I am a heretic. If this were 1600, I would be burned at the stake for disagreeing with the “consensus” that witches cause all the problems of the day.  Today I risk public vilification by challenging the current dogma that human activity is causing apocalyptic global warming. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report, as an opinion survey of a select group of scientists and bureaucrats, adds nothing to our understanding of the climate. Hopefully, answers to a few objective questions may help to calm the mass hysteria of impending environmental doom by exposing the weakness of the arguments used by global warming alarmists.

IS THE EARTH WARMING?  The trend is warmer over the long term, since 10,000 years ago Minnesota was covered with glacial ice.  The short term trends are also warmer over 50 years or less, but the temperature data used by the IPPC report are scattered surface reports, which have to be “adjusted” to obtain a global average.  Satellite measurements of atmospheric temperature over large areas show very little warming over the last 20 years.  Historical records indicate the Earth was warmer 1000 years ago and 2000 years ago, and we are still warming after the “Little Ice Age” of 1450 to 1850.  ANS: The Earth’s temperature has been continually changing.  The current trend is warming.

IS THE WARMING OUTSIDE HISTORICAL NORMALS?  In addition to the historical records on warmer periods, Antarctic ice core data show warm periods with higher peak temperatures than present every 100,000 years.  Unfortunately, these warm periods between ice ages have only lasted 20,000 years before the next ice age.  Unless the cyclic pattern of the last 800,000 years changes, we can expect another ice age within 10,000 years.  ANS:  No.

IS ADDITIONAL WARMING HARMFUL?  The Medieval and Roman Warm Periods were warmer than today, and these were times of great abundance and advancements in civilization for mankind.  Sea levels have a natural cycle.  Sea level will continue a slow rise until the next ice age, when sea level will drop by hundreds of feet.  The number and severity of storms are not increasing.  ANS:  No.

IS HUMAN ACTIVITY CAUSING WARMING?  The IPPC and other man-made global warming advocates use computer models to make their catastrophic predictions.  These computer models focus on Carbon Dioxide (CO2), as if CO2 was the primary greenhouse gas, the only source of which was human activity. Both of these assumptions about CO2 are false.   Water vapor is the primary greenhouse gas, being 100 times as concentrated as CO2.  Natural release and absorption of CO2 is 70 times greater than all the human production by burning fossil fuels. Antarctic ice core data show over the past 800,000 years temperatures rose sharply at the end of each ice age, and then 600 to 800 years later the CO2 levels increased proportionately. If increased CO2 caused the warming, why would it lag behind the warming by several centuries?  Warming may cause CO2 to increase.  If human activity is causing CO2 to increase and cause warming, the effect is a small one.  ANS:  Not to any significant degree.

IS ELEVATED CO2 HARMFUL?   Life depends upon carbon dioxide (CO2), which is not a pollutant to be eliminated.  All animals require oxygen to live, while giving off CO2.  Plants use  CO2 and the sun’s energy to live, while giving off oxygen.  Fortunately for us, plants are very efficient as they maintain our 21% oxygen and scavenge nearly all of the CO2 out of the atmosphere.  CO2 is not a pollutant; CO2 is plant food.  If CO2 levels doubled, the plant life of the Earth would grow faster, and the CO2 concentration would still be only 0.08%.  The effect on the climate would be minimal.  Ans:  No.

ARE THERE ANY OTHER POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS FOR WARMING? Alternative theories to explain the large, cyclic swings in historical temperatures include: variations in cosmic rays or solar activity, tilting of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, or volcanic activity.  The explanation may yet be unknown.   Ans:  Yes.

CAN THE WARMING BE STOPPED?  Even global warming advocates admit that limiting fossil fuel usage will not significantly alter the results in their computer models.  Man has never been able to alter the climate, and we probably never will.  ANS:  No, not with our current technology.

WHAT EFFECTS WOULD THE “CURES” HAVE?  Manmade global warming alarmists insist that we must significantly cut back our usage of fossil fuels and make payments to other countries or organizations as called for in the Kyoto Treaty.  The negative effects of these drastic actions could push the world economy into depression, which would be a significant health risk, especially to the poorest people in the world. ANS:  Economic devastation and a lower standard of living.

IN CONCLUSION:  The weather is warming and may continue to warm, but this will be a good thing for humanity.  If human activity is contributing to warming, the effect is a small one.  CO2 is a natural, beneficial part of our atmosphere.  CO2 is plant food; CO2 is not a pollutant to be banned.  The cures proposed by manmade global warming advocates are worse than the “problem” they are intended to solve.

We must demand that our political leaders reject the harmful measures prescribed by global warming zealots.  If we allow our elected leaders to sacrifice our economy and our standard of living on the altar of manmade global warming hysteria, our sacrifices will have been in vain.  The Earth and the Sun will keep doing what they have done for billions of years: cooling and warming on their own schedules by mechanisms we do not yet understand.  I ask all citizens with scientific background or common sense to join me in exposing the greatest hoax of the modern era:  Manmade Global Warming.


David Lane, MD
Minneapolis, MN