Temperature and Carbon Dioxide Revisited

When it comes to climate change, the public's appreciation of uncertainty seems to vanish. This is partly due to intense propaganda from official government bodies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plus heavy support from the media. For example, in mid-January NOAA headlined their home page, “It's official, 2014 was Earth's warmest year on record.” NASA proclaimed in their January 16th news video, “2014 was the hottest year on record.” But these announcements are effectively lies, argues Tom Harris. (1)

NOAA's own data show that the record for the year was set by only four one-hundredths of a degree Celsius over the previous record warmest years, 2010 and 2005, while the uncertainty in the temperature statistic is nine one-hundredths of a degrees, or more than twice the amount by which the supposed record was set (NASA showed a record being set in 2014 by only two one-hundredths of a degree). In fact NOAA temperature statistics for seven previous years; 2013, 2010, 2006, 2005, 2003, 2002 and 1998 are all within nine one-hundredths of a degree of 2014's level. So they all tie with 2014. No new record was set. (1) If students in a statistic class fudged numbers like this they would get an F grade. Contrary to supporting the notion that global warming continues unabated, NOAA's data reinforce the observation that we are in the midst of an 18 year pause in planetary warming. This Great Pause is a growing embarrassment to those who had told us with 'substantial confidence' that the science was settled and the debate over. (2) Historical climatologist Dr. Tim Ball says that modern instrumental data is inadequate. There are virtually no data for the 70 percent of Earth's surface that is oceans. Also, there are practically no data for the 19 percent of land area that are mountains, 20 percent that are desert, 20 percent boreal forest, 20 percent grasslands, and 6 percent tropical rain forest. (1)

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So it is not possible for NOAA and NASA to determine a meaningful average temperature statistic for the planet as a whole based on surface readings as they pretend to do. It is only through the use of satellite-based instruments that we can hope to get a meaningful overview of the planetary conditions. And satellite data show that 2014 did not set a record at all., with computed temperature statistics merely extending the current 18 year Great Pause. (1) Yet folks still get heavily excited over carbon dioxide and its emissions. It is still widely believed that the carbon emissions of our modern industrial civilization will cause catastrophic global warming. There is endless talk of carbon emissions, carbon pollution, carbon footprint, carbon offsets, carbon rationing, carbon tax and carbon trading. (3) Carbon dioxide only accounts for a scant 38 thousandths of a percent of our planet's atmosphere. And what percentage of the miniscule amount of CO2 is produced by man, including the use of fossil fuels? According to a thorough analysis by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, a research wing of the US Department of Energy, it is only 3.207%. All of this hoopla over an atmospheric component so minute it is difficult to comprehend, reports Brain Sussman. (4) Once again for emphasis: carbon dioxide comprises 38/1000ths of the earth's atmosphere, and of that amount, a mere 3% of it is generated by mankind. Here's another analysis: In every 2,600 molecules of air, only one is CO2. Of the CO2 molecules, only one in 33 is produced by humans. Thus, in every 85,800 molecules of air only one is a molecule of CO2 produced by humans., That this can warm Earth is nonsense. That the UN IPCC and the federal government want up to believe that in every 85,800 molecules of air, a single CO2 molecule produced by humans warms the planet yet the other 32 produced by Nature does not is insane. (5) The following summarizes levels of CO2 under various conditions (6):

• 40,000 ppm: the exhaled breath of normal, healthy people
• 8,000 ppm: CO2 standard for submarines
• 2,500 ppm: CO2 level in a small, hot crowded bar in a city
• 1,000 ppm: average level in a lecture hall filled with students
• ~400 ppm: current average level of CO2 in the air

A legion of recent experiments have demonstrated beyond any shadow of doubt that a CO2 enriched atmosphere promotes plant growth, increases agricultural production and promotes a greener planet. CO2 enrichment also ameliorates drought by enabling plants to survive with less water and in harsher conditions. The evidence is also written large in the geological record how a green and lusher earth once flourished when the atmosphere was enriched with ten to twenty times more CO2 than it enjoys today, and without causing any harm to earth's biodiversity. (3) So, although we have been enmeshed in a long debate over global warming and climate change and carbon dioxide while there has been no warming for over 18 years, you wouldn't know this from most networks. But this isn't new. Sadly, the networks' bias on climate change has been happening for decades. Many publications now claiming the world is on the brink of a global warming disaster said the same thing about an impending ice age in the 1970s. Several major ones, including the New York Times, Time Magazine, and Newsweek, have reported on three or even four different climate shifts since 1985. (7) References

1. Tom Harris, “NOAA and NASA lied on temperature records,” yourhoustonnews.com, January 25, 2015
2. “Onward marches the great pause,” SPPI Reprint Series, December 5, 2014
3. Robert D. Brinsmead, “An irrational fear of carbon,” carbon-sense.com, August 2008
4. Brian Sussman, Climategate, (Washington, DC, WND Books, 2010), 67
5. “One in 85,800 is a long shot indeed,” carbon-sense.com, January 9, 2010
6. Lorraine Yapps Cohen, “CO2 data show nobody's dead from a little carbon dioxide,” examiner.com, October 28, 2010
7. Julia A. Seymour, “Networks do 92 climate change stories; fail to mention 'lull' in warming in all 92 times,” mrc.org/bias, June 25, 2013