Am I still allowed to question climate change?

[maxmaximus]

Do you not believe in evolution either, as that uses similar scientific methods. Perhaps you think God is making it warmer?

 

I don't think they are going to accept any data from any source.

[Phanerothyme]

Intelligent warming?

[maxmaximus]

Intelligent warming?

 

Global warming might make lizards super-intelligent

 

Just when it seemed like we knew all the dangers of climate change, science has to go and throw us this curveball. Warmer temperatures make lizards' brains develop differently. Last thing we need is some newly super-intelligent lizards judging us.

[Lockjaw]

The linear trend from August 1997 (in the middle of an exceptionally strong El Nino) to August 2012 (coming at the tail end of a double-dip La Nina) is about 0.03°C/decade, amounting to a temperature increase of 0.05°C over that period, but equally we could calculate the linear trend from 1999, during the subsequent La Nina, and show a more substantial warming.

 

As we’ve stressed before, choosing a starting or end point on short-term scales can be very misleading. Climate change can only be detected from multi-decadal timescales due to the inherent variability in the climate system. If you use a longer period from HadCRUT4 the trend looks very different. For example, 1979 to 2011 shows 0.16°C/decade (or 0.15°C/decade in the NCDC dataset, 0.16°C/decade in GISS). Looking at successive decades over this period, each decade was warmer than the previous – so the 1990s were warmer than the 1980s, and the 2000s were warmer than both. Eight of the top ten warmest years have occurred in the last decade.

 

Over the last 140 years global surface temperatures have risen by about 0.8ºC. However, within this record there have been several periods lasting a decade or more during which temperatures have risen very slowly or cooled. The current period of reduced warming is not unprecedented and 15 year long periods are not unusual.

 

Temperature and CO2 concentration in the atmosphere over the past 400 000 years.

 

The information presented on this graph indicates a strong correlation between carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere and temperature. A possible scenario: anthropogenic emissions of GHGs could bring the climate to a state where it reverts to the highly unstable climate of the pre-ice age period. Rather than a linear evolution, the climate follows a non-linear path with sudden and dramatic surprises when GHG levels reach an as-yet unknown trigger point.

 

Thanks for that. I asked what you think, though.

 

Do you think the relationship is linear?

 

Do you think that every extra bit of carbon dioxide ever added to the atmosphere, from here to eternity, will make the world a bit warmer?

[El Cid]

 

Do you think that every extra bit of carbon dioxide ever added to the atmosphere, from here to eternity, will make the world a bit warmer?

 

There are other things that cool and make the earth warmer, so it will never be a straight line.

 

What do you think?

[truman]

In the late Ordovician period CO2 was at about 10-15 times the level of today..yet there was an ice age....

[geared]

Very possible because a layer of ice will reflect the energy from the suns rays.

[truman]

Very possible because a layer of ice will reflect the energy from the suns rays.

 

But if the co2 level was so high and is responsible for GW then how did the ice form in the first place?

[geared]

There is an explanation, I can't quite remember it.....

[Tim Grindley]

The IPCC says that the worste case scenario is for a 3.2 degree c temperature rise by 2100. This would cause a sea level rise of less than knee high.

 

Do you have anything which says this is wrong?

 

If not why are you worried?