Note:  This post is also a contribution to the BipolarNation.com Platform.

Introduction
The Causes of Climate Change
Errors and Over-regulation Due to Fear of Man-Caused Climate Change
Countering Popular Counter-Arguments
Relevant BPN Posts

Introduction

My policy on climate change has two main points that argue against heavy federal government regulation of industry:

First, the Earth’s climate indeed changes, but most of the changes are results of fluctuations in Solar output.  Saying that the Earth’s climate changes is equivalent to saying “the sky is blue.”

Second, even if the Earth’s climate was changing predominantly because of human activity, domestic regulations would serve little purpose.  Even by their own estimation, these regulations would produce very little change to begin with.  Also, without other large economies like China or India on board, these regulations would be fruitless and would stifle American industry.

The BipolarNation.com Platform is against Cap-and-Trade proposals, the classification of Carbon Dioxide as a pollutant, the existence of the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal energy subsidies, and federal pollution regulation.

The BipolarNation.com Platform is for looser restrictions on Nuclear power plants, looser restrictions on domestic oil drilling, and leaving environmental regulation determinations and emissions standards to the states.

The Causes of Climate Change

Climate change is not predominantly brought about by human activity, but by solar activity and other non-human activity such as ocean cycles.

A report released by the Competitive Enterprise Institute came to the conclusions that human activity is not predominantly responsible for fluctuations in temperature. The same report also found that there has been “no net warming” of global temperatures in the 21st Century despite rising CO2 levels.  The report also published these findings:

• Pacific Decadal Oscillation and El Nino Southern Oscillation cycles are “by far the best single explanation for global temperature fluctuations”.
• Changes in Greenhouse gas levels have “so little effect that that it is difficult to find any effect in the satellite temperature record, which started in 1978.”
• Increase in surface measurements of temperature are more likely caused by urbanization than by the increased presence of greenhouse gases.
• “It is not reasonable to conclude that there is any endangerment from changes in GHG [greenhouse gas] levels based on satellite record, since almost all the fluctuations appear to be due to natural causes and not human-caused pollution as defined by the Clean Air Act.”

According to Columbia University researcher Richard Wilson in 2003, the Sun can be directly responsible for climate change. A general warming trend corresponds to increased Solar output throughout the 20th Century.

It has already been established that Solar output also has an effect on short-term temperatures. Refer to this chart to see the correlation between Earth temperatures and Solar output:

This evidence should suggest even to strict environmentalists that human activity alone is not the only factor in climate change, and that our attempts to control the Earth’s climate would still be subject to powerful variables outside of our control.

Errors and Over-regulation Due to Fear of Man-Caused Climate Change

The apocalyptic idea that the climate could be changing harmfully and irrevocably has inspired a lot of fear and speculation about the future of the planet, sometimes to unintentionally funny degrees.

Consider film critic Roger Ebert’s four-star review of Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth.”  At the end of the review, Ebert wrote that he was inspired to go around his house and turn out all of the lights, presumably to cut down on pollution.  Needless to say, despite this action the globe’s temperatures continue to remain out of Ebert’s hands.

In 1974, Time Magazine published an article called “Another Ice Age?” in which the magazine speculated the possibility that the world was heading to massive cooling, not heating, writing that the Earth’s mean temperature had decreased 2.7 degrees since 1940.  Man’s role in this ice age?  Pollution and farming leading to the blocking of the sun’s heat, not the trapping.

Al Gore, the former vice president of the United States and current face of the man-caused climate change movement, was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his work.  Gore, however, has not even been a model citizen when it comes to his own movement.  It was shown that during a recent “Earth hour,” “the savior of the environment couldn’t be bothered to turn off the gaudy lights that show off his goofy trees.”

Additionally, Gore’s own house uses some 20 times the average amount of energy as American homes, paying some $30,000-a-year in utilities.  Not to mention the possibility that Al Gore could cash in heavily if Cap-and-Trade is passed.

Countering Popular Counter-Arguments

Counterargument #1:  CO2 and other Greenhouse Gases Coincide with Rising Temperatures

The chief argument of MMGW (man-made global warming) believers is that human industrialization and the coinciding rise in pollution is to blame for rising temperatures and adverse effects on the climate.

Much of the evidence for this correlation comes from organizations like the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change).  The IPCC in 2007 reported that warming is happening and that it is due to increased GHGs in the atmosphere.  This report also noted that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere (379 parts per million in 2005) is outside of the natural range during the last 650,000 years.

However, these reports use often faulty data and base many of their recommendations from computer models that are fed with this faulty data, not to mention exclude real-world variabilities.  For example, the IPCC’s prediction that hurricanes would become more intense has not come true.

Another more powerful example of the IPCC’s faulty data and assumptions is IPCC assumption of constant humidity in the atmosphere.  Humidity in the atmosphere is important because water vapor is one of the most powerful greenhouse gases.  The PICC’s 2007 report made the claim that since there is no detectable change in relative humidity in the upper-atmosphere, increasing temperatures have necessarily increased the humidity levels.  While the IPCC models predicting a “positive feedback loop” in regards to this increase in water vapor might be correct, their assumptions about the presence of water vapor itself are not.

An increase in upper atmospheric temperatures and water vapor would show evidence for man-caused global warming.  But the observable data shows that this is not the case.  As you can see, the temperatures aren’t rising anywhere except in the models:

With an assumption of stable relative humidity – in reality the relative humidity is decreasing – the IPCC report seems to be based on faulty assumptions.  Since this upper tropospheric information could prove the “engine” of global warming, this seems to be a vital flaw in the IPCC report.

Counterargument #2:  CO2 Coincides With Global Temperatures

One argument gets more specific:  that CO2 specifically seems to have a close relationship with global temperatures.

It’s already been shown that CO2 actually lags behind temperature.

In all cases where there is a good enough resolution, one finds that the CO₂ lags behind the temperature by typically several hundred to a thousand years. Namely, the basic climate driver which controls the temperature cannot be that of CO₂.

The AR4 report by the IPCC (mentioned above) ignores this lag.

Relevant BPN Posts

The Collapse of Global Warming
Should We Pollute the Earth to “Save It”?
John McCain’s Global Warming Policies Stink
Hurricane Season a Bust