Global
anomalies galore! So you’ve seen the biggest typhoon ever wreak havoc in the Philippines.
You’ve seen snow fall where it rarely, if ever, falls (Palhoça, Brazil).
You’ve seen deadly forest fires that killed 19 firefighters in Arizona and others that devastated part of the Yosemite natural park, killing thousand-year-old
sequoias, due to intense heat waves.
You’re scratching your head trying to imagine when and where the next
catastrophe will hit.
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| Destruction in Tacloban, Philippines from the typhoon Haiyan. Photo taken by French journal La Libération. |
All of the
events mentioned above happened in 2013, folks.
But how on
Earth can scientists still claim that this is perfectly normal and we’re not
experiencing any major global changes caused by human activity?
Here’s my
guide on how to become a climate skeptic in three easy steps. First, inform
yourself on all the major changes the Earth goes through that can cause climate
change. Second, learn how to deny and contradict arguments employed by
scientists on the opposite team, basing your facts scientifically. Thirdly,
ally yourself with important politics that will approve your claims and have economic
interests in proving/disproving climate change.
So! Buckle
up, this is a long one.
#1. Inform yourself about all the other processes
that can affect the climate
- Ice ages
In fact, the period between ice ages is so short, it’s called interglacial period. It’s much shorter than the ice ages. While each ice age lasts about 100 to 150 thousand years, the interglacial periods last only 20 thousand years.
So what we’re
living in today is nothing more than a brief interruption of the last ice age,
known as Würm here in Europe or the Wisconsin glaciation across the Atlantic
Ocean. Rises and drops of temperature
are normal during this period. In fact, a rise in temperature may mean that the
Earth is bracing itself for another ice age, not that we’re releasing enormous
amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere.
Influences
from outer space
- The sun
When we
hear about the Earth warming up, we tend to look up- with good reason. The sun
is Earth’s heat source and the greenhouse effect is what traps part of this
heat and keeps the Earth toasty. Any
changes in the sun itself would impact Earth’s temperature directly. As it is,
the sun does has its own cycles, one of which lasts around 11 years and is responsible
for boosting the solar “constant”, or the radiation factor that makes the sun
transmit more or less heat to Earth. Another longer cycle lasts from 80-200
years and gradually increases the constant maximum before bringing it back to
normal.
 |
| The number of sunspots are related to an increase in the solar constant and solar radiation that the Earth receives. Source: http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/images/ssn_predict_l.gif |
This isn’t
a great argument to use in climate-skeptology, because the period involved in climate change is too short to be taken into account. Unless you're ingenious and you want to show that
global warming nowadays is a result of the end of this sun cycle. Or maybe you’re
part of the group that denies climate change completely and you want to use
this argument to show that according to the number of sun spots recorded over
the last decade, the solar radiation is actually going down, not up. The great
thing about science is that you can pick your data according to your beliefs
and back it up with your own arguments, right?
- The Earth
Then there’s
the Earth’s position in outer space.
Everyone is familiar with the Earth’s two main rotations; one around
itself, creating day and night; and one around the sun that accounts for the
change in seasons. But there are three other processes that change which parts
of Earth are closer to the sun, commonly known as the Milankovitch cycles:
Precession,
or the rotation of Earth’s axes, as demonstrated by this video:
A complete rotation takes about 23 thousand years to be completed.
Axial tilt
or obliquity, which are responsible for the changes in seasons, but can also
vary over a long period (41 thousand years), as demonstrated by this video:
Eccentricity,
or the change in Earth’s eliptic orbit, as demonstrated by this video:
This takes
about 100 thousand years to be completed. All in all,
these many cycles have a major impact on Earth’s climate in the long term.
- Volcanoes
Next on the
anti-climate change menu is volcanic activity. Yes, volcanos have a major
impact on the planet. When a strong eruption reaches 12 to 18 kilometers in
altitude, it releases sulfur in the stratosphere. This will cause a layer of
reflective material that make the sun rays bounce back from where it came from,
and keep the Earth from warming with the greenhouse effect. Volcanic eruptions
such as Krakatoa in 1883 create harsh winters.
In fact,
releasing sulfur in the stratosphere is such a powerful combatant against the
greenhouse effect that a couple scientists have considered launching missiles
in the stratosphere to imitate what volcanoes do naturally.
- Ocean currents and wind
And last on
my non-exhaustive list of arguments are the changes in ocean currents, known as
El Niño and La Niña. El Niño is a transfer of heat from the Pacific Ocean towards South America, where there will be heavy rain fall. This will also cause droughts in Indonesia and
Australia. La Niña is the opposite, caused by strong winds that push this heat away from South America. The warm water is blocked near Indonesia and cold underlying water is forced to move
towards South America.
If you
compile all this data, you will have a great selection of what to choose to
prove those pesky scientists that it's ok to keep on polluting. Climate change is natural and not
caused by human activity at all.
And that,
my friend, is how you make a climate skeptic.
Keep tuned
for Part 2 on becoming a climate skeptic: how to deny global warming.
