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November 28, 2005
Global Warming Sourcetexts
've been asked to supply sources for some of the Global Warming statements I've made. Here's a list of sources for various interesting facts. I'll link any I can find online, but you may have to pay for the article. More likely, you would need a univeristy library to check these sources--unless you happen to subscribe to epxensive specialty science journals:
- On balance, there is no data for an increasing trend in global glacier melt: Roger J. Braithwaite, "Glacial mass balance, the first 50 years of international monitoring," Progress in Physical Geography 26, no. 1 (2002): 75-76. There are 160,000 glaciers in the world and mass balance data is only recorded for 79 glaciers that extends for 5 or more years, so nobody is in a position to truly say whether glaciers are melting globally. Current limited data says No.
- Kilimanjaro glacier has been melting rapidly since 1800, primarily due to deforestation: Betsy Mason, "African Ice Under Wraps," Nature 24, November 2003.
- Sea levels are not rising any faster than they have for the past 6000 years. They normally rise 6 to 9 inches every hundred years (1.7 - 2.4 mm/year). That rate is still the same.
- The Kyoto Protocol would reduce warming by only .04 degrees Celsius or less by the year 2100: Nature 22 (October 2003): 395-741.
- There is no known technology to reduce carbon emissions. Wind, solar, and nuclear power would not be enough: Science 298 (Nov 1, 2002): 981-987.
- African deserts are decreasing in size: New Scientist 2361 (21 September 2002): pp. 4-5.
- There is no known method to determine the number of species in the world, which makes it impossible to predict massive species extinction. Estimates of the number of species range from 3 million to 100 million: Morjorie L. Reaka-Kudia et al, Biodiversity II, Understanding and Protecting our Biological Resources, Washington: National Academies Press, 1997 and Bjorn Lomberg, The Skeptical Environmentalist, Cambridge University Press: 2002, p. 254.
- No demonstration of massive species extinction: Lomberg, p. 252.
- There is no global trend toward more extreme weather, such as tropical storms, or greater frequency in tornadoes, thunder days or hail: IPCC, Climate Change 2001 report. Greater discussion in Lomberg, p 292ff.
- El Nino occurs roughly every four years and has been a recurring phenomenon for thousands of years. It provides a net benefit, even after taking into account costs of flooding and ruined crops, because of a longer growing season and savings on heating oil: Stanley A. Changnon, 1999: "Impacts of 1997-98 El Nino--Generated Weather in the United States," Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 80, no. 9: pp 1819-28.
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Posted by witnit at November 28, 2005 7:41 PM
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