SEARCH BLOG: CLIMATE
If you have been a regular reader of this blog, you know that I have had a "show me" attitude when it comes to climate change. Computer models are insufficient... even if there is a modest correlation for a short time with measured temperatures... especially since the "trend" of change is punctuated with regular oscillations that are significantly greater than the calculated overall change.
When it comes to CO2 as the major driving force behind annual or decadal changes in local, regional, or global temperature changes, count me as a complete unbeliever. The correlation is simply not even in the realm of plausible. Especially with the data showing CO2 increases after temperature increase... not the other way around. [There are many posts regarding CO2 on this blog if you really want to spend a lot of time... just do a search on CO2]
While scientists come up with all sorts of possible explanations about climate variations, the real answer is that they simply don't have enough information to definitively show what causes climates to vary... and why the variation is so inconsistent from one region of the world to another. [Check out the chart near the end of the right column.]
Blame it on ocean currents or land use or volcanoes or whatever. The earth has a highly dynamic environment that can be influenced by a variety of unpredictable changes. One good super-volcano and we might have an ice age. But in less geologically chaotic circumstances, it would seem that longer term changes are most likely caused by variations in the heating system.
Over at Anthony Watt's blog, he has a post about how there seems to be a downward trend in the activity of the heating system. As I pointed out in Verse 1, you have to be very careful about declaring a trend... and the shorter the history, the less likely the trend will be meaningful.
So, let's not bring out the old "the ice age is coming" posters quite yet.
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