Circum Spective

the myth about global warming

Notice I did not write: the myth of global warming, but rather the myth "about" global warming. It is getting a little warmer lately. But if you believe the scientists whose work led to the conclusions in this article, it simply has nothing to do with human activity, and there is nothing we can do to prevent it.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Barack Hussein said Friday that opponents of his energy bill are disputing the evidence of global warming in a cynical ploy to undermine efforts to curb pollution and steer the nation to greener energy sources. Obama says some opponents "make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change ..." For example, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers oppose reducing emissions by allowing companies to buy and sell permits to pollute, a system known as cap and trade. [This "cap & trade" thing is a whole other fiasco for separate discussion in another post.]

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Below I have included excerpts from another "cynical claim" that contradicts the myth that human industry is causing "global warming" ... and the accompanying myth that humans can affect any significant change in the world's average temperature. I think this author and his colleagues know a little something about the subject (review his credentials at the end).

Twin Ice Cores from Greenland Reveal History of Climate Change, More

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Earth in Space, Vol. 9, No. 2, October 1996, pp. 12-13. © 1996 American Geophysical Union. Permission is hereby granted to journalists to use this material so long as credit is given, and to teachers to use this material in classrooms.

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Locked within two cores of ancient ice is evidence of unprecedented swings in Earth's climate throughout the ages. These icy archives tell us that large, rapid, global change is more the norm for the Earth's climate than is stasis.

by R. Alley, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park; P. Mayewski, University of New Hampshire, Durham; D. Peel, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, England; and B. Stauffer, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

Two projects conducted from 1989 to 1993 collected parallel ice cores just 30 kilometers apart from the central part of the Greenland ice sheet. Each core is more than 3 kilometers deep and extends back 110,000 years. Scientists who have studied the cores agree that the Earth experienced large, rapid, regional-to-global climate oscillations through most of the last 110,000 years, of a scale that agricultural- and industrial-age humans did not face. Though a few of the stadial/interstadial oscillations such as the Younger Dryas event were known for decades, many more were found in the first Greenland deep ice cores, but most of the oscillations occurred in ice from close to bedrock where flow may have disturbed the climatic record. In the new cores, these events are recorded far enough above the bed that ice flow is unlikely to have altered the early section of the 110,000-year climatic record. The almost perfect match back to this date between records from the two cores should dispel any lingering doubt about the climatic origin of the events.

These millennial-scale events represent large climate deviations that probably include change in temperature of many degrees Celsius, twofold changes in snow accumulation, large changes in how much wind-blown dust and sea salt were carried by the atmosphere, and large changes in methane concentration. Changes during these events commonly occur over decades or less. Shifts in the patterns of atmospheric circulation could explain the rapidity and magnitude of these events. Most recently, subtle versions of these rapid climate change events were identified through the reconstruction of atmospheric circulation patterns in the Holocene portion of the Greenland ice record. Major climatic change events are also recorded in the isotopic temperature record of the Vostok core from central East Antarctica, but not as clearly as in cores from Greenland.

Ice Cores Challenge Standing Theories

Initial interpretation of the ice cores indicated that the large, rapid climate oscillations that dominate the record of the last 110,000 years also persisted through the previous warm period, the Eemian, which took place about 120,000–130,000 years ago. Both cores also show rapid oscillations in climate during that time period, but with different timing and character. In both cores, there is evidence of ice flow beginning at or slightly above the depth at which difference in their climate records appears—roughly 2800 m, or approximately 110,000 years ago. Ice flow disturbs the climate record by allowing ice from different layers to mix. The amounts of gases in both cores differ from those of the Vostok, Antarctica core, where the Eemian era ice is undisturbed by ice flow. Much remains to be learned about Eemian climate from these cores. Just as they were needed to confirm the rapid oscillations observed in older cores, a core from a site where the Eemian is farther above the bed and thus is less subject to flow disturbance will provide the best information. Scientists are already looking at sites in North Greenland and Antarctica capable of delivering such records.

Measurements of gas-bubble compositions from Antarctic cores provide the best paleorecords of CO₂₂ in the Greenland ice is more complex than interpreting it in the Antarctic ice. However, the results do not question earlier findings about the increase of the atmospheric CO₂ concentration at the end of the last glaciation and a steady increase since the beginning of the industrial age. concentrations. Greenlandic records indicate some unexplained "noise"—data that may be added by random processes not related to the true environmental record or just plain high-frequency unexplained data—possibly related to chemical reactions with the more abundant carbonate dust in Greenland ice. Scientists agree that interpreting the record of CO

Ice Cores Lead to Progress in Related Research

Great progress is being made on more basic science as well. The ability to count annual layers in the cores well into the glacial period and probably through 110,000 years will help to answer questions about the timing of the glacial periods and the usefulness of radiocarbon calibrations. The use of volcanic markers (such as dust and certain gases) and atmospheric-oxygen isotopic ratios to determine the ages of ice cores and ocean records greatly extends scientists' ability to map climate changes and understand their causes.

Reconstruction of atmospheric circulation patterns and their changes over time from chemical indicators and dust sources provides new insight into the large, rapid changes documented in the cores. Vigorous work on the air-snow transfer function for chemicals and particulates is clarifying the significance of the paleoclimatic records. Glacier geophysics and flow modeling, coupled with physical and electrical studies of ice cores, are leading to better understanding of the ice cores and ice-sheet behavior, and possible contributions to sea level change. Many studies are underway to help understand the Greenland record in more detail. Scientists expect to use the cores to learn more about changes in atmospheric acids, past extraterrestrial impacts, humankind's influence on the chemistry of the atmosphere, and details of Holocene climate variability.

Source: Eos, May 28, 1996, p. 209.

the Author of this article (Paul Mayewski)...

was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on July 5, 1946. He received a B.A. with Honors from the Department of Geological Sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1968, a Ph.D. from the Institute of Polar Studies and the Department of Geology and Mineralogy at the Ohio State University in 1973, and from 1973–1975 was a postdoctoral student in the Institute for Quaternary Studies at the University of Maine at Orono. He joined the faculty of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of New Hampshire in 1975 and was appointed full professor in 1985.

Today his research team provides a primary building block for one of the better-known global change facilities in the world, the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space. As Director of Climate Change Research Center, which he founded, he has led more than 25 expeditions to the Antarctic, the Arctic, and the Himalayas. His early research in the Antarctic was honored by the naming of an Antarctic mountain, Mayewski Peak. Many of these expeditions entered uncharted regions and resulted in the ascent of several previously unclimbed peaks in the Antarctic. His expeditions to the Arctic as chief scientist of the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two from 1987 to 1993 resulted in the recovery of a more than 110,000-year long record of climate change that is now recognized as vitally important to the understanding of climate change. [Recognized by, apparently, everyone except Al Gore and Barack Obama.]