Complaint to Ofcom Regarding The Great Global Warming Swindle

2. Complete Transcript and Rebuttal

Page 45

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[Narrator]

There have now been several major ice core surveys. Every one of them shows the same thing. The temperature rises or falls, and then after a few hundred years CO2 follows.

[Dr Frederick Singer]

So obviously carbon dioxide is not the cause of that warming. In fact we can say that the warming produced the increase in carbon dioxide.

[Prof Ian Clark]

CO2 clearly cannot be causing temperature changes – its a product of temperature – its following temperature changes.

[Dr Tim Ball]

The ice core record goes to the very heart of the problem we have here. They said: if the CO2 increases in the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas, the temperature will go up. But the ice core record shows exactly the opposite; so the fundamental assumption, the most fundamental assumption of the whole theory of climate change due to humans is shown to be wrong.

[Comment 50: This accumulation of consecutive interviewee statements, taken together with statements by the narrator, amount to a highly misleading narrative coverage of the lag of historical CO2 increases behind temperature increases.

The CO2 lags temperature argument against anthropogenic global warming theory has been discussed in the literature and rebutted many times, for example see: http://tinyurl.com/2g4cq8 [UK Met Office], and http://tinyurl.com/27lfdu [RealClimate]. In order to demonstrate conclusively that the narration was apparently intentionally misleading, however, it is necessary to include a brief rebuttal here:

1.

The temperature of the Earth has fluctuated naturally and cyclically over many millennia. There are a number of known causes of these fluctuations, including changes to the Earths orbit and solar activity.

During the glacial periods, cyclical changes in the earths orbit (the Milankovitch cycles, see http://tinyurl.com/293grf [NOAA]) triggered warming.

When the oceans warm, their capacity to absorb CO2 is reduced. This leads to CO2 being expelled from the oceans, and atmospheric CO2 levels rising (as described by Carl Wunsch in the Channel 4 programme, see page 49). However, this process is usually very slow, hence the lag between the start of a warming period triggered by Milankovitch cycles, and the rise in atmospheric CO2 levels.

This increase in the levels of atmospheric CO2 – a known greenhouse gas – causes further increases of temperature, and thus further increases in the level of CO2. This feedback mechanism thus enhanced the initial relatively small (orbital) warming trigger.

2.

These warming periods lasted for 5,000 to 10,000 years, and for the majority of that time, temperature and CO2 rose together. While it is correct to say that CO2 did not initially trigger the warmings, CO2 was an important factor in the magnitude of the ultimate change.

Continued …


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Comment 50: Misrepresentation of ice core record]

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Page 45 of 176

Final Revision

Last updated: 11 Jun 2007