Many of you know that I have posted 18 previous articles about Global Warming. It’s a topic that is very important, and one that I find interesting.
Many people have written to me, most of whom cannot understand why I remain a “skeptic” that man is causing global warming. Below is a typical email that people send to me. This email doubted the authenticity of the Oregon Petition, Linked Here, which was signed by 17,000 scientists, climatologists, or others with scientific backgrounds, all opposing the Kyoto protocol and arguments which claim that man is causing global warming.
I sent the constituent’s email to the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine for comment. Also attached below is the reply by Dr. Arthur Robinson. These writings are typical of the debate surrounding Global Warming.
It’s hard to get to the truth if people don’t want to discuss the science of global warming.
Email from Constituent
*From:* Confidential
> *Sent:* Monday, May 21, 2007 6:30 PM
> *To:* Tom Neuville
> *Subject:* One more and I’ll stop
>
> Wow, 17000 signatures! Where to start? Well I guess I’ll start with
> the letter A.
> I googled the first 10: A couple of doctors, a pathologist (I think I
> had the right guy), a petroleum engineer, an electrical engineer, an
> ornithologist, and four people who could not be found on the www.
>
> Where did these folks come from? Well, it seems that about a decade
> ago, Dr. Seitz looked up from the home school materials business he
> was running out of his pole shed out in Oregon and commenced a direct
> mail campaign to oppose the Kyoto treaty. Sign the petition, assign
> yourself the some letters of the alphabet, and congratulations, you
> are a “highly qualified scientist”!
>
> That you can somehow declare that process to be even comparable to the
> IPCC process, version 4.0 (yes, Senator they keep doing research) is
> why you are so easily dismissed.
>
> Yes, I know of your background. You must be dismayed that your former
> institutions have been hijacked by the left wing conspiracy. Michigan
> Tech operates a cutting edge center that studies climate change with
> an emphasis on human impact on CO2 levels and forest ecosystems
> (funded in part by the DOE–can you believe they waste our tax dollars
> on this commie nonsense?). http://niccr.mtu.edu or
> http://ecosystem.mtu.edu
>
> 3M’s even worse, they’re frittering away shareholder value on reducing
> greenhouse emissions.
>
>
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/global/sustainability/s/performa
nce-indicators/environment/reducing-greenhouse-gases/ions.
>
>
> We’re not getting anywhere here. You can have the last word, I will
> read it but likely not respond. I don’t think I’ll be visiting your
> blog again for awhile. Email me when you have something serious to say.
Reply Email from Dr. Arthur Robinson (Permission to Post was given)
—–Original Message—–
From: Arthur Robinson [mailto:art@oism.org]
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 3:36 PM
To: tom neuville
Subject: Re: FW: One more and I’ll stop
Dr. Seitz is a very famous physicist. He has served as president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, president of the American Physical Society, and president of The Rockefeller University.
The other five people who have directed the petition project are also highly respected and qualified scientists. Two are Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicists who specialize in climate science, two have Caltech degrees in physical chemistry, and one is America’s leading expert on carbon dioxide fertilization of plants. All are actively working, PhD physical scientists.
The person you are corresponding with is obviously an enviro liar. This is the difficulty of opposing these people. They simply make up any lie they wish - and smear anyone who opposes them.
As far as the petition is concerned, signatures were accepted if the individual had a university degree in physical science. Anyone with that much education is easily qualified to evaluate this subject. The signers all have this qualification. (One falsified signature was sent in by Ozone Action aka Green Peace USA - and was removed when found.) A large percentage are PhDs - the most advanced degree of each is listed on the oism.org/pproject web site. About 500 of the signers are actively professionally involved in various aspects of climate science.
The petition was based upon a comprehensive review article fully referenced to the peer reviewed literature. This is available at oism.org/pproject.
I notice from your correspondence with this person that there is no discussion of science. The enviros like it this way. The actual science defeats them.
One example. Try it out on your correspondent.
J. Oerlemans, Science 308, pp 675-677 (2005) published an account of the lengths of 169 of the Earth’s glaciers as a function of time - all large glaciers for which he could obtain long term records. Oerlman’s data show that glacier length maximized at the depths of the Little Ice Age - at about the time of the U.S. Revolutionary War. (George Washington was unlucky in that his winter at Valley Forge was spent during the coldest period on the Earth in 1,500 years. Average Earth temperature during the past 3,000 years has fluctuated in about an 8 degree Fahrenheit range.)
The two relevant figures from Oerlman’s article are attached
.
As the Earth recovered from this unusually cold period, the lengths of the glaciers decreased. Half of the glacier shortening to date occurred before the first car rolled off of the Henry Ford assembly line, and three-fourths of the shortening occurred before atmospheric carbon dioxide significantly increased. Since then, the rate of shortening has not increased - in fact, it has moderated somewhat.
The temperature curve derived from the glacier data shows some fine structure - which correlates perfectly with fluctuations in solar activity.
This study - recently peer reviewed and published in a reputable journal
- definitively shows that human-produced carbon dioxide is not responsible for melting the glaciers or for the rise in temperature that caused the melting. The cause is the natural recovery of Earth temperature from the Little Ice Age. Today, Earth temperature is about average for the past 3,000 years and far below the temperatures that occurred earlier - for example during the Medieval Climate Optimum 1,000 years ago - much warmer than today and having no climatological difficulties or environmental disasters.
There is a wealth of other data from other sources and studies that correlates perfectly with the glacier data and shows that natural causes, mostly fluctuations in solar activity, are responsible for the current warming; that current temperatures are not unusual; that warm Earth temperatures are associated with milder weather - not harsher weather; that ocean level rises during warm periods are very slight (current measurements show an increase of 3mm per year, which is one foot per century - with the warming likely to reverse within a couple of more centuries); and that the only significant effect of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is increased rate of plant growth, which leads to more plants and animals and more diversity in the biosphere - both positive environmental effects.
Usually these people will not confront the facts. If this guy tries to discuss the Oerlman’s article, please send me a copy of his effort. I would be interested in the response.
You are welcome, of course, to send him a copy of this email if you wish.
Best Regards,
Art Robinson