Conservapedia on Global Warming
1. CO2 levels are due to the ocean warming, not burning Fossil Fuels
Conservapedia claims the presence of CO2 in the air is caused by the ocean heating, losing solubility for CO2, and releasing it into the atmosphere, not caused by the burning of fossil fuels. It cites a paper from 1997, written by Professor Zbigniew Jaworowski, who claims any ice core data taken from ice samples is contaminated by current CO2 levels. And argues that current CO2 ice core data has been edited, and claims it is "unscientific to merge ice core temperature measurements with modern temperature measurements."
2. The current warming period is a natural cycle of warming and cooling of the earth
Conservapedia claims there have been many periods of natural caused global warming and cooling, and scientists from MIT and Harvard claim the current crisis could be one of those periods. We are 18,000 into 150,000 year period between ice ages, so the temperature is expected to rise and we should expect 50,000 more years of warm weather before earth begins to cool. Data for global temperatures were underestimated for the early 20th century, and since 1960 we have had three major volcanic eruptions, therefore any projections scientists made were flawed, therefore it is difficult to predict warming temperatures.
3. The Sun is the dominant force for heat energy and climate change, and the magnetic activity could cause an ice age
Conservapedia claims sunspots are a factor in global temperature change. There was a study monitoring the sun's activity and Earth's energy balance (the amount of energy absorbed by the sun, subtracting the amount of energy lost to radiation in space), during a solar minima period, and the Earth gained energy when it should have lost energy. Therefore the sun is not the driving force of temperature increase. The sun's magnetic energy effect was not measured, and it could have impacted the global temperature to increase.
Debunking Science
Conservapedia's overall point on this page is to discredit current science on global warming, and to prove that the increasing global temperature is not due to the burning of fossil fuels and increase of greenhouse gases.
High CO2 levels are due to burning of fossils fuels, which in turn are increasing acidity of the ocean
High CO2 levels, the greenhouse gas that is causing global warming, in the Earth's atmosphere are due to the increase of burning fossil fuels and CO2 being trapped in the atmosphere. CO2 lacks the ability to allow infrared through the atmosphere and out into space, this is causing greenhouse gases to be trapped in the Earth's atmosphere and warm the temperature. Oceans actually absorb some of the CO2 in the atmosphere, causing the acidity and temperature of the ocean to increase. The ocean performs a gas exchange with CO2 by diffusion, when the atmosphere concentration of CO2 is greater than the ocean concentration. This reaction forms carbonic acid and dissociation products, which is harmful to the ocean because it makes the water more acidic. Some plant life that performs photosynthesis absorbs CO2 using sunlight and produces Oxygen. Therefore the ocean is trying to help rid the atmosphere of high concentrations of CO2, it is not the cause of CO2 in the atmosphere
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Global temperatures have been increasing over the last 200 years due to human action
Global temperatures do follow a cyclic increase and decrease over time. The last glacial advance ended over 11,000 years ago. These climate changes can be attributed to the shift of position of the Earth's orbit which changes the amount of sun energy the Earth receives. Scientist have taken data from glaciers, ocean sediments, sedimentary rocks and trees and have realized the global temperature is currently increasing ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age recovery and warming. This data shows that although we are in between a warming and cooling period for Earth, we are warming faster than previous historic periods and this is problematic because the Earth will experience negative impacts of Global warming such as increased coastline levels of the ocean. The speed in the warming period is due to human activity and the large amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.
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Sun activity is not the reason for global temperature increase
This graph to the left shows the increase in Earth's temperature in red, and the energy from the sun received by the Earth in yellow. It also shows the natural, 11 year period of the increase and decrease of the sun's energy, with no net increase since the 1950s. Therefore it is concluded that the sun is not the cause of current global warming temperatures. The current increase in temperatures is too rapid to be a result of the Earth's changing orbit. If the sun was causing the warming of Earth, we would see even warming throughout the atmosphere, whereas we are currently seeing warming at the surface and cooler temperatures at the stratosphere which is caused by the heat trapping gases.
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