Scientific Response to “The Great Global Warming Swindle”
Compiled by University of Cambridge Programme for
Industry
Editor: Claire Parker, Environmental Policy
Consultant
You may have watched, or heard about, the television programme
‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’, shown on Channel 4 on Thursday
8 March. The programme put into question the prevailing consensus
that carbon dioxide (CO2) released by human activity is the cause
of rising global temperatures.
The issues raised in the programme should not be left unanswered.
Cambridge Programme for Industry have therefore compiled, with the
help of distinguished scientists from world renowned UK
institutions, a short summary of what constitutes the present
scientific consensus on the most important of these issues.
Internationally, this consensus is embodied in the assessments of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s
most authoritative voice on climate change. These assessments are
prepared by thousands of scientists world-wide, on the basis of
peer-reviewed science and by an open and transparent review
process. The latest such assessment is being published this year.
It confirms that human activities are responsible for current
global warming and that dangerous climate change can only be
avoided if urgent action is taken at global level.
- Have temperatures not been as high as they are now - or even
higher - in the past?
-
Are the changes in global temperature
observed during the past century not within
the range of natural variability?
-
Why are the trends of CO2
concentrations and temperature over the past century
not consistently similar?
-
In the past, CO2 changes have actually
preceded temperature changes - does that
not invalidate the correlation?
-
Are human emission not small compared to emission from
volcanoes?
-
As most of the CO2 is in the ocean,
are the (relatively small) amounts released by
burning fossil fuels not irrelevant?
-
Is there not a discrepancy between the
patterns of warming in the atmosphere and
what would be expected from the effect of rising greenhouse gas
concentrations?
-
Can the effects of cosmic radiation,
and of solar activity, explain the observed
increase in global temperatures?
-
Will measures taken to avoid dangerous
climate change - such as reducing emissions of CO2 and other
greenhouse gases - be detrimental to developing countries?
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