B S created by Al Gore

by Louis Scarlati
(Downers Grove Illinois United States)

All that this is, is Al Gore claiming that a process that has happened over Billions of years is a global issue.

The Earth always gets hotter and colder.

It is a cycle

Even if it is speeding up, it is because Al Gore and his supporters are filling the atmosphere with all of the hot air that hey exhale during their speeches.

Barry's Response - Yes, that joke has been made before. But you are correct about the cycles. See the ancient climates page for more about this.

There are many factors contributing to any climate change seen, whether this century or any other. Climate is always changing, usually swinging back and forth between two channel extents, but sometimes while trending to another new high or low. Kinda like the stock market.

It's only in the information/communication age (which includes network news back in the 60's and 70's) that we have become aware of changes in the environment that we consider sweeping. During the 60's and 70's it was a decrease in global temperatures that had global cooling pundits running wild. More recently, it's just the opposite. Imagine what will happen if a real crisis appears.

Any that hot air, a little film called An Inconvenient Truth, cause a lot of concern. It also caused a lot of awareness where it was needed. Now we can avert a problem, if needed, because we know about the potential for one to exist.

Let's dive into this a bit more...

Climate cycles have happened for millions of years

Ice ages, warmer interglacials, volcanic periods, even when CO2 levels were much higher. Earth's climate fluctuates naturally, but we're seeing a rate of change unlike anything we've ever seen. Put it this way:
- In the Pliocene Epoch, when sea levels were 10-20 meters higher and humans weren't around, CO2 levels were last this high (around 420 ppm).
- Unlike Milankovitch cycles, which affect Earth's orbit, tilt, and wobble over tens of thousands of years, current warming trends have only taken place over a century, and temperatures are rising 50x faster than they were post-glacial.
- Human CO2 emissions are only 1% of volcanic CO2 emissions.

Climate science wasn't created by Al Gore, but he presented it well. The research comes from thousands of peer-reviewed studies, NASA, NOAA, and the IPCC, and measurements dating back to Charles Keeling.

People often miss these points

- Over 90% of greenhouse gas heat is absorbed by the ocean, not the air, using sophisticated devices like Argo floats.
- Warming caused by natural solar cycles would warm both stratosphere and troposphere, but observations show the troposphere is warming while the stratosphere is cooling-a sign of greenhouse gas-driven warming.
- Scientists can chemically "fingerprint" carbon isotope evidence. As CO2 levels rise, carbon-13 and carbon-14 ratios decrease, which indicates the CO2 comes from burning ancient carbon, not natural processes.
- Changing bloom times, animal migrations, and habitat ranges are decades ahead of historical patterns.

We can calculate the Earth's energy budget every year, showing where the heat accumulates. So, yeah, the Earth has always changed. It's how fast it's changing, how clear the human fingerprint is, and how much more control we have now.

Increased awareness (whether from Gore's movie or broader education) gives us a chance to mitigate risks we now know are real.

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