The Global Warming Controversy

Global warming is a story that will not go away based on the wishes of those who don't believe in global warming. Global warming is also a story that will not advance based on the wishes of those who do believe in Global warming. With all of the latest controversy I don't know what to believe. I am not a geophysicist. I am not a Glaciologist. I am a guy who is trying to make sense of the information on global warming that is being sent out. The following is a summary of what I have heard about global warming on news reports over the past few years. I don't know if any of it is true or not. Thats my problem with the whole global warming debate.

First: I heard that one of the men who initially advanced the idea that man made carbon emissions were causing global warming back in the seventies has since said that if carbon emissions were the cause of global warming there would be hot spots somewhere in the upper atmosphere over the equator. He has apparently also said that scientists have been looking for them since the nineteen seventies and have not found any yet. His conclusion was that there was some flaw in the theory that has yet to be uncovered. This does not mean that the theory that the earth is warming was invalid but does call into question the basic premise that it is atmospheric carbon emissions that is the cause of global warming.

Second: There have been numerous studies of polar ice, glaciers and alpine ice and snow cover and ambient temperatures over the last thirty to forty years that indicate that globally temperatures are rising and ice and snow cover are being reduced in these areas. This indicates that something is definitely happening.

Third: As forested areas in many undeveloped areas are denuded the ability of the planet to scrub carbonates from the atmosphere is being reduced. This is increasing the percentage of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide etc. in the atmosphere at the expense of oxygen and nitrogen and other gases. This changes the environment and may be a significant contributor to global warming.

Fourth: The scientists that are supporting the theory of global warming have been publishing misleading data. I read a story in which the AP examined recent emails from scientists in which they discussed how to trick the public by manipulating the data. Apparently there was a study of tree rings that purported to be able to estimate the past temperatures by studying the tree rings. The problem arose when the recent tree ring data did not support the recorded temperatures. So the analyst decided that they would substitute real temperature data for the tree ring data. In my view what they should have done was correlate the real temperature data to the tree ring data and determined whether the tree ring data was consistent with the real temperatures before they published the study. They did not do this. Because they did not do this they have promulgated a study that calls into question the integrity of the authors and publishers of the study.

I don't know if is lying, manipulation or simply loose and turgid thinking on the part of the researchers of the global warming theory. When I was a child in Alaska in the nineteen fifties we would have many scientists visit and I was privy to numerous conversations between and with them. I especially remember Dr. Bill Fields of the National Geophysical institute and Dr. Goldthwaite of the University of Ohio. Both of them believed that there was something going on with global warming even back then. Neither was willing to take a firm stand on whether global warming was a natural or artificial phenomena. They felt that the science would eventually determine the cause and solution to global warming. Maybe we should do the same.

The bottom line seems to be that global warming is happening. The why and how is still unknown. I really wish that scientists would report only the facts. Why cannot the researchers on both sides simply lay out the data and make it fully available for debate as to it's meaning and stop manipulating and hiding data that they think may undermine their positions on global warming. If they were to do this then global warming would be better understood. We only have one planet. We need to get this right.