Excellent summary article on the myths of climate change

I was delighted to receive in my e-mail inbox the New Scientist's newsletter. In it was a brief blurb and the link to Climate change: A guide for the perplexed, which clears up 26 misconceptions ("myths") and offers a guide to assessing the evidence.

 

Here are the 26 myths:

 

• Human CO2 emissions are too tiny to matter

• We can't do anything about climate change

• The 'hockey stick' graph has been proven wrong

• Chaotic systems are not predictable

• We can't trust computer models of climate

• They predicted global cooling in the 1970s

• It's been far warmer in the past, what's the big deal?

• It's too cold where I live - warming will be great

• Global warming is down to the Sun, not humans

• It's all down to cosmic rays

• CO2 isn't the most important greenhouse gas

• The lower atmosphere is cooling, not warming

• Antarctica is getting cooler, not warmer, disproving global warming

• The oceans are cooling

• The cooling after 1940 shows CO2 does not cause warming

• It was warmer during the Medieval period, with vineyards in England

• We are simply recovering from the Little Ice Age

• Warming will cause an ice age in Europe

• Ice cores show CO2 increases lag behind temperature rises, disproving the link to global warming

• Ice cores show CO2 rising as temperatures fell

• Mars and Pluto are warming too

• Many leading scientists question climate change

• It's all a conspiracy

• Hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming

• Higher CO2 levels will boost plant growth and food production

• Polar bear numbers are increasing

 

While it might be enlightening to the perplexed, I feel it will confirm the beliefs of people at opposite ends of the spectrum: those who believe in the anthropogenic cause of climate change will feel justified, and those who deny the anthropogenic cause will believe believe that the article is proof of mass delusion or of a conspiracy.

 

Well, I believe that 11,000 scientists can't be wrong…