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- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #49 2025
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Archived Rebuttal
This is the archived Intermediate rebuttal to the climate myth "It's not happening". Click here to view the latest rebuttal.
What the science says...
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There are many lines of independent empirical evidence for global warming, from accelerated ice loss from the Arctic to Antarctica to the poleward migration of planthttp://www.skepticalscience.com/sksadmin.php?Action=EditForm&TableName=rebutta |
The evidence for global warming is being meticulously accumulated by scientists all over the world. This evidence includes the following independent observations that paint a consistent picture of global warming:
- Our planet is suffering an energy imbalance and is steadily accumulating heat (Hansen 2005, Murphy 2009, von Schuckmann 2009, Trenberth 2009)
- The height of the tropopause is increasing (Santer 2003, press release)
- Jet streams are moving poleward (Archer 2008, Seidel 2007, Fu 2006)
- The tropical belt is widening (Seidel 2007, Fu 2006)
- There is an increasing trend in record hot days versus record cold temperatures with currently twice as many record hot days than record cold temperatures (Meehle 2009, see press release).
- A shift towards earlier seasons (Stine 2009)
- Cooling and contraction of the upper atmosphere consistent with predicted effects of increasing greenhouse gases (Lastovicka 2008)
- Lake warming (Schneider & Hook 2010)
Ice Melt
- Arctic permafrost is warming at greater depths (Walsh 2009) and degrading (IPCC AR4, section 4.7.2.3)
- Global sea level rise is accelerating (Church 2006)
- Antarctic ice loss is accelerating (Velicogna 2009), even from East Antarctica which was previously thought to be too stable to lose ice mass (Chen 2009)
- Greenland ice loss is accelerating (Velicogna 2009, van den Broeke et al 2009)
- Glaciers are shrinking globally at an accelerating rate (WGMS 2008)
- Arctic sea-ice loss is accelerating with the loss rate exceeding model forecasts by around a factor of 3 (Stroeve 2007).
- Lake and river ice cover throughout the Northern Hemisphere are freezing later and breaking up earlier (Magnuson 2000, Hodgkins 2005)
Biological changes
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Animal and plant species are responding to earlier springs. Eg - earlier frog breeding, bird nesting, earlier flowering, earlier migration of birds and butterflies (Parmesan 2003)
- The distribution of tree lines, plants, birds, mammals, insects, fish, reptiles, marine invertebrates are shifting towards the poles (Parmesan 2003)
- Growing season is lengthening (Christidis 2007)
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Earlier emergence of Melbourne butterflies (Kearney 2010)
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Changes to physical and biological systems across the globe are consistent with warming temperatures (Rosenzweig 2008)
- Distribution of plants are shifting to higher elevations (Lenoir 2008)
- UK Flowers blooming earlier now than any time in last 250 years (Amano 2010)
- Arctic phytoplankton blooming earlier in the year, affecting the food chain (Kahru 2010)
- Earlier emergence of Melbourne butterfly: 1.6 days per decade (Kearney 2010).
- Decline in lizard populations (Sinervo 2010)
- Drop in primary productivity due to unprecedented warming at Lake Tanganyika (Tierney 2010)
- Tropical reef corals are expanding poleward (Yamano 2011)
- Species are shrinking (Sheridan 2011)
Updated on 2011-10-19 by John Cook.
THE ESCALATOR
(free to republish)