[Gasification] UK Documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle

[Kevin Chisholm]

Dear Jonathan

It strikes me that the issue is very muddled and unclear.

Firstly, the Title of the video is "The Great Global Warming Swindle",
yet they go to demonstrate that we do indeed have global warming. At
least that is what many of their statements and graphs show. And then we
get a clear statement that "There is no global warming" because the
tropopause (?) layer in the atmosphere hasn't warmed.

The questions now arise... just what is "Global Warming?" Where do they
measure temperatures? Do they measure the temperatures 5' above the
ground, to represent daily living conditions. 5' below ground, to get a
mean average in the area. Ocean temperatures at the surface, to indicate
the possible effect on short term weather? Midwater temperatures, to get
an "average ocean temperature"? Bottom temperatures, to get an idea how
well the ocean engine is working? At the Poles? How are all these 
temperatures integrated to give a meaniningful "average" temperature?

When you think about it, "average global temperature" is not a good
indicator of whether or not we have "global warming." If we had a 10%
increase in annual solar energy retention by the surface, but if it all
went to melting polar ice caps, then there may not be an increase in
average global temperature, even though more thermal energy was retained 
by the Earth. Similarly, if there is a 10% decrease, stored heat 
released from the oceans would tend to diminish the a possible cooling 
effect.

Then there is "Climate Change," which is distinctly different from 
global warming. We can have potentially very significant
"climate change" with an insignificant change in average global
temperature. For example, if the Northern Hemisphere heats up by 5 C and
the Southern Hemisphere cools by 5 C, there is no difference, on the
average. The actual result of this kind of "no Global Warming" on Global
Climate could be huge. I haven't seen such a situation being considered
as part of the Global Warming, or Climate Change Issues.

A very real, valid, and fundamental question about the Global
Warming/Climate Change issue relates to the fact that for the most part,
the influence of water vapor, also a "greenhouse gas",  seems to be
generally ignored. The content of water vapor in the air can vary by a
factor of 20, but more importantly, water in the upper atmosphere can
cool, to form droplets, and clouds, which block entry of solar energy.

An anecdotal study in the days immediately following 9/11 showed an
average increase in global temperature; this was attributed to the lack
of contrails, that allowed more solar energy to reach the earth's
surface. The importance of cloud cover or of high altitude clouds, seems 
to be overlooked.

The Video had a significant error in it, in that it failed to
distinguish between CO2 resulting from carbon already in the Biosphere,
and "new carbon" brought into the Biosphere,resulting from burning of 
Fossil Fuel. One gallon of gasoline adds more "new carbon" to the 
Biosphere than a year's worth of the belches from millions of cows or 
the farts from billions of termites.

The essence of Science is that there is proof of a statement. There is 
Global Warming, or there is not Global Warming. The mere fact that we 
are having this discussion shows that there is no "conclusive science" 
available. Some people say there is Global Warming, and some people say 
there isn't. There does not appear to be a factual basis for making a 
clear and definitive statement one way or the other.

Now, if we can't even clearly and unquestionably demonstrate that there 
is Global Warming, how can we possibly attribute its cause to the 
industrial activity of Mankind? Indeed, the claim that the activities of 
Man are responsible for Global Warming throws the entire claim into 
disrepute: What caused the many previous incidences of global warming, 
before there was any significant consumption of fossil fuel?

So, it appears to me that the IPCC report is, at the best, poorly 
presented, or at the worst, flawed Science. If their Report was clear 
and based on sound science, there would be no valid basis for the 
questions raised by the video.

Best wishes,

Kevin

Jonathan F. Pratt wrote:
> What do you guys think of this?
> 
> 
> UK Documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle
> 
> http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-4520665474899458831&q=global+warming+swindle 
> 
> 
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