“It is one thing to impose drastic measures and harsh economic penalties when an environmental problem is clear-cut and severe.
It is quite another to do so when the environmental problem is largely hypothetical and not substantiated by careful observations.
This is definitely the case with global warming.”
– Frederick Seitz, 17th president of the United States National Academy of Sciences
This paper addresses the scientific integrity involved in the fear that human additions to atmospheric carbon dioxide will cause significant global warming.
To comprehend how carbon dioxide influences the globe’s temperatures
one must comprehend the greenhouse effect,
how different greenhouse gases influence the loss of heat to space,
how different greenhouse gases influence the effectiveness of other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,
and how increasing the greenhouse effect influences climate.
Further, to comprehend how human emissions of greenhouse gases affect climate requires separating the greenhouse effect from other human impacts on climate such as urbanization.
Also, it requires separating human impacts from natural climate change including changing ocean circulation and changing solar influences which we do not fully understand.
This brief paper is divided into six basic sections:
One, the importance of the scientific method for understanding the physical world;
Two, the changing climate;
Three, the importance of the greenhouse effect, including carbon dioxide, for life on this planet;
Four, problems with global climate models used to predict dire consequences from increasing greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide;
Five, modern physical evidence supporting an alternative analysis of the greenhouse effect; and
Six, a suggested policy for going forward with steps the nation needs to take.
END NOTES for the six sections that follow
(this report has been divided into six posts):
1. Steven E. Koonin, Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters, BenBella Books, Inc, 2021 Kindle Edition, https://www.amazon.com/Unsettled-Climate-Science-Doesnt-Matters-ebook/dp/B08JQKQGD5/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Koonin&qid=1627495192&s=amazon-devices&sr=1-2
2. Global Warming for the Two Cultures By Richard Lindzen, GWPF, October 2018 https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2018/10/Lindzen-2018-GWPF-Lecture.pdf
3. Heat, a Mode of Motion By John Tyndall, (p. 359, fifth edition, 1875) https://www.amazon.com/Heat-Mode-Motion-Classic-Reprint/dp/1332792758 (later edition)
4. Ad Hoc Study Group on Carbon Dioxide and Climate By Jule G. Charney, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chairman, et al. to the: Climate Research Board, Assembly of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, National Research Council, National Academy of Science, 1979
https://www.bnl.gov/envsci/schwartz/charney_report1979.pdf
5. UAH Global Temperature Update for June 2021: -0.01 deg. C By Roy Spencer, His Blog, July 2, 2021 http://www.drroyspencer.com/2021/07/uah-global-temperature-update-for-june-2021-0-01-deg-c/
6. NOAA, Global Monitoring Laboratory Mauna Loa, Hawaii, Data Accessed July 26, 2021 https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/co2/co2_mm_mlo.txt
7. Confessions of a climate scientist: The global warming hypothesis is an unproven hypothesis By Motokaka Nakamura, Kindle Edition, October 2019 https://www.amazon.com/s?k=.+Confessions+of+a+climate+scientist%3A+The+global+warming+hypothesis+is+an+unproven+hypothesis&rh=n%3A154606011&ref=nb_sb_noss
8. Examination of space-based bulk atmospheric temperatures used in climate research By John R. Christy, Roy W. Spencer, William D. Braswell & Robert Junod, International Journal of Remote Sensing, March 8, 2018. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01431161.2018.1444293
9, The HITRAN Database By Iouli E. Gordon, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Atomic and Molecular Physics Division, Accessed July 12, 2019 https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/hitran/
10. Dependence of Earth’s Thermal Radiation on Five Most Abundant Greenhouse Gases By W. A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics, posted June 4, 2020 https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.03098 Link to pre-publication version: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.03098.pdf
11. Verification, Validation, and Predictive Capability in Computational Engineering and Physics By William L. Oberkampf and Timothy G. Trucano, Sandia National Laboratories and Charles Hirsch, Department of Fluid Mechanics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Feb 2003 https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc885833/m2/1/high_res_d/918370.pdf
12. One More Mission, The Right Climate Stuff Team
https://www.therightclimatestuff.com/