CLIMATE CHANGE SKEPTICISM

INTRODUCTION

It is common knowledge that the earth’s climate has changed throughout history (NASA, 2018). Evidence provided shows that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased dramatically since the beginning of the industrial era. Due to this massive amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere, there is now a current warming trend. According to the Intergovernmental panel on climate change, “Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1: Graph showing rapid CO₂ increase in the 20^th century (This graph, based on the comparison of atmospheric samples contained in ice cores and more recent direct measurements, provides evidence that atmospheric CO₂ has increased since the Industrial Revolution.)

There has been a scientific consensus where about ninety-seven percent of climate scientist agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities. This phenomenon has been termed “Anthropogenic Climate Change” or “Human-induced Climate Change.” With Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances, scientists has been able to collect different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale enabling a clearer bigger picture. The evidence for a rapid climate change can be seen in: Global temperature rise, warming oceans, shrinking ice sheets, glacier retreat, decreased snow cover, sea level rise, declining arctic sea rise, extreme weather events and ocean acidification.

2.0 CLIMATE DENIAL.

With the large percentage of scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change and the compelling evidence of rapid climate change occurring, there are however a group of people who believe that climate change is a hoax. They are called the climate skeptics, but preferably called “Climate Deniers.” Some authors noted that skepticism is an obvious misnomer and should not be used to describe science denial. Science denial is commonly defined as the unwillingness to believe in the existing scientific evidence (Karin Edvardsson Bjornberg, 2017). Climate deniers disseminate doubt about the valid scientific data and result presented by climate scientists on the anthropogenic warming of the climate system. They suggest that Climate scientist manipulate scientific data on climate change thereby attempting to discredit the messenger in order to silence the message.

Climate deniers can be compared with the tobacco industry. The tobacco industry’s misinformation and campaign in the Unites States against regulation reached a peak just as laws controlling tobacco were about to be introduced. Similarly, the campaign against climate change science and scientist has intensified as global policy on climate change has become more likely (Greenpeace, 2013).

2.1 Variants of Climate Science Denial

Several articles have distinguished between the variants of Climate Science Denial. These variants include:

• Trend Denial: The trend denier contests that any significant warming takes place.
• Attribution Denial: The attribution denier questions the anthropogenic nature of the warming and often attributes it to solar activity.
• Impact Skeptics: The impact skeptic accepts anthropogenic climate change, but denies that it will have significant (negative) impacts on humans or the environment.
• Consensus Denial: This concerns questioning the existing consensus among climate scientists about anthropogenic climate change. (Karin Edvardsson Bjornberg, 2017)

2.2 Categories Climate Deniers.

There are six categories of actors and organizations that deny climate science and they include:

• Denying Scientists.
• Government
• Political and Religious organizations
• Industry
• Media
• The Public.

2.3 Perspectives of Some Climate Deniers.

1.) Steve Milloy: Steve Milloy is a recognized leader in the fight against junk science. Credited with popularizing the term “junk science,” Milloy is the founder and publisher of JunkScience.com and, from 2000-2009, wrote the popular “Junk Science” column for FOXNews.com (JunkScience, 2015). According to (Greenpeace, 2013), Steve “The Junkman” Milloy, is the man who launched his corporate science denial career with The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition, a Phillip Morris-funded front group formed to fend off the growing scientific consensus of the links between secondhand tobacco smoke and health problems. On his website, Steve “The Junkman” Milloy proclaims himself a pioneer fighting against “faulty scientific data used to advance special, and often hidden, agendas.” In the 2006 article, “The Greenhouse Myth,” Steve Milloy stated that the “doubling of atmospheric CO₂ from pre-Industrial Revolution days might increase global temperature from between 0.5 degrees Centigrade to 1.5 degrees Centigrade – that is, not much.” He went on to declare that anthropogenic climate change is not based on “actual temperature measurements and greenhouse physics – rather it comes from manmade computer models relying on myriad assumptions and guesswork.”  (DeSmogBlog, 2018)

2.) William Gray: William Gray is a professor at Colorado State University and he heads the University’s Tropical Meteorology Project (Watch, 2018). Gray is a well known climate change skeptic. He is a featured speaker at the International Conference on Climate Change (2009) organized by the Heartland Institute think tank. (Watch, 2018)

Gray told the Washington Post in 2006, that people who warn about the effects of climate change want to “organize, propagandize, force conformity and exercise political influence. He appeared in a video news release same year, produced by the Peer Review firm Media link and sponsored by Tech Central Station, The VNR was titled, “Global Warming and Hurricanes: All Hot Air?” In the VNR, Gray denies that there’s any link between global warming and the severity of hurricane seasons — a link independent research has supported. “We don’t think that’s the case,” Gray says. “This is the way nature sometimes works.” Also in 2006, Gray told the Denver Post that global warming is a “hoax,” something that “they’ve been brainwashing us [about] for 20 years.”

Gray signed onto a December 2007 open letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon that called global warming “a natural phenomenon that has affected humanity through the ages,” called carbon dioxide “a non-polluting gas that is essential to plant photosynthesis,” and claimed the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change‘s reports “quite inadequate as justification for implementing policies that will markedly diminish future prosperity.” The letter also stated, “Recent observations of phenomena such as glacial retreats, sea-level rise and the migration of temperature-sensitive species are not evidence for abnormal climate change, for none of these changes has been shown to lie outside the bounds of known natural variability.” (Watch, 2018)

3.) Dr. S. Fred Singer: Dr S. Fred Singer was among the first scientist in the world to speak out against global warming alarmism and he is still the most prominent. He has authored and co-authored many books including Climate Change Reconsidered, a comprehensive critique of the assessment reports of the United Nations Intergovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (Heartland, 2018). His view on climate change can be seen clearly in statements he has made publicly. In January 2016, he said:  “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has to provide proof for significant human-caused climate change; yet their climate models have never been validated and are rapidly diverging from actual observations.  The real threat to humanity comes not from any (trivial) greenhouse warming but from cooling periods creating food shortages and famines.”  “Climate change has been going on for millions of years – long before humans existed on this planet.  Obviously, the causes were all of natural origin and not anthropogenic.  There is no reason to think that these natural causes have suddenly stopped.” (DeSmogBlog, S.Fred Singer, 2018)

In February 2016, Singer said: “I go back to the major error of the UN climate panel, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). They have been claiming in all their 5 major reports that CO2 increases are the cause of warming.  I am of the opinion, and have tried to back it up with publications, that these arguments don’t hold water and that their evidence does not exist.” (DeSmogBlog, S.Fred Singer, 2018)

 

 

2.4 Analysis of Climate Change Deniers Perspective

 Steve Milloy is a Trend Denier as he believes that a global temperature increase of 1 degree is not much and therefore should not be given so much attention. However, this one degree increase in average temperature occurred for a short period of time beginning in the 20^th century and this is an unusual event in our planet’s recent history. The earth’s climate record preserved in tree rings, ice cores and coral reefs shows that the average global temperature is usually stable over long periods of time and any small changes in temperature corresponds to enormous changes in the environment. For example, at the end of the last ice age, the average temperature were only 5 to 9 degrees cooler than today (VladisChem, 2018). So, yes any minute changes in the average global temperature is a big deal especially when this changes occurs at an accelerated pace in a short period of time.

William Gray and Dr. S. Fred Singer are Attribution Deniers as they deny the anthropogenic nature of climate change and says it’s just a natural phenomenon. Yes, Climate change is natural. The current alarm is not on climate change, but at the rate at which it is occurring. The global average temperature has increased in such a short period of time and this is well correlated in the rapid increase of the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere as seen in Figure 1. CO₂ has never been and would never be a polluting gas; it would always be good for plant’s photosynthesis. However, the amount of CO₂ that has been released into the atmosphere from the beginning of the industrial era is so high that the earth can no longer absorb all of it. This massive amount of CO₂ comes from fossil fuels, not just the burning of fossil fuels but also the manner in which it is extracted and produced. It involves digging deep into the earth thereby releasing carbon that has been safely stored under the earth’s crust away from the atmosphere for so many years. The world has also moved to mechanized agriculture where we break up the soil releasing carbon stored beneath it and cutting down trees that would have helped absorb all the carbon we are releasing into the atmosphere. All man’s activities have led to the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which has in turn led to increase in the average global temperature. So, yes, Anthropogenic Climate Change is very real and due to this change, seasons are shifting and bringing about severe weather conditions.

3.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY

DeSmogBlog. (2018, February 20). S.Fred Singer. Retrieved from DeSmogBlog: https://www.desmogblog.com/s-fred-singer

DeSmogBlog. (2018, January 20). Steve Milloy. Retrieved from DeSmogBlog: https://www.desmogblog.com/steve-milloy

Greenpeace. (2013). Dealing in Doubt: The climate denial machine vs climate science. Greenpeace USA.

Heartland. (2018, February 20). S. Fred Singer. Retrieved from The Heartland Institue: Fredom Rising: https://www.heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/s-fred-singer

JunkScience. (2015, October 23). What is Junk Science. Retrieved from JunkScience.com: https://junkscience.com/about/

Karin Edvardsson Bjornberg, M. K. (2017). Climate and environmental science denial: A review of the scientific literature published in 1990e2015. Journal of Cleaner Production, 229-241.

NASA. (2018, February 08). Climate Change: How do we know. Retrieved from Global Climate Change, Vital Signs of the Planet: https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

VladisChem. (2018, February 20). The Consequences of Climate Change: A Degree of Difference. Retrieved from Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet: https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/

Watch, S. (2018, February 13). William Gray. Retrieved from Sourcewatch: https://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=William_Gray