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Refutation of Joanne Nova's Skeptics' Handbook Updated Jan 2010 |
Joanne Nova's Skeptics Handbook makes the "Burden of Proof" error, then homes in on four (actually five) points: 1. The Greenhouse signature is missing. This is a reference to the "missing hotspot". The argument is based on a misunderstanding of a set of atmospheric temperature patterns predicted by climate models. (Details) 2. In the ice cores, temperature rises precede CO2 rises That's because those ancient temperature rises had different initial causes. (Details) 3. No warming since 2001 Given the jitter in the measurements, a ten year period is too short to be meaningful. There have been other such brief plateaus in the last 100 years, yet the trajectory for the entire century is relentlessly up. (Details) 4a. Carbon dioxide is already doing most of the warming it can do No, it can do a lot worse yet, and it is already causing more warming than is acceptable. Even if the CO2 levels magically stopped rising now the world would continue to warm for some time, and there is already more CO2 in the oceans than is good for some very important marine life.
4b. CO2 levels were 10 times as high in the past, yet we had Ice Ages Yes, but not at the same time!
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