CLIMATE CHANGE --- Al Gore's inconvenient Truth

The message of my blog is that mankind's degradation of the land, sea and air is risking our extinction.

Since our atmosphere is the most fragile I accept Gore's warning as very much in harmony with my thinking.

Al Gore has been worrying about the environment since University. In I992 he published his concerns in The Earth in Balance a well received statement which I read at the time of publication.

He has continued his campaign and his current opus "The inconvenient Truth" which was built on a Power Point presentation which Gore has given hundreds of times all over the world.
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Gore presents evidence that Glaciers are melting at an alarming rate and that this has increased dramatically since 1970.

With the glaciers melting sea levels are rising and a possible rise of 20 feet will occur if the melting of the ice caps become catastrophe as it has at times in the past. Hundreds of millions are at risk.

He shows that the weather is getting warmer and more turbulent, with the humid regions getting wetter and the desert regions getting dryer.

I RECOMMEND EVERYBODY MAKE AN EFFORT TO SEE THIS FILM TO IMPROVE THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF GLOBAL WARMING.

Although I see the great body of facts presented by Gore as solid, when he gets into the science I question the validity of some of his statements and looking to the future he errors on being simplistic. MORE LATER.

CLIMATE CHANGE --- The Last 400 Years

There is abundance evidence the global temperature has been rising for the last 400 years starting with the end of the little Ice Age, a period when Sun Spots ceased for 50 years.

It is also worth noting that in the time of the Little Ice Age the population of the earth was well less than a billion, it has now increased almost ten times to over 6.5 Billion. At the same time the world has gone from fire wood, candles and moon light into the age of fossil fuels, air conditioning, and the 24 hour daylight of the electric light.

Most of the growth in the use of fossil fuels has occurred in the last 50 years.

QUESTION: HOW MUCH OF THE CURRENT WARMING IS MOTORED BY SOLAR FORCES AND HOW MUCH OF THE WARMING IS DUE TO THE ACTIVIITES OF MANKIND??? ?

Our answer that over the last billion years up to the end of The Little Ice Age (except for the great extinctions) solar forces were the driver for climate change on earth.

Now mankind may be the major driver ( see chart 2 as one possible view).

QUESTION: WILL THIS CONTINUE

QUESTION; CAN WE DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT???

We will leave these questions for another day

NUCLEAR WASTE ---- Grossly Over Feared

Please note that the above chart is in log-log scales.

The widely held public view is that it will be next to impossible to safely store the large quantities of this waste which will remain highly toxic for for 100,000 years.

Nothing is further from the truth but it serves the purpose of the anti-nuclear power environmental zealots to promote this fear.

Firstly, the quantities are not large.

Secondly, the toxicity drops very rapidly and 99% of the risk is gone in the first 100 years.

CLIMATE CHANGE --- Canada, The Worst of the Worst

Source of Chart: David Susuki

David Suzuki has a proud record of defending the environment.

It is noted the above chart is in b.t.u.s it is not clear if it is limited to the burning of hydrocarbons
or does it include nuclear, hydro etc.

It is not hard to explain Canada's position. Our great area, our colder climate, and our oil, gas, forest and metal production.

If the figures were assembled on a bias of our area they would be very different.

And argument can be made we should be thinking more like Australia.

In total we are about 2.5% of the world pollution.

CLIMATE CHANGE ---- A rebuttal to Gore

Source: www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/

Figure One -- Greenhouse by compounds
Figure Two -- Estimated greenhouse effect by doubling Carbon dioxide at various temperatures

The thrust of Al Gore's 'inconvenient Truth" is that man's carbon dioxide fumes and its greenhouse effect is driving climate change and unless we reduce the carbon dioxide we are headed for disaster.
This is the view on which Kyoto is now focused.

Figure One shows the greenhouse effect of various compounds. water with up to 4.0% of the atmosphere totals near 95% to the total, Carbon
dioxide with a mere .038% of the total volume varies between 4 to 8.0%
greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide is a minor player.
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Figure Two shows the effect of doubling carbon dioxide at various temperatures. It is noted that the lines are not exponential as the Kyoto buffs assume but flattens. Doubling CO2 in this century will add only another one degree C. ( The BBC is restarting their 200,000 computer model since their first assumptions have been demonstrated to be much too high, garbage in garbage out)

The thrust of this blog is that mankind has the power to take us into to extinction so therefore I am in part in step with Gore. But there are many other things that may be driving climate change other that increasing carbon dioxide such as urban sprawl, cutting down the rain forest. The list is endless.

The bottom line the science is complex not simple and in Canada the Feds are doing the right thing in pausing and trying to focus where we can get the most bang for the buck.

POLLUTION --- Carbon Dioxide, A Building Block of Life

Chart One --- The Carbon Cycle --- Chart 2 Carbon Dioxide over the last 500,000,000 years

Al Gore and many others are telling us that the sky is falling down and man made carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels is the major villain. HE MAY BE RIGHT!

Others (you worry too much type) disagree.
Carbon dioxide is not a poison but the bread of life.

We note that the Carbon Cycle keeps the system in balance.

We also note that in the time of the dinosaurs and early mammals
there was over five times more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than to-day.

From the above we can conclude that carbon dioxide can double or triple and we will still be here.