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- 2017 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #17
- Evidence Squared: Episode 9
Global Warming Skeptic Contradictions
Contradictions | Add New Contradiction
The following table lists skeptic arguments that contradict each other. Please feel free to submit a new pair of contradicting arguments.
| Argument 1 | Argument 2 | Submitter |
| It's geothermal | It's the sun | John Cook |
| It's albedo | It's the sun | John Cook |
| It's the sun | It's CFCs | John Cook |
| It's the sun | It's methane | John Cook |
| It's El Niño | It's the sun | Eric L |
| Comment: McLean et al claimed that El Nino explained so much of the warming there was no room for warming due to CO2. There is nothing CO2 specific about this reasoning, so if the claim were valid it would apply equally well to everything else that has been claimed to be the cause of global warming. | ||
| CO2 is just a trace gas | CO2 effect is saturated | Eric L |
| Comment: There's too little of it to have any effect, and also enough to have all the effect it could ever have? | ||
| Greenhouse effect has been falsified | It's CFCs | James Wight |
| Greenhouse effect has been falsified | It's methane | James Wight |
| Greenhouse effect has been falsified | Water vapor is the most powerful greenhouse gas | James Wight |
| Greenhouse effect has been falsified | CO2 effect is saturated | James Wight |
| Climate's changed before | Climate sensitivity is low | John Cook |
| Comment: Dramatic climate change in the past implies high climate sensitivity which contradicts low climate sensitivity. | ||
| Medieval Warm Period was warmer | Climate sensitivity is low | dana1981 |
| Comment: If the MWP was warmer due to a relatively small external forcing, it means the climate must be quite sensitive. Those who make the low climate sensitivity argument should actually be fans of the original 'hockey stick', which showed little climate variation and thus suggested a low climate sensitivity. | ||
| The science isn't settled | Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | NewYorkJ |
| Comment: Often contrarians will make claims like "we just don't know and it's arrogant to think otherwise" (perhaps that argument needs to be explored separately) followed or preceded by confident statements presented as fact. | ||
| Technological breakthroughs will fix global warming | It's unstoppable | James Wight |
| Climategate CRU emails suggest conspiracy | Phil Jones says no global warming since 1995 | Rob Painting |
| Comment: Skeptics claim CRU data is fraudulent, yet it's okay to use said data if they think it supports their argument. | ||
| It's cooling | Global warming theory isn't falsifiable | Andy Skuce |
| Models are unreliable | Better to geoengineer | angliss |
| Comment: Projecting the effects of geoengineering requires reliable models. | ||
| Greenland was green | Climate sensitivity is low | James Wight |
| Temp record is unreliable | Earth hasn't warmed as much as expected | James Wight |
| Temp record is unreliable | Hansen's 1988 prediction was wrong | James Wight |
| Temp record is unreliable | Models exagerate projected temperature rise | James Wight |
| Solar Cycle Length proves its the sun | Temp record is unreliable | James Wight |
| Comment: The correlation between temperature and solar cycle length doesn't mean anything if the temperature record is unreliable. | ||
| Temp record is unreliable | It warmed before 1940 when CO2 was low | James Wight |
| CO2 is just a trace gas | CO2 is plant food | John Cook |
| Mars is warming | It hasn't warmed since 1998 | Eric L |
| Comment: The study showing Mars warming was based on two pictures of Mars, the first of them taken in 1977. So it can't be warming here for the same reason it's warming there and also cooling here. | ||
| Mars is warming | Models are unreliable | Eric L |
| Comment: The Mars warming is not directly measured, it was determined by climate simulation. | ||
| We didn't have global warming during the Industrial Revolution | It warmed before 1940 when CO2 was low | Stuart |
| We're coming out of an ice age | We're heading into an ice age | Stuart |
| It's waste heat | Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| Comment: If waste heat can force the climate, then humans can indeed affect the climate in contradiction with the second claim. | ||
| God promised Noah no floods | Climate's changed before | anticorncob6 |
| Comment: "Climate's changed before" relies on scientific data about Earth's past, which contradicts young-earth creationism and Noah's flood. | ||
| AGW advocates wont debate with skeptics | Deniers are part of the 97% | Barry Woods |
| Comment: Comment: by calling sceptics deniers who make contradictory statement AGW advocates try to exclude '"skeptics" from the debate, yet AGW advocates are not immune from making contradictory statements. An example from an new single paper: Lewandowsky, John Cook, Lloyd-Springer Philosphy. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11229-016-1198-6 The contradictory statement relates to the use of denier, denialist, within a single paper!: 3 statement are: "…views in the “community” of denialists…" "No such corrective processes can be observed in denialist discourse…" "…incoherencies manifest in denialist discourse…" The fourth use in a footnote, which states that: "We use denial as a noun that describes a political or discursive activity but we avoid labels such as “denier” or “denialist” that categorize people." They seem a little confused about who are the people who are incoherent and contradictory, by both simultaneously labelling/categorising a whole group of people as denialist or deniers, but simultaneously stating that they do no such thing. Perhaps John Cook can comment. | ||
| CO2 is good for plants | CO2 is just a trace gas | Barry Woods |
| Comment: Actually I meant to compare = CO2 is plant food - & - CO2 is a trace gas (but can't submit a previously submitted pair) John Cook says they contradict each other, but both these statements are arguably true. (essential for photosynthesis and ~0.04% of the atmosphere) perhaps John can explain why he thinks - CO2 is plant food - contradicts - CO2 is a trace gas | ||
| China pollutes more | Chinese station data is missing | Barry Woods |
| Comment: sounds contradictory, but on close inspection talking about 2 entirely different subjects, not able to link to references of any "sceptics" saying his? this would help. | ||
| Science should keep out of politics | Calling skeptics 'deniers' is equating them to Holocaust deniers | Barry Woods |
| Comment: references to Nuremberg trials (Huhne) for sceptics by politicians can only polarise the debate | ||
| CO2 emissions do not correlate with CO2 concentration | CO2 limits take money away from real threats | johngoldner |
| Comment: 1700 TO 1770 36 ERUPTIONS 1770 TO 1870 94 ERUPTIONS 1870 TO 1958 188 ERUPTIONS 1958 TO 2015 197 ERUPTIONS Volcano data from NOAA | ||
| Models are unreliable | Monckton finds low climate sensitivity | IanR |
| Comment: Low climate sensitivity is a prediction of a model, yet models are unreliable in another context. | ||
| There is no consensus | Climategate CRU emails suggest conspiracy | chuck101 |
| Comment: The argument is that there is a huge conspiracy of the majority of climate scientists to hide inconvenient facts about (lack of) Global Warming, and essentially lie and exaggerate the effects thereof. But if there is no consensus, how can there be a conspiracy? | ||
| It's all a socialist plot | Nazis invented global warming | Tim Cutler |
| Warming causes CO2 rise | CO2 is not increasing | Tim Cutler |
| Warming causes CO2 rise | It warmed before 1940 when CO2 was low | Tim Cutler |
| Warming causes CO2 rise | There's no correlation between CO2 and temperature | Tim Cutler |
| There is no consensus | Over 31,000 scientists signed the OISM Petition Project | Tim Cutler |
| Climate's changed before | God won't allow it. | Tim Cutler |
| Cold spells kill more people than heat waves | CO2 is not the only driver of climate | jyushchyshyn |
| Cold spells kill more people than heat waves | CO2 is not increasing | jyushchyshyn |
| Cold spells kill more people than heat waves | Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | jyushchyshyn |
| Cold spells kill more people than heat waves | CO2 effect is saturated | jyushchyshyn |
| Cold spells kill more people than heat waves | It's not us | jyushchyshyn |
| It's freaking cold! | It's Urban Heat Island effect | Matt Fitzpatrick |
| Comment: Skeptics may consider cold weather close to home to be reliable evidence against global warming, while warming near somebody else's home is unreliable evidence that should be ignored. | ||
| It's the sun | Pluto is warming | jyushchyshyn |
| Mars is warming | Mars is colder despite all the CO2 | jyushchyshyn |
| It's the sun | Other planets are warming | jyushchyshyn |
| It's the sun | Iapetus is warming | jyushchyshyn |
| It's the sun | Mars is warming | jyushchyshyn |
| It's the sun | Jupiter is warming | jyushchyshyn |
| It's the sun | Encaladus is warming | jyushchyshyn |
| Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | Better to innovate than mitigate | hengistmcstone |
| Technological breakthroughs will fix global warming | Fukushima means fossil fuels are here to stay | jyushchyshyn |
| Technological breakthroughs will fix global warming | Renewables can't provide baseload power | jyushchyshyn |
| Technological breakthroughs will fix global warming | Renewable energy is too expensive | jyushchyshyn |
| Technological breakthroughs will fix global warming | Renewable energy investment kills jobs | jyushchyshyn |
| Fukushima means fossil fuels are here to stay | Nuclear power is the cleanest form of energy | jyushchyshyn |
| Naomi Oreskes' study on consensus was flawed | Antarctica is gaining ice | bulla |
| Comment: your argument is flawed | ||
| Climate 'Skeptics' are like Galileo | Global warming is a hoax | jyushchyshyn |
| Comment: It is the "warmers" who are under pressure to recant. | ||
| Global warming stopped in |
It's internal variability | Bob Loblaw |
| Comment: The "global warming stopped" argument pretends that only CO2 can cause warming, so a pause in warming disproves AGW theory, whereas the "internal variability" argument depends on the idea that many other factors can affect temperatures, so it can't be CO2. | ||
| Our country shouldn't go first | It's too late | jyushchyshyn |
| AGW is religion | God promised Noah no floods | jyushchyshyn |
| AGW is religion | God won't allow it. | jyushchyshyn |
| Models exagerate projected temperature rise | It's too late | jyushchyshyn |
| Models are unreliable | It's too late | jyushchyshyn |
| Climate sensitivity is low | It's too late | jyushchyshyn |
| It's not urgent | It's too late | jyushchyshyn |
| AGW is religion | It's God | jyushchyshyn |
| God won't allow it. | It's God | chriskoz |
| Comment: self-explanatory Also could be 'AGW is religion' | ||
| 1934 - hottest year on record | It's not bad | jyushchyshyn |
| Comment: Ever hear of the dust bowl? | ||
| Other planets are warming | It's cooling | jyushchyshyn |
| Hockey stick is broken | It's the sun | jyushchyshyn |
| Comment: Pre-industrial temperature reconstructions show strong past correlation between temperature and sun | ||
| Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted | Climate sensitivity is low | jyushchyshyn |
| CO2 is just a trace gas | CO2 effect is logarithmic | jyushchyshyn |
| Comment: Logarithmic = strong effect for trace gases and little effect for abundant gases | ||
| Models are unreliable | Other planets are warming | jyushchyshyn |
| CO2 is just a trace gas | It's methane | jyushchyshyn |
| Technological breakthroughs will fix global warming | Other planets are warming | jyushchyshyn |
| Technological breakthroughs will fix global warming | It's too late | jyushchyshyn |
| Technological breakthroughs will fix global warming | It's too hard | jyushchyshyn |
| Any warming will increase downward radiation | CO2 limits will make little difference | jonicol |
| Comment: The second is true. A straight forward and rigorous calculation shows that increased absorption by CO2 is exactly off set by increased absorption of downward radiation so Idown = Iup/4 whatever Nco2 might be, at any frequency. Additional CO2 = no additional warming. Radiation by CO2 at top of Troposphere, enhances cooling. | ||
| The Earth warmed 11 degrees in the last 10,000 years | Most of the last 10,000 years were warmer | James Wight |
| Phil Jones says no global warming since 1995 | It's cooling | James Wight |
| Comment: If the warming trend since 1995 is not statistically significant, the cooling trend since 2002 certainly isn't. | ||
| Humidity is falling | Water vapor is the most powerful greenhouse gas | James Wight |
| Aerosols provide too much uncertainty | Climate scientists are manipulated by funding threats and promises | James Wight |
| Comment: Not contradictory exactly but hypocritical. The reason why we don't have good aerosol measurements is because climate scientists couldn't get funding for a satellite. | ||
| CO2 was higher in the past | CO2 measurements are suspect | perseus |
| Comment: Beck suggests that estimates of CO2 concentrations over the last few hundred years are unreliable however other sceptical sources are happy to accept estimates of CO2 concentrations over hundreds of millions of years ago to ‘prove’ that temperature doesn’t depend on CO2 concentrations Stephen Latham | ||
| It's clouds | Negative feedbacks will stabilise climate | Ari Jokimäki |
| Comment: Usually the negative feedback mentioned is clouds. | ||
| It's clouds | Infrared Iris will reduce global warming | Ari Jokimäki |
| A drop in volcanic activity caused warming | It's the sun | dana1981 |
| A drop in volcanic activity caused warming | Climate sensitivity is low | dana1981 |
| Comment: Volcanic activity hasn't changed significantly, so to explain global warming, climate sensitivity would have to be high. | ||
| It's the sun | Climate sensitivity is low | dana1981 |
| Comment: For the small change in solar output over the past century to explain a non-negligible amount of global warming, climate sensitivity would have to be high. | ||
| Global warming theory isn't falsifiable | Greenhouse effect has been falsified | James Wight |
| Arctic sea ice has recovered | Arctic ice melt is caused by underwater volcanoes | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| Better to geoengineer | AGW is religion | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| It's Urban Heat Island effect | Technological breakthroughs will fix global warming | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| Comment: why fix something if it is not broken? | ||
| Better to geoengineer | It's Urban Heat Island effect | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| Comment: why geo-engineer when there is no warming? | ||
| Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | It's Urban Heat Island effect | barry |
| Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | China pollutes more | SoundOff |
| We didn't have global warming during the Industrial Revolution | Thomas Jefferson wrote about warming winters | James Wight |
| Ice core CO2 measurements are uncertain | Deglaciations ended while CO2 was rising | James Wight |
| CO2 was higher in the 1800s | We didn't have global warming during the Industrial Revolution | James Wight |
| CO2 was higher in the 1800s | It warmed before 1940 when CO2 was low | James Wight |
| It's cosmic rays | Clouds provide too much uncertainty | James Wight |
| Comment: The argument goes that clouds may counteract global warming, which contradicts the notion that cosmic rays are causing global warming via their effect on cloud formation. | ||
| Models are unreliable | CO2 limits will harm the economy | James Wight |
| Comment: The prediction that CO2 limits will harm the economy relies on economic modelling! | ||
| It's not bad | Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted | James Wight |
| Comment: If we can't predict it, how do we know it's not bad? | ||
| It's God | Solar panels contribute to global warming | James Wight |
| It's God | It's aerosols | James Wight |
| Temperature proxies are unreliable | Sea level rise preceded temperature rise in the past | James Wight |
| Temperature proxies are unreliable | We're coming out of an ice age | James Wight |
| Temperature proxies are unreliable | We didn't have global warming during the Industrial Revolution | James Wight |
| Temperature proxies are unreliable | Deglaciations ended while CO2 was rising | James Wight |
| Temperature proxies are unreliable | CO2 lags temperature | James Wight |
| Temp record is unreliable | There's no correlation between CO2 and temperature | James Wight |
| Temperature proxies are unreliable | We're coming out of the Little Ice Age | James Wight |
| Temperature proxies are unreliable | Medieval Warm Period was warmer | James Wight |
| Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | Solar panels contribute to global warming | James Wight |
| Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | It's latent heat flux from increased plant water use efficiency | James Wight |
| Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | It's heat from combustion | James Wight |
| Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | It's CFCs | James Wight |
| Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | It's overpopulation | James Wight |
| Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | It's satellite microwave transmissions | James Wight |
| Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | It's land use | James Wight |
| Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | It's methane | James Wight |
| Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | It's ozone | James Wight |
| Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | It's aerosols | James Wight |
| It's God | It's soot | James Wight |
| Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | It's soot | James Wight |
| Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted | Amazon is not vulnerable to drought | James Wight |
| Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted | Gulf stream is stable | James Wight |
| Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted | Negative feedbacks will stabilise climate | James Wight |
| Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted | Infrared Iris will reduce global warming | James Wight |
| Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted | Better to geoengineer | James Wight |
| Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted | It's unstoppable | James Wight |
| Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted | Greenland ice sheet won't collapse | James Wight |
| It's unstoppable | Better to geoengineer | James Wight |
| It's unstoppable | Infrared Iris will reduce global warming | James Wight |
| It's unstoppable | Negative feedbacks will stabilise climate | James Wight |
| Ocean acidification isn't serious | Ocean acidification is caused by underwater volcanoes | James Wight |
| It's the gulf stream | Gulf stream is stable | James Wight |
| It's not bad | There's no such thing as an ideal climate | James Wight |
| Negative feedbacks will stabilise climate | We're coming out of the Little Ice Age | James Wight |
| Comment: If there are stabilising negative feedbacks, why are we still recovering from the Little Ice Age when the Dalton Minimum was over 150 years ago? | ||
| The 2003 heat wave was not caused by global warming | 2009-2010 winter saw record cold spells | James Wight |
| Comment: If a heat wave can't be caused by global warming, a cold spell can't be caused by global cooling. | ||
| Extreme weather isn't caused by global warming | It snowed somewhere | James Wight |
| Extreme weather isn't caused by global warming | 2009-2010 winter saw record cold spells | James Wight |
| Extreme weather isn't caused by global warming | It's freaking cold! | James Wight |
| Comment: If extreme weather can't be caused by global warming, it can't be caused by global cooling either. | ||
| Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted | Solar cycle 24 will stop global warming | James Wight |
| Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted | We're heading into an ice age | James Wight |
| Human CO2 is a tiny % of CO2 emissions | Breathing contributes to CO2 buildup | James Wight |
| It's God | It's latent heat flux from increased plant water use efficiency | James Wight |
| It's God | It's CFCs | James Wight |
| It's God | It's heat from combustion | James Wight |
| It's God | It's overpopulation | James Wight |
| It's God | It's waste heat | James Wight |
| It's God | It's satellite microwave transmissions | James Wight |
| It's God | It's land use | James Wight |
| It's God | It's methane | James Wight |
| It's God | It's ozone | James Wight |
| Climate sensitivity is low | It's unstoppable | Wadard |
| Climate sensitivity is low | It's not bad | Wadard |
| Climate sensitivity is low | CO2 was higher in the late Ordovician | Wadard |
| Comment: ... because climate sensitivity is high. | ||
| Climate sensitivity is low | CO2 was higher in the past | Wadard |
| Comment: You would expect CO2 to have been higher in the past if climate sensitivity is high. | ||
| Greenland ice sheet won't collapse | Models are unreliable | Wadard |
| Comment: You need reliable models to explore the probability of any claim about the future, including that 'the Greenland ice sheet won't collapse'. | ||
| Growing forests can offset our CO2 emissions | Models are unreliable | Wadard |
| Comment: Reliable modeling on available land, water, nutrient, supporting biomass, and other environmental factors is required to calculate how much forest we need to grow to offset our co2 emissions, or even whether we can. | ||
| Better to adapt than mitigate | Models are unreliable | Wadard |
| Comment: One needs reliable civil, construction, engineering, production, financial, risk as well a climate and biomass models in order to best adapt. If we think that models are so unreliable, then it's safer to mitigate. | ||
| 500 scientists refute the consensus | Models are unreliable | Wadard |
| Comment: Comment: 500 scientists need reliable models to refute the consensus. | ||
| 900+ peer reviewed papers are skeptical of AGW | Models are unreliable | Wadard |
| Comment: Comment: One needs to be able to rely on one's models to say a large body of peer reviewed papers are skeptical. | ||
| Water vapor is the most powerful greenhouse gas | Models are unreliable | Wadard |
| Comment: Comment: One needs to been able to rely on model outputs to confidently say that water vapor is the most powerful GHG. | ||
| Sea level rise predictions are exaggerated | Models are unreliable | Wadard |
| Comment: Comment: One needs to be able to rely on one's models before one can be confident that sea level rise predictions are exaggerated. | ||
| Earth hasn't warmed as much as expected | Models are unreliable | Wadard |
| Comment: One needs to be able to rely on one's models if one is confident that the globe has not warmed as expected. | ||
| Greenhouse effect has been falsified | Solar panels contribute to global warming | John Russell |
| Comment: [http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/10/27/shocker-solar-panel-manufacturing-creates-potent-ghgs/] How can it if the greenhouse effect does not exist? | ||
| Encaladus is warming | It's Urban Heat Island effect | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| Pluto is warming | It's Urban Heat Island effect | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| Triton is warming | It's Urban Heat Island effect | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| Other planets are warming | It's Urban Heat Island effect | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| Mars is warming | It's Urban Heat Island effect | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| Comment: - unless there is something we have missed... | ||
| Iapetus is warming | It's Urban Heat Island effect | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| It's the sun | It's Milankovitch cycles | John Cook |
| Outgoing longwave radiation hasn't changed | The sun is getting hotter | _Flin_ |
| Comment: So the sun is getting hotter, but still the longwave radiation stays the same? Burn, burn, yes you gonna burn! | ||
| Water vapor in the stratosphere stopped global warming | Water vapor is the most powerful greenhouse gas | _Flin_ |
| Comment: Can you please decide? | ||
| It's not 100% certain | It's God | _Flin_ |
| Comment: God is almighty and knows all. Nothing can be less than 100% certain when it is the will of the Almighty. | ||
| It's a natural cycle | It's Milankovitch cycles | _Flin_ |
| Comment: Different time. | ||
| It's not bad | Human CO2 is a tiny % of CO2 emissions | tmurdock |
| It's cosmic rays | Mars is warming | tomhuld |
| Comment: Cosmic rays are supposed to change the climate by affecting cloudiness. This doesn't work on Mars (or Iapetus, or Enceladus). | ||
| Regional climate change is more important than global temperature change | It's freaking cold! | John Cook |
| Comment: When global temperature is high, skeptics point out specific regions with high temperature that are pushing the global average up and hence is a regional phenomenon, not global. But when a specific region is cold, this is cited as proof of global cooling. | ||
| CO2 measurements are suspect | There's no correlation between CO2 and temperature | James Wight |
| Mars is warming | Temp record is unreliable | Eric L |
| Comment: Really, we could tell Mars was warming from two flyby pictures of it but we have no idea what's going on today? | ||
| Better to adapt than mitigate | CO2 limits will harm the economy | Andy Skuce |
| Comment: Bangladeshi farmers are more able to adapt to rising sea levels than rich economies to rising carbon taxes. | ||
| Temp record is unreliable | It cooled mid-century | James Wight |
| Temp record is unreliable | Arctic was warmer in 1940 | James Wight |
| Temp record is unreliable | Antarctica is cooling | James Wight |
| Temp record is unreliable | Greenland was warmer in 1940 | James Wight |
| Temp record is unreliable | Global warming stopped in |
James Wight |
| Temp record is unreliable | The southern hemisphere hasn't warmed as much | James Wight |
| Temp record is unreliable | It hasn't warmed since 1998 | James Wight |
| Temp record is unreliable | It's cooling | James Wight |
| Scientists falsified data | It's cooling | Stuart |
| Comment: I guess this isn't a contradiction. They could have falsified it and forgot that they were supposed to be falsifying it in the other direction. | ||
| Global temperature does not exist | Iapetus is warming | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | Encaladus is warming | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | Pluto is warming | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | Saturn is warming | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | Triton is warming | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | Jupiter is warming | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | Mars is warming | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | Neptune is warming | James Wight |
| Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | Technological breakthroughs will fix global warming | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | Solar cycles cause global warming | James Wight |
| Humans are too insignificant to affect global climate | Better to geoengineer | F. Murdoch |
| Glacier melt is natural | Glaciers are growing | James Wight |
| Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted | It's the sun | F. Murdoch |
| Comment: The first argument suggests the system is too complex for us to understand, while the second suggests a simple system. Can also be applied to just about any argument made, such as snow disproving global warming. | ||
| Greenland was green | Greenland ice sheet won't collapse | James Wight |
| CO2 was higher in the 1800s | CO2 has a short residence time | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | Other planets are warming | F. Murdoch |
| CO2 emissions do not correlate with CO2 concentration | CO2 is coming from the ocean | Stuart |
| Comment: The CO2 concentration increase is lower than our emissions. Natural sources must be acting as a sink, not a source. | ||
| CO2 emissions do not correlate with CO2 concentration | Human CO2 is a tiny % of CO2 emissions | Stuart |
| Comment: Human emissions are small so they can't be the source of the recent rise, but emissions are HIGHER than the recent rise. | ||
| There's no correlation between CO2 and temperature | CO2 lags temperature | Stuart |
| Water vapor is the most powerful greenhouse gas | Clouds provide too much uncertainty | Nick Palmer |
| Comment: I was looking for Argument 2 to be more like clouds cause cooling (Lindzen etc). More water vapour = more clouds | ||
| 900+ peer reviewed papers are skeptical of AGW | Climategate CRU emails suggest conspiracy | Stuart |
| Comment: A conspiracy keeps skeptical arguments out of the peer-reviewed literature, but there are hundreds of skeptical papers out there. | ||
| It's Urban Heat Island effect | Jupiter is warming | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| Comment: Arg 1 implies that there is no cooling, but there are no cities on Jupiter to cause the Urban Heat Island effect. | ||
| Glaciers are growing | Glaciers have been receding since the 1800's | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| Comment: glaciers cannot grow and recede at the same time | ||
| Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted | It's cosmic rays | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| Comment: Predictability versus a clear prediction... a contradiction | ||
| Models are unreliable | It's the sun | rogel |
| Comment: If you don't admit second order predictability, you can't invoke any external forcing as an explanation for recent warming | ||
| The sun is getting hotter | It's cooling | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| Comment: If the sun drives the climate, then how can it be cooling? | ||
| Ice age predicted in the 70s | Models are unreliable | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| Comment: no prediction can be made without a model, but they are unreliable | ||
| We're heading into an ice age | Models are unreliable | Jacob Bock Axelsen |
| Comment: argument 1 is a prediction which can only be made with a model. 2 models are moot. | ||
| Extreme weather isn't caused by global warming | Record snowfall disproves global warming | James Wight |
| Mercury thermometers can't measure within tenths of a degree | Earth hasn't warmed as much as expected | James Wight |
| Mercury thermometers can't measure within tenths of a degree | Hansen's 1988 prediction was wrong | James Wight |
| Mercury thermometers can't measure within tenths of a degree | It warmed before 1940 when CO2 was low | James Wight |
| Mercury thermometers can't measure within tenths of a degree | Antarctica is cooling | James Wight |
| Mercury thermometers can't measure within tenths of a degree | Global warming stopped in |
James Wight |
| Mercury thermometers can't measure within tenths of a degree | The southern hemisphere hasn't warmed as much | James Wight |
| Mercury thermometers can't measure within tenths of a degree | It's microsite influences | James Wight |
| Mercury thermometers can't measure within tenths of a degree | 1934 - hottest year on record | James Wight |
| Mercury thermometers can't measure within tenths of a degree | It's Urban Heat Island effect | James Wight |
| Mercury thermometers can't measure within tenths of a degree | It cooled mid-century | James Wight |
| Mercury thermometers can't measure within tenths of a degree | It's cooling | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | Sea level rise preceded temperature rise in the past | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | There's no correlation between CO2 and temperature | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | Hansen's 1988 prediction was wrong | James Wight |
| Hockey stick is broken | Climate sensitivity is low | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | It warmed before 1940 when CO2 was low | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | Temperature has fallen while CO2 was rising | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | It cooled mid-century | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | Global temperatures have risen as fast in the past | James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | Global warming stopped in |
James Wight |
| Global temperature does not exist | It's cooling | James Wight |
| Temperature proxies are unreliable | Boreholes show strong Medieval Warm Period | James Wight |
| Temperature proxies are unreliable | Holocene Optimum was warmer | James Wight |
| Temperature proxies are unreliable | It's a natural cycle | James Wight |
| Ice core CO2 measurements are uncertain | CO2 lags temperature | John Cook |
THE ESCALATOR
(free to republish)
The Scientific Guide to
Global Warming Skepticism
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