Andrei Mihai Page 5
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)