Some Thoughts On Global Warming

Contrary to the accepted wisdom, not all scientists agree that global warming is due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels. An alternative theory that the major determinant in climate change is sunspot activity is gaining traction as evidence mounts in its favor. As Chris Horner writes on NRO’s Planet Gore:

Sunspots are magnetic storms on the sun's surface that are used as a proxy-measure for the Sun’s interplanetary magnetic field. As Henrik Svensmark and Fred Singer argue, the Sun’s magnetic field effects cloud formation in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The more magnetically active the sun is, the fewer cosmic rays reach our upper atmosphere. When cosmic rays do reach the Earth, they react with atmospheric gasses to free nuclei that help seed cloud formation, cooling the Earth’s surface. No sun spots = more clouds = lower temperatures.

It should be noted that as sunspots have decreased on the sun over the past year, the average temperature of the Earth actually cooled by .6 degrees Celsius.

So perhaps CO2 isn’t responsible for global warming. Increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere may even be a good thing. Or at least that’s what Dr. Roy W. Spencer, a Principal Research Scientist at the University of Alabama says in his article More Carbon Dioxide, Please

Well, plant physiologists have known for a long time that most vegetation loves more carbon dioxide. It grows faster, is more drought-tolerant, and is more efficient in its water use. While the pre-industrial CO2 concentration of the atmosphere was only about 280 parts per million (ppm) by volume, and now it is around 380 ppm, some greenhouses pump it all the way up to around 1,000 ppm. How can environmentalists claim that helping vegetation to grow is a bad thing?

He continues later in the article:

Still, the main worry has been that the extra CO2 could hurt the growth of plankton, which represents the start of the oceanic food chain. But recent research (published on April 18 in Science Express) has now shown, contrary to expectations, that one of the most common forms of plankton actually grows faster and bigger when more CO2 is pumped into the water. Like vegetation on land, it loves the extra CO2, too!

It is quite possible that the biosphere (vegetation, sea life, etc.) has been starved for atmospheric CO2. Before humans started burning fossil fuels, vegetation and ocean plankton had been gobbling up as much CO2 out of the atmosphere as they could, but it was like a vacuum cleaner trying to suck through a stopped-up hose.

Now, no matter how much CO2 we pump into the atmosphere each year, the biosphere takes out an average of 50 percent of that extra amount. Even after we triple the amount of CO2 we produce, nature still takes out 50 percent of the extra amount.

Where my HumVee? I want to do my part to help the environment.