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Climate Change Myths and Educational
Resources
2010 Satellites Educators Conference
Ray Bradley, Univ. Mass. Amherst.
Increasing Disbelief of Global
Warming
Myth 1. No Scientific Consensus About Global
Warming

Most scientists agree
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World is warming & will
warm
Warming mostly due to
human activity (burning
fossil fuel - oil, coal and
gas – and destroying
forests)
Projections of rising
temperature, grave
enough to warrant
global action
http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/programs/atmosphereenergy/climate-change/cc-ten-myths.pdf
Myth 1 continued. American Scientists Don’t Buy It
19,000
SIGNED A PETITION
AGAINST IPCC’S VIEWS AND
THE NEED FOR THE KYOTO
PROTOCOL
 Petition sponsored by
Oregon Institute of Science
and Medicine and sent out
before Kyoto Protocol.
•www.huffingtonpost.com
www.petitionproject.org
Not everyone believes temperatures are rising
Myth 2. Temperature Increase is Good
Bates, et al. (2008) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, WG II (2007).

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Small average global temperature
changes lead to melting of caps. Small
temperature decrease of about 5 oC led
to last ice-age.
Water cycle will be impacted. Droughts
and floods intensify. Higher
temperatures increase evaporation rates
from surface.
Climate change occurring rapidly.
Plants won’t be able to adapt or
‘migrate’ north (Science Magazine).
http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/programs/atmosphere-energy/climate-change/cc-ten-myths.pdf
Myth 3. Because Carbon Dioxide Levels Are Low They
Cannot Not Greatly Influence Global Temperatures

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CO2 occurs in very
small or trace
concentrations
(ppmv = parts per
million by volume)
in atmosphere.
Since 1950, CO2
levels in
atmosphere have
gone up to about
370 ppmv –
Nature
Why Temperatures Increase-- Greenhouse
Gases

Allow sunlight to enter
atmosphere freely

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Sunlight hits surface and
reradiated to space

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mostly in visible light
wavelengths
As longer wavelengths of
infrared radiation
Greenhouse gases
absorb reradiated
infrared radiation
Heat is reradiated to
Earth’s surface.
Major Greenhouse Gases


Air made of mostly
oxygen (O2) and
nitrogen (N2) - two
atoms of same
element share
electrons
Infrared (heat) energy
radiated up from
surface can be
absorbed by these
molecules, but not
very well
www.chemistryland.com/.../Exp4Biodiesel.html
Dancing Molecules and Heat Rays!


Carbon dioxide (CO2)
and water vapor (H2O)
are different!
They have many more
ways to vibrate and
rotate, so are good at
absorbing and emitting
infrared (heat)
radiation
O
O
N
N
O
C
O
O
H
H
Molecules that have many ways to wiggle are
called “Greenhouse” molecules
Absorption spectrum of CO2 was measured by John Tyndall in 1863
Scott Denning Monfort, Colorado State University
The Greenhouse Effect
Are Greenhouse Gases Bad?

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No, not in excessive
amounts
Gases needed to heat
atmosphere
Without greenhouse
gases, atmosphere would
be 54oF colder
If too many gases,
atmosphere heats up too
much (i.e., Venus)
Myth 4. Climate Change is All Within Natural
Variability

Proxy data from
ice cores & tree
rings from ancient
forests give
baseline
temperature
trends and reveal
 Temperatures
are higher than
past 1000
years.
 CO2
atmospheric
concentration
has not been
this high for
420 000 years.
Source: IPPC. 2007. IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.
Myth 5. Ozone hole causes global warming
because it lets in more radiation.


Thinning of stratospheric ozone
layer caused largely by long-lived
chlorine and bromine
compounds,such as CFCs and
halons,
Restrictions on CFC leads to closing
of ozone hole. Skeptics believe this
will decrease global warming
NASA
Myth 5 Continued
http://exp-studies.tor.ec.gc.ca/e/ozone/OzoneDepletionClimateChange.pdf
IPCC

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Ozone hole=more incoming solar radiation=more warming?
Ozone allows visible light to pass through it (but not ultraviolet light). Visible
light from the sun is what causes the surface of the Earth to warm in the first
place.
Greenhouse gases absorb radiation from Earth’s surface to warm planet.
Myth 6. The Climate Models Aren’t Very Good At
Projecting The Future


Must rely on models.
Can’t manipulate one
variable related to
atmosphere and see
what happens.
Graph shows match
between observed
data and model using
a factors including
natural ones
(volcanoes, solar
radiation changes,
etc.) and human
induced (fuel
burning,
deforestation, etc.)..
Source: IPCC, Working group I, Summary for Policy Makers (SPM),
Third Assessment Report (TAR), page 11.
Myth 7. The Observed Warming Is All Due To
Solar Radiation Variability, Not Human Activity

According to
IPCC, the
warming effect
due to increases
of greenhouse
gases is
estimated to be
more than 8
times greater
than effect of
changes in solar
radiation.
Myth 8. Satellite Measurements Have Not Shown
The Warming Trends

Satellite temperature records show less
warming than surface temperature data or
even a cooling trend.
 A National Academy of Sciences ( 2000)
-- satellite data needed to be adjusted for
some measurement and calibration
problems.
 Adjustments bring surface and satellite
records into better agreement, both
showing a warming trend.
 Surface thermometers measure air
temperature at Earth's surface. Satellites
take temperatures of different slices of
the atmosphere, including the upper
atmosphere -- where the depletion of the
ozone layer has had a cooling effect -lowering the overall temperature trends
observed from satellites.
NOAA
Myth 9. Scientists/Environmentalists are
exaggerating in order to get more funding
Sample Resources
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http://climate.nasa.gov/
http://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov/
http://www.climate.gov/
http://www.ucar.edu/learn/
http://essea.strategies.org/
http://www.climatechangeeducation.org/k-12/index.html
http://www.sustainer.org/tools_resources/climatebathtubsim.ht
ml
http://www.earthday.net/footprint/flash.html
AMS Climate Course
http://www.dlese.org/library/index.jsp
To overturn the world economy based on the
musings of a few idiot leftist scientists is just
stupid, that’s what Global Warming is all about.
-Rush Limbaugh-
Questions