26 Common Climate Myths Debunked

holy_calamity writes to mention that New Scientist is revealing the truth behind the '26 most common climate myths' used to muddy the waters in this ongoing heated debate. "Our planet's climate is anything but simple. All kinds of factors influence it, from massive events on the Sun to the growth of microscopic creatures in the oceans, and there are subtle interactions between many of these factors. Yet despite all the complexities, a firm and ever-growing body of evidence points to a clear picture: the world is warming, this warming is due to human activity increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and if emissions continue unabated the warming will too, with increasingly serious consequences."

Comments

Here's the list w/o links

[flogger]

This appears to be "weather-Mongering." The only one of these that I didn;t know to be a myth was that "it is all a conspiracy"

• Human CO2 emissions are too tiny to matter
• We can't do anything about climate change
• The 'hockey stick' graph has been proven wrong
• Chaotic systems are not predictable
• We can't trust computer models of climate
• They predicted global cooling in the 1970s
• It's been far warmer in the past, what's the big deal?
• It's too cold where I live - warming will be great
• Global warming is down to the Sun, not humans
• It's all down to cosmic rays
• CO2 isn't the most important greenhouse gas
• The lower atmosphere is cooling, not warming
• Antarctica is getting cooler, not warmer, disproving global warming
• The oceans are cooling
• The cooling after 1940 shows CO2 does not cause warming
• It was warmer during the Medieval period, with vineyards in England
• We are simply recovering from the Little Ice Age
• Warming will cause an ice age in Europe
• Ice cores show CO2 increases lag behind temperature rises, disproving the link to global warming
• Ice cores show CO2 rising as temperatures fell
• Mars and Pluto are warming too
• Many leading scientists question climate change
• It's all a conspiracy
• Hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming
• Higher CO2 levels will boost plant growth and food production
• Polar bear numbers are increasing

#16

[benhocking]

That was the 16th myth on the list.

Re:thickest strongest ice in 30 years

[bobo mahoney]

If you read any articles about Global Warming you will see that some local areas will get colder, wetter, more snowfall, and more ice accumuluation because of shifting water currents and atmospheric wind patterns. The issue is GLOBAL WARMING, not is it warmer at my house.

Re:WTF

[ZombieRoboNinja]

Then I find this article.

But you didn't check the source, apparently.

I'm unsurprised that anti-climate-change folks can find a few PhDs who will agree with them. There are a lot of scientists out there, after all. But unless Morano's "more to come" has another 10,990 scientists on it, his "converts" are still nothing compared to the number of scientists who DO buy the global warming argument.

Re:WTF

[je ne sais quoi]

Funny. I see this in TFA Myth: Many leading scientists question climate change .Then I find this article.

That article was written by Marc Morano. I'm not seriously going to consider anything written by the producer for Rush Limbaugh.

Also, in TFA, I see this: Myth: Polar bear numbers are increasing Then I see this.

Did you even read the article you linked to? Almost every scientist they interviewed about the subject said something along the lines of,

"The critical problem is, the sea ice is changing. We're looking ahead three generations, 30 to 50 years. To say that bear populations are growing in one area now is irrelevant," says Derocher." [f the World Conservation Union and a professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.] "The increase in the population is not a climate-change related issue," Derocher claims. It's the result of "conservation and an increase in the harp seal population," he says."I don't think there is any question polar bears are threatened by global warming," responds Andrew Derocher of the World Conservation Union and a professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

So, yes a single population of polar bears is increasing, but too bad there's 19 populations world-wide, at least two of which are decreasing.

Re: thickest strongest ice in 30 years

[Black Parrot]

Eastern Canada is currently experiencing its thickest strongest ice in 30 years. Meanwhile, Antartica is melting.

Sounds like NS neglected to debunk the biggest myth of them all, namely that global warming means a uniform increase in temperature everywhere on the planet.

The reason Greenland was named Greenland

[benhocking]

Did someone mention Greenland yet again?

Re:The reason Greenland was named Greenland

[CorSci81]

Just to nitpick, this was my area of research in grad school. Heat transport by the Gulf Stream directly isn't the whole story, or even the major part of it. The sea surface temperatures off of England and continental Europe really aren't fantastically warmer than the west coast of North America at the same latitude, but its climate is somewhat warmer on the whole. Most of the warmth in these regions has to do with the jet stream rather than the Gulf Stream. The big storms that the north Atlantic is famous for are what actually transports a lot of heat to Europe. Now to what extent the jet stream is dependent upon the Gulf Stream is a different and much more complicated matter.