And create a few of their own
Climate change: the big myths that need to be exploded
THE EARTH IS WARMER NOW THAN IT HAS EVER BEEN
In the distant past, temperatures were far warmer than even the most extreme warming scenarios predicted by the end of the century. Fifty million years ago, during the Eocene, it was on average 10C hotter than today. Forests stretched from pole to pole, the Arctic was inhabited by alligators and squirrel-like primates, and palm trees grew in what is now Alaska.
However, after exploding that myth
Unlike the current warming trend, though, most natural warm periods in the past developed over thousands, if not millions, of years. “It’s not how much the temperature has gone up – that’s only around 1C over the past 100 years,†says professor Adam Scaife of the Met Office. “What’s unprecedented is the rate of change.â€
There is no hard evidence to prove that. In fact, it seems that most of the flips in climate during the Holocene have come on rather fast. It did not take thousands of years for the Little Ice Age to develop, nor thousands for the Medieval Warm Period to develop. Nor the other warm periods, such as the Roman Warm Period. Both of which were warmer than today.
EXTREME WEATHER IS CAUSED BY CLIMATE CHANGE
The floods that gripped Britain in the winter of 2013-14 led to a stronger public belief in human-induced climate change. The storms marked the wettest December to January period since 1876. But some years will always be hotter, wetter or stormier than others.
I really didn’t expect the Guardian to explode that myth.
THERE IS NO SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS ON WARMING
Scientists disagree about how much warming there has been in the past century, how much there will be in the future and what the environmental impacts might be. The fundamental idea that the world is getting hotter due to human activity is not seriously disputed, however.
Who’s pushing that one? Of course, consensus is not science, it’s politics
A survey of the peer-reviewed literature shows that more than 97% of published work supports the idea that warming trends are linked to human activity. After investigating, scientists also found no evidence that papers with a sceptical slant were being systematically rejected by journals.
Ah. Of course, the myth of that 97% has been proven time and time again.
They fail to mention that human caused climate change is mostly a myth, too.
More: Jo Nova digs deep into each myth, well worth the read.
