Craig James on the Myth of Global Warming

In the 70's the big concern was that the earth was cooling off, and we were headed for another Ice Age. The same arguments were used to back those concerns up as are being used now to back up concerns about global warming. None of the catastrophic forecasts for global cooling came true.

Climate swings have always been around. From 800 to 1300 A.D. much of the world was warmer than today by several degrees. When the Little Ice Age occurred, the temperatures cooled considerably until the climate warmed again around 1900. Today's temperatures are no warmer than they were in the 1980s. In actuality, the earth's temperature has only increased by eight tenths of a degree in the past 128 years.

Weather extremes are not increasing; in fact, the opposite is true. Storm strength has decreased since the 1950s. From 1950 to 1975, there were many more Atlantic hurricanes than from 1975 to the present. In the U.S., hailstorms are 35% less common than they were fifty years ago. At the end of the 20^th century, extreme rainfall was comparable to what it was at the beginning of that same century.

Oceans go through 30-40 year cycles of warm and cold, and those cycles have an effect on the climate's temperature patterns. These cycles are nothing new.

As for the greenhouse effect, it is not a bad thing, but a good thing. Without it, the earth's temperature would be around 0 degrees. The greenhouse effect is essential to life as we know it.

The major greenhouse gases are water vapor, methane, and carbon dioxide. Water vapor is about 100 times as abundant in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is in fact not a pollutant, but is an essential nutrient for plants. Higher carbon dioxide concentrations enable plants to grow faster and better tolerate drought. There is no correlation between carbon dioxide and climate temperatures.

The Arctic was warmer in the 1940s than it is now; again, climate goes through cycles of warming and cooling. Antarctic ice is at a record high. In some areas of the world, glaciers are receding, while in other areas they are growing. When taken as a whole, there is no obvious trend of increasing glacier melt in recent years.

One very convincing argument Craig James brought up in defense of global warming being a myth was the fact that in the 1990s the number of climate stations around the world dropped from 6000 to 2000. Most of the stations that were closed were in rural areas, where temperatures run cooler than in more populated areas. So now most data comes from stations located in more densely populated, and thus warmer, areas.

Also, out of 1200 climate stations in the United States, fewer than 20% of them follow the criteria to obtain data correctly. For example, he showed pictures of climate centers where the thermometers were located over a paved area (which gives off more heat on a warm day than a grassy area) or on the side of a brick building (which also absorbs heat). Obviously, the data from such sites is skewed because of improper placement of the thermometers.

In summary, he stated that the idea of a global warming crisis is being pushed by radical environmentalists who have a political agenda which will cost taxpayers a lot of money to implement.

For more information, go to icecap.us and www.wattsupwiththat.com . There are many articles on these sites concerning global warming issues.