Pilar I: theory 1. The sun is controlling the climate not CO 2. There is no evid
ID: 152431 • Letter: P
Question
Pilar I: theory 1. The sun is controlling the climate not CO 2. There is no evidence that CO, has any control on climate. 3. We can't even predict the weather two weeks ahead, so we can certainly not predict it for a 100yrs into the future. 4. IPCC is alarmist: Published climate sensitivity estimates are decreasing with time, converging to zero. source:link Pilar II: Observed CO2 changes 1. 2. CO2 has been changing all the time. Today's changes are not significant. Natural CO2 emissions are much larger than human CO2 emissions. Pilar III: Observed climate change 1. 2. 3. 4. Data is incorrect. The earth is not warming. The data is manipulated in many ways to make it look as if it is warming. Temperatures are decreasing even though CO2 is increasing. The earth has not warmed over the last 20yrs. end-0.00 C0. source: link Pilar IV: Alternative causes 1. 2. It is the sun. It is internal natural variability that happens all the time. Pilar V: Impact 1. 3 degrees warming happens all the time, has happened before and therefore it will not have an impact. We can easily adapt. Adaptation is cheaper than mitigation (prevent it from happening). 2. 3.Explanation / Answer
Pillar I: Theory
1. The Sun is controlling the climate not CO2
The Sun affects the Earth’s climate in a natural way. The solar or the sunspot cycles last at least 11 years which are responsible for changes in sea surface temperatures, rainfall during Asian monsoon, trade wind activity in tropical latitudes, stratospheric ozone concentration. All of such natural changes have a direct impact on the climate as the temperature and precipitation patterns are changing on decadal timescales. The timescale of such changes is an indication that climate is being controlled or changed due to the periodical changes in the activities of the Sun pertaining to its magnetism and related physical phenomena.
Carbon dioxide is the major greenhouse gas which is controlling the climate especially after the rapid growth in industrialization during the 20th century. Although the Sun is responsible for natural changes in climate through its sunspot cycles, CO2 has contributed significantly to the changes as the anthropogenic burning of fossil fuels increased its concentration in recent times. CO2, being a linear tri-atomic molecule, has 4 degrees of freedom which allows the molecule to spread more outgoing longwave radiation back towards the Earth. As the CO2 molecules increase in the atmosphere, the greenhouse effect due to CO2 ensures a warm climate.
Pillar II: Observed CO2 changes
2. Natural CO2 emissions are much larger than human CO2 emissions.
CO2 emissions in nature are massive as compared to the emissions due to humans. Annually, over 700 gigatons of CO2 gets recycled naturally through the biogeochemical cycle of carbon, which is much larger in quantity than the man-made emissions of around 30 gigatons. The oceans and the land exchange CO2 on the order of 300 - 400 gigatons as compared to the small amount of fossil fuel emissions contributing 20 -30 gigatons into the atmosphere per year. As the oceans, natural vegetation on land are relatively bigger in size than human settlements, nature thus emits a larger amount of CO2.
Emissions of CO2 due to humans have increased since the pre-industrial times due to the burning of fossil fuels and changing land use patterns. These emissions are disturbing the natural cycling of carbon as more CO2 is being accumulated in the atmosphere. As the oceans and land can only absorb about 40% of all the CO2 emissions, the remaining accumulates in the atmosphere which includes the small amount emitted by man-made activities. On interannual timescales, the effect of human emissions is significant as the atmospheric CO2 concentration is a cumulative quantity which is rising due to its recent accelerated buildup.