Andrei Mihai Read online

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  Overal , 90% of the planet’s excess heat is trapped by oceans.

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  Climate Change Denial

  The top 700 meters (2,300 feet) have increased in temperature by 0.4

  degrees Fahrenheit since 1969 -- which is particularly concerning

  because it takes much more heat to warm 1 liter of water than it

  does to warm the same volume of air. This is already affecting water

  circulation, global currents, and salinity, with devastating effects for

  marine ecosystems.

  c) ice sheets are shrinking: as you’d expect, rising temperatures are

  causing ice sheets to melt. Again, think of this as a long-term problem: if

  you were to look at things at a particular moment in time (say, summer

  vs. winter), you might be misled, but if you look at the big picture, the

  ice loss becomes clear. Data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate

  Experiment show Greenland lost an average of 286 billion tons of ice

  per year between 2012 and 2017. Antarctica lost about 127 billion tons

  per year during the same time period. The rate of Antarctic ice mass

  lossw has tripled[46] in the last decade.

  d) glaciers are shrinking: it’s not just ice sheets -- glaciers all around the world are receding, from the Himalayas to the Rockies and from

  Africa to the Alps. This phenomenon has also been linked[47] to climate change.

  e) CO2 & basic science: several greenhouse gases are significant, but CO2 is by far the most prevalent. Basic science tel s us that we’re burning

  a lot of fossil fuels and this process emits huge quantities of CO2, which

  is warming the planet.

  We have a fairly good idea of how much CO2 we’re emitting (we can

  also measure this from satellites): we’re adding a whopping 2.57 million

  pounds of carbon dioxide into the air every second[48], and that figure is growing. Atmospheric and oceanic measurements reveal that CO2

  content has increased by about 40% since the start of the Industrial

  Revolution in the 19th century. Furthermore, chemical analyses

  confirmed that the extra CO2 is indeed coming from industrial activities.

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  Climate Change Denial

  Moving on, basic physics tel s us that this extra CO2 traps heat through

  a process called the greenhouse effect. This has been projected,

  observed, and confirmed through various scientific models.

  f) advanced science: a single climate change study takes months or

  even years, and is carried out by experts who have dedicated much

  of their lives to studying these processes -- and since there are tens

  of thousands of such studies, you can imagine how much qualified

  effort was put into understanding this complex issue.

  In fact, there’s so much science on climate change that it used to be quite

  challenging to keep track of it al . That’s why the Intergovernmental

  Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 to review

  all the published literature and assess the planetary context. Their

  latest assesment[49] found that “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are

  unprecedented over decades to millennia.”

  Furthermore, they found that human influence on the climate

  system is clear, with an overwhelming probability (95%) that it is

  the dominating force around climate change. Outside of the IPCC,

  separate studies have found a consensus between studies on climate

  change hovering at around 97%[50].

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  Climate Change Denial

  Climate change deniers (boo!)

  With so much science to back it up, you’d expect global warming

  to be a settled debate, and people to focus on taking action against it

  -- but that’s far from how things stand. For decades, a campaign to

  undermine public trust in climate scientists has been carried out by

  groups with industrial and political interests -- a campaign that also has

  been documented by scientists [51] [52] [53]. Manufactured controversies, misleading media appearances, and outright lies have eroded public

  trust in real climate science, and as a result, much of the public is still

  being misled about climate change. From the oil lobbyist and Senator

  James Inhofe (who called climate

  change “the greatest hoax ever

  perpetrated against the American

  people” and brought a snowball

  Nowhere is this to Senate to “disprove” climate

  change), to the infamous Koch

  campaign as

  Brothers and other industry

  prevalent

  representatives who pour

  as in the US.

  millions of dol ars into funding

  conservative think tanks that

  promote climate change denial,

  much of the US administration

  and fossil fuel industry is riddled

  with climate change deniers.

  ExxonMobil, the world’s largest oil company, was shown to be aware

  about climate change since the 70s [54], yet they continue to fund climate change denial[55].

  It’s fitting that the US is the only country to back out[56] of the Paris Agreement to combat climate change.

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  Climate Change Denial

  Although things like homeopathy and anti-vaxxing can be just as

  dangerous and harmful to people, no other pseudoscience has been as

  aggressive, as pervasive, and as successful as climate change denial -- up

  until now. Things have slowly started to change, but there’s good reason

  to believe that they’re not changing fast enough.

  From the rising temperatures threatening countless ecosystems

  and human settlements to the ocean acidification and exacerbation of

  extreme weather events, climate change affects all of us -- every single

  creature on the planet.

  We can stick our heads in the pseudoscientific sand as much as we

  want, but that’s not going to help the situation.

  . . .

  At the end of the day, it’s up to each and every

  one of us to drive the change we want to see in

  the world -- and there’s no better foundation

  for change than science.

  . . .

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  Climate Change Denial

  Ending

  So, it seems we’ve reached the end of the book. If you’ve made it this

  far, we can only thank you for your patience and your interest.

  We don’t claim to have all the answers, and we’ve only scratched

  the surface here. We hope it will spur your curiosity and critical spirit,

  however-- the world sure needs more of that.

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  Climate Change Denial

  References

  (Climate Change Denial)

  40. Saffron J. O’Neill and Max Boykoff, (2010), “Climate denier, skeptic, or

  contrarian?“, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

  41. Judy P. Pu et al., (2016), “Dodging snowbal s: Geochronology of the

  Gaskiers glaciation and the first appearance of the Ediacaran biota“, Geology.

  42. Andrei Mihai, “Why climate change denial has almost no scientific

  credibility“, ZME Science.

  43. “HadCRUT4 global temperature dataset“, University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit.

  44. “GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP)“, NASA.

  45. “
Climate change: How do we know? “, NASA Climate.

  46. “State of the Cryosphere (SOTC): Mountain Glaciers“, National Snow & Ice Data Center.

  47. “World glacier monitoring service“, WGMS.

  48. Doyle Rice, “Global carbon dioxide emissions reach record high“, USA Today.

  49. The IPCC AR5 Working Group I, “Summary for Policymakers (SPM)“,

  part of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5).

  50. “The 97% consensus on global warming“, Skeptical Science.

  51. Riley E. Dunlap, (2013), “Climate Change Skepticism and Denial : An

  Introduction“, American Behavioral Scientist.

  52. Gayathri Vaidyanathan, “What Have Climate Scientists Learned from 20-

  Year Fight with Deniers?“, Scientific American.

  53. Pascal Diethelm Martin McKee, (2009), “Denialism: what is it and how

  should scientists respond? “, European Journal of Public Health.

  54. Neela Banerjee, “Exxon, The Road Not Taken“, Inside Climate News.

  55. Mihai Andrei, “9 out of 10 top climate change deniers linked with Exxon

  Mobil“, ZME Science.

  56. Andrei Mihai, “Trump puts USA against the world, withdrawing from

  the Paris Agreement“, ZME Science.

  Document Outline

  Foreword: the psychology

  of

  pseudoScience Which brings us to the question: how can we know what’s real and what’s snake oil?

  Why are we

  writing

  this? References (Introduction)

  Flat

  Earth Why aren’t planets flat?

  2,000

  year-old

  proof

  Magellan References (Flat Earth)

  Astrology

  Testing astrology

  Astrology studies

  The Carlson study

  Astrology Works, but only in rigged studies

  The Forer experiment

  More evidence

  of

  Paranormal Inactivity References (astrology)

  Homeopahy What about the practice? Absolutely implausible

  Homeopathy studies

  Why homeopahy seems to work Cautionary Tales A note on natural remedies References (homeopathy)

  Anti-Vaxxing Consequences of the vaccine scare Anti-vaxxers and the infamous Wakefield paper More Anti-vaxxers, more diseases References (anti-Vaxxing)

  So,

  what’s

  Detox*? Detoxing

  and

  science Want a detox? Just ask your liver A fad References

  (Detox)

  Climate change

  Surely Earth’s climate has changed before?! How do we

  know that

  climate change is happening? Climate change deniers (boo!)

  Nowhere is this campaign as prevalent

  as in the US. Ending References (Climate Change Denial)