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Global Warming - is it happening?

At the present time, no. It was happening during the nineties, but now it has stopped.

But let's think for a few minutes about the problems of measuring the earth's temperature.

There is no such thing as a mean global temperature. Think about it - every bit of the planet is at a different temperature. How could you possibly measure the average?

Another problem is that water warms up more slowly than dry land; it also cools more slowly. So land and water are at different temperatures.

G.I.S.S. (the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, a laboratory of the Earth Sciences Division of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center) has been measuring temperatures for years, both in the atmosphere and at the earth's surface. What they do is this - they measure temperatures at a particular place for many years, and then take an average.

Then they compare the year-on-year figures with the average, and plot this as what they call a 'temperature anomaly'.

This means that figures from different weather stations, all at different temperatures, can be combined to give an overall picture of whether the earth is getting warmer or colder.

Here are some graphs: firstly, the last decade, which you can see is about level -



For those that are interested, the vertical axis is in Centigrade, and "0" probably corresponds to a mean temperature of around 14 degrees.

Next are land and ocean figures for the last 130 years:



-and there are a lot more graphs of interest at the G.I.S.S. (NASA) website, which can be found at:

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/data - it's worth looking carefully at this site.

So - a more detailed answer to the question is - temperatures were roughly static from 1880-1920; they went up slightly until about 1940. There was a period of cooling until the mid seventies; for the next thirty years there was a slight warming, and since the turn of the century the temperature has remained about the same.

And to keep a sense of perspective, here's the IPCC graph of what's happened to the earth's temperature over a much longer period:



Finally - is there any evidence that carbon dioxide is driving the climate?

Well......so far, no ..... in fact the reverse appears to be true; temperature changes caused by the sun alter the sea surface temperature, which then releases or absorbs carbon dioxide. You may remember from school Chemistry lessons that hot water dissolves less gas than cold. The same principle operates here.

Those who say that global temperature is driven by carbon dioxide emissions have no evidence to support their case. This is unsurprising, because there is no evidence. They make such statements for political or financial reasons, or both.

If you doubt this, look at the Climate Change Act.

This is the most expensive Act ever to be passed by the U.K. Parliament. Its effects have reached into the affairs of every school, every charity, every company, and every large organization.

Even the church which my wife attends now has to have an 'energy audit', in the name of climate change.

If you are concerned about energy policy, have a look at the Renewables Obligation which is presently causing rapid inflation of domestic energy bills by subsidising compulsory energy schemes which cannot supply the electricity we need.

Never in my lifetime was so much money spent for so little effect.

Many of our financial problems would disappear if the Climate Change Act was abandoned.

One thing is certain; the Act will have no effect whatever on global climate.

Even if carbon dioxide was a driver of climate change, the amount of it coming from the UK is dwarfed by the emissions of India, China and the USA.




N.D., habitat21

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