, to see if you get the same result, otherwise, the study is invalidated.
So, if like me, you were worried about humanity and the future of the planet, then I hope I have eased your mind, keep looking at the big picture and don’t let yourself be terrorised by the government and Al Gore. Al Gore is a charlatan and I really hope he reads this and sues me so I can take him to court and expose the fraud. Now, climate change is happening because the climate changes all the time so it’s always happening and always will. Here is a little table showing hot and cold periods on the earth since 200AD.
200 – 600 Warming
440 – 900 Cooling (Dark Ages)
900 – 1300 Warming again
1300 – 1850 Cooling (little ice-age)
1850 - present Warming with possible cooling period ahead
So, there you have it. Now, asteroids, I’m afraid we can do nothing about. A big one might arrive at any time but I would like to think if we were facing some life extinction event like that, then we would pull together and use all those nukes to blow it away in a grand display of human camaraderie while unilaterally disarming at the same time! Kill two problems with one big bang, so to speak.
Epidemics? Again, I think we’re fairly well disposed to sorting out those threats with all the good scientists and scientific knowledge we do have. But if the worst happens, well, the upside is we won’t have to worry about population growth! There you go, problem solved! See, every cloud has a silver lining…and a large percentage of greenhouse gases! By the way, the population is dropping in Europe so there’s another thing we don’t have to worry about.
I’m going to be a real bore about this from now on, I can’t believe how quickly I learned all this stuff. I didn’t even realise I knew this much until I got into a spat on Facebook about it, and I was able to ream off facts and figures without having to check my notes. I have to say, I even impressed myself and more importantly, I got the last word! Game, set and match to me!!
I’m actually thinking about creating a fake science site and starting an internet rumour about Co2. I’m going to tell people that ‘scientists have reported that if we all held our breath for a minute every day for a year we could reduce Co2 levels by 10%’ and see how long it takes to become an urban myth. So, do me a favour and start spreading it around.
And for anyone who’s interested, here are a few links to sites with lots more interesting reading and scientific facts.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/history_of_the_earth/Cambrian
http://myweb.wwu.edu/dbunny/pdfs/looming-threat-of-global-cooling.pdf
http://www.plantsneedco2.org/default.aspx?menuitemid=370
http://forecast.uchicago.edu/chapter4.pdf