Global warming evidence questionable

I agree with Vincent Gray (NZ Skeptic 107), it is not possible to determine an average temperature for the Earth. However it is important to note that even the alarmists agree that the Earth is not warming and has not done so for about 17 years. The British Met Office even predicts it is not going to do so in the near future.

Michael Edmonds "believes there is more than enough evidence to accept that human actions are playing a significant role in climate change."

This is faith not science.

He follows with a set of assertions.

Edmonds claims verifiable changes in the environment are occurring. He lists: temperature rises (not true: see above), shrinking ice caps … Not true: it is claimed that the Greenland cap is melting - but the claimed loss is less than one percent per century. Ice cores show the Greenland cap did not melt when the temperature was much warmer than today. See various climate blogs; presumably Edmonds ignores these because they are sceptical. Antarctica is gaining ice.

Edmonds worries that pH changes due to CO2 "will affect sea life". Inshore pH varies through the day as photosynthesis proceeds but there is no trend. He claims there is a limit to how much CO2 the oceans can absorb. Evidence? The oceans are so strongly buffered that CO2 has negligible effect. The ocean basins are made of mildly basic rock.

CO2 absorbs and re-emits infrared photons, this should slow down their transmission through air. A greenhouse has little effect on radiation. It conserves heat by preventing convection. The idea of a 'greenhouse gas' is pseudoscience.

Jim Ring

Nelson