The 20th century warming of 1-1.4°F is within the +/- 5°F range of the past 3,000 years.
Arthur B. Robinson, PhD, et al., "Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide," Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Fall 2007
A 2003 study by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics shows temperatures from 1000-1100 AD (before fossil fuel use) that are comparable to those from 1900-1990
Willie Soon, PhD, and Sallie Baliunas, PhD, "Proxy Climactic and Environmental Changes of the Past 1000 Years," Climate Research, 2003
Anders Moberg, PhD, et al., "Highly Variable Northern Hemisphere Temperatures Reconstructed From Low and High Resolution Proxy Data," Nature, Feb. 2005
Rising CO2 levels are a result of global warming, not a cause of it. As temperatures increase, CO2 is released from "carbon sinks" such as the oceans or the Arctic tundra Measurements of ice core samples show that over the last four climactic cycles (past 240,000 years) periods of global warming preceded global increases in CO2
Timothy Ball, PhD, "Global Warming: The Cold, Hard Facts?," www.canadafreepress.com, Feb. 5, 2007
Nicholas Caillon, PhD, and Jeffrey P. Severinghaus, PhD, et al., "Timing of Atmospheric CO2 and Antarctic Temperature Changes Across Termination III," Science, Mar. 14, 2003
Human releases of CO2 cannot cause climate change as any increases in CO2 are eventually balanced by nature. CO2 gets absorbed by oceans, forests, and other "carbon sinks" that increase their biological activity to absorb excess CO2 from the atmosphere. 50% of the CO2 released by the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities, has already been absorbed.
US Senate Minority Environment and Public Works Committee, "US Senate Report: Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007," epw.senate.go, Dec. 20, 2007
Global warming and cooling are caused by fluctuations in the sun's heat (solar forcing), not by the minor greenhouse effect of human-produced gases such as CO2 and methane (CH4).Between 1900 and 2000 solar irradiance increased .19%
This increase correlates with the rise in surface temperatures in the US.
Willie Soon, PhD, "Implications of the Secondary Role of Carbon Dioxide and Methane Forcing in Climate Change: Past, Present, and Future,” Physical Geography, 2007
Arthur B. Robinson, PhD, et al., "Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide," Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Fall 2007
Due to the inherent unpredictability of climate systems it is impossible to accurately use models to determine future weather. Climate models have been unable to simulate major known features of past climate (such as the ice ages or the very warm climates of the Miocene, Eocene, and Cretaceous periods. If models cannot replicate past climate changes they should not be trusted to predict future climate changes.
Richard S. Lindzen, PhD, "Testimony of Richard S. Lindzen Before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee," www-eaps.mit.edu, May 2, 2001
Rising temperatures are caused primarily by water vapor, the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, not by CO2. Water vapor concentrations in the atmosphere are driven by natural storm systems and ocean currents. According to a Mar. 5, 2010 study by researchers at NOAA, water vapor in the stratosphere was responsible for increasing the rate of warming during the 1990s by 30%.
Susan Solomon, PhD, et al., "Contributions of Stratospheric Water Vapor to Decadal Changes in the Rate of Global Warming," Science, Mar. 5, 2010
William Gray, PhD, US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Hearing statement, "The Role of Science in Environmental Policy-Making," epw.senate.go, Sep. 28, 2005
The increased hurricane activity over the recent past decade including hurricane Katrina, is not the result of human-induced climate change; it is the result of cyclical tropical cyclone patterns, driven primarily by natural ocean currents, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) testimony in the US Senate on Sep. 20, 2005
Max Mayfield, PhD, "Oversight Hearing on the Lifesaving Role of Accurate Hurricane Prediction," US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Disaster Prevention and Prediction, Sep. 20, 2005
Deep ocean currents cause climate warming and cooling in long term cycles. The minor greenhouse effect of human produced CO2 pales in comparison. Global cooling from 1940 to the 1970s, and warming from the 1970s to 2008, coincided with fluctuations in ocean currents and cloud cover driven by the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) - a naturally occuring rearrangement in atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns.
William Gray, PhD, "MIT Professor's Climate Change Op-Ed Proven False," Global Warming Facts: What's New, Apr. 7, 2010
Roy W. Spencer, PhD, "Global Warming as a Natural Respose to Cloud Changes Associated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)," Roy Spencer, Ph. D., Oct. 20, 2008
Ocean acidity levels have risen over the 20th century, but they are not out of the ordinary considering the fluctuations of the past 7,000 years. Average ocean surface water pH is 8.1 and has only decreased 0.1 since the beginning of the industrial revolution (neutral is pH 7, acid is below pH7).
Keith Sherwood and Craig Idso, PhD, "The Ocean Acidification Fiction," CO2 Science, June 2009
60.Dennis Ambler, "Acidified Shell Fish: A Distorted View," Science and Public Policy, Apr. 27, 2010
Changes in ocean currents are primarily responsible for the melting Greenland ice sheet, Arctic sea ice, and Arctic permafrost. Over the 20th century there have been two Arctic warming periods with a cooling period (1940-1970) in between. According to a peer-reviewed Apr. 19, 2009 study Geophysical Research Letters, natural shifts in the ocean currents are the major cause of these climate changes, not human generated greenhouse gases.
Petr Chylek, PhD, et al., "Arctic Air Temperature Change Amplificaton and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation," Geophysical Research Letters, July 16, 2009
The general consensus that the earth has warmed during the 20th century is based upon flawed temperature measurements. These measurements, taken from surface monitoring stations set up by the National Weather Service (NWS), are often contaminated by the "heat island effect." According to a Mar. 2009 study published by the Heartland Institute, 89% of NWS monitoring stations are too close to artificial heat sources such as large asphalt parking lots, air conditioners, heaters and other sources of artificial heat.
Anthony Watts, "Is the US Surface Temperature Record Reliable?," The Heartland Institute, 20
Many organizations believe that nature, not human activity, is primarily responsible for climate change. These groups include:
the Heartland Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the George C. Marshall Institute, the CATO Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, the Institute for Energy Research, the National Center for Policy Analysis, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, and the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine.
Theories of naturally caused climate change are often ignored by "mainstream" scientists and organizations because many research scientists are more interested in maintainining the flow of federal grant money for climate change research than in questioning the basic theory of human causation. From 1998-2009, nearly $25 billion in federal funds was allocated for climate science research. Researchers who question human-induced climate change often do not receive grant money for research projects.
Congressional Budget Office (CBO), "Federal Climate Change Programs: Funding History and Policy Issues," Congressional Budget Office - Home Page, Mar. 2010
Richard Lindzen, PhD "Climate of Fear: Global-Warming Alarmists Intimidate Dissenting Scientists into Scilence," Wall Street Journal, Apr. 12, 2006