New Deep Six Podcast

CITY AVENUE - January 16, 2008 Matt delves deeper into the global warming debate. And he braves temperatures hovering around 11 degrees to deliver his podcast!

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It seems that a new battle is emerging, in the war that many thought was already over. The war over the truth about Global Warming, or Climate Change, as it is referred to now.

Before we get to the new battle, here is a little background:

Back in late 2007, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its latest report. It declared that "warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea level."

Many across the world heralded the report as the final word on climate change. The panel, also known as the UN IPCC, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, along with former Vice President and "An Inconvenient Truth" documentary maker Al Gore.

Basically, the IPCC report says from 1961 to 1990, data indicates that global average surface temperature and global average sea level have both steadily increased, and that snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased.

As for the cause of these increases and decreases, the IPCC says: "Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic GHG concentrations.

In simpler terms, the IPCC is saying that it is very likely that humans, with their fuel-burning machines, are warming the planet.

End of story, right?

Not exactly.

In December of 2008, the US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released its Minority Staff Report. It is more than 200 pages long. And it contains information from more than 650 scientists from across the world, who dismiss the theory that humans are causing global warming.

For a variety of reasons, these scientists not only dispute that humans are warming the planet - some dispute the assumption that the planet is currently warming at all. The Minority Staff Report report directly challenges the findings of the IPCC, and even features some current and former members of the IPCC.

Here are some selected debunkings from this minority report:

- there cannot be a final word on global warming theory, because solar activity is not brought into the equation when studying climate change; some believe sunspots have a greater impact on the planet's weather than we give them credit for, and may influence global temperature changes.

- A number of scientists are quoted as saying: increasing planetary levels of carbon dioxide, even by more than 100 percent, would actually have little impact due to the presence of water vapor and clouds.

- Human-caused global warming theorists believe that the burning of fossil fuels causes carbon dioxide levels to rise, which causes global temperatures to rise. Several scientists in the minority staff report say it is quite the opposite: that global warming actually causes carbon dioxide levels to rise in the atmosphere. Therefore, this would disrupt the cause-and-effect chain of the human-caused global warming theory.

- A climatologist from the University of Colorado says the planet actually entered a cooling period, beginning in 1998, and that the global temperature in 2007 was actually the coldest in a decade.

The report goes on and on, accusing the IPCC, and supporters of the man-made global warming theory, of being political, of being motivated by the need to generate funds for research, and of only including the input of 52 scientists, because others who disagreed would not sign off. You can read both reports yourself - they are available online for free.

IPCC report

Senate Minority Staff Report

This backlash in the global warming debate also emerged on the Cable New Network, CNN. Meteorologist Chad Myers said - on the air - that those who believe man is killing the planet through fossil fuel emmisions are "arrogant," noting how big the planet is, and how large the oceans are. He also said on the network: "I think we're going to die from a lack of fresh water or we're going to die from ocean acidification before we die from global warming, for sure."

Myers also criticized scientists who are making human-caused global warming claims by using data from only the past century - when in fact the planet has been around for millions of years. This is a significant statement from someone who carries a seal from the American Meteorological Society. The assumption is that most in the weather-predicting industry believe in human-caused global warming. Apparently, not.

Depending on which side of this debate you are on, you may be nodding your head in agreement - or shaking it in disbelief. The point Deep 6 is trying to make right now, is that when it comes to the question of Global Warming, and if it is happening, and how it may be happening, well...

...there IS a debate.