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• Monday, June 30, 2008 03:59 PM

  Is it primarily due to CO2?

  “Per the scientific consensus with respect to global warming, CO2 is the primary initiating driver, but there are other drivers as well, including other greenhouse gases, and, to a much smaller degree, the sun.”

  First of all, the “scientific consensus” does not mean much. It just confirms that this is the current “paradigm” among a majority of “scientists” involved in climate study. No more, no less. Paradigms shift as new information is gleaned. Since there has been no physically observed validation of the paradigm as yet (as opposed to computer model outputs), it has still to be proven.

  Secondly, there is a growing number of scientists who question that CO2 is the “primary driver”. Most agree with the basic greenhouse hypothesis (Arrhenius, Stefan-Boltzmann), which states that a doubling of CO2 should result in an increase of temperature of around 0.7C. But there is major disagreement on the assumed positive “feedbacks” used in climate models, which increase this impact by a factor of 4+ to 3.0C.

  Thirdly, there have been many studies that show that the sun may be playing a much more important role in climate change than previously assumed, so the statement “to a much smaller degree, the sun” is questionable. Studies are underway at CERN that may result in a basic “paradigm shift” on the relative importance of the sun in climate change.

  Max

  —manacker Read manacker's other letters
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