No Signatures on Stealth Denial Website
Here' s a chilling little website, a totally anonymous exploration of "science" that asks, hopefully, "Are we doing things that speed up this (climate) cycle or perhaps is global warming slowing the onset of the next ice age?"
The site is called "Is Canada Ready," and it seems calculated to make readers feel:
a) that climate cycles operate independent of human activity (read: it's not your fault); and
b) that we're on the verge of a global cooling catastrophe that we might prevent by continuing to pump CO2 into the atmosphere.
Absent any mention of a funding source or a single credentialed contributor, you have to take the site with a truckload of salt. But it looks relatively credible and assumes a moderate tone - a phony even-handedness - that seems intended to draw in the unwary.
So ... be wary.
By way of disclaimer, I am not funded by anyone other then myself.
---------------------- About Is Canada Ready.
I am not a climate modeller and I do not do climate research. I dont present "original" science or presume to tell anyone the "truth" about future climate changes. I do post references and links to legitimate research that I find and I do from time to time post opinions on what I feel are consistent results within the research community.
I started this website after an article appeared in Nature magazine in August 2005, titled "A late Eemian aridity pulse in central Europe during the last glacial inception" by F. Sirocko, K. Seelos, K. Schaber, B. Rein, F. Dreher, M. Diehl, R. Lehne1, K. Jäger, M. Krbetschek and D. Degering.
From the article: "Investigating the processes that led to the end of the last interglacial period is relevant for understanding how our ongoing interglacial will end.... Here we present ... a late Eemian aridity pulse lasting 468 years with dust storms, aridity, bushfire and a decline of thermophilous trees at the time of glacial inception. We interpret the decrease in both precipitation and temperature as an indication of a close link of this extreme climate event to a sudden southward shift of the position of the North Atlantic drift, the ocean current that brings warm surface waters to the northern European region."
Being a Canadian, I am concerned that very little research I can find is being done on what happened in parts of Canada during this same period. We are taught in school the importance of the North Atlantic drift on our climate and how the melting of the polar ice cap is driving the warm surface waters to the northern European region. Clearly this process cannot continue forever with or without global warming and at some time, the net melting rate will slow or stop and the question becomes: What happens next?
My concern can be summerized with the following questions:
1. Once most of the ice melts in the arctic, will the Atlantic ocean currents reverse as they have in the past?
2. Will the reversal of the ocean current trigger significant climate change in northern Europe and Canada as it has in the past?
3. Has the increased carbon emmissions delayed the ocean reversal by melting more ice in the arctic then previous interglacial periods or has it sped up the time when it will reverse?
Canada needs to know.
Ed Unverricht Editor - IsCanadaReady.com
Web Address http://www.iscanadaready.com
Web Blog and references http://gscrim.com/CS/web/blogs/is_canada_ready/default.aspx
Email Contact: info@webreader.net
I'm pasting a story from the Edmonton Sun (I was unable to attend the event):
Wed Nov 15, 2006 (Edmonton Sun)
Global Warming Hot Air?
Geologist disputes claims human activities heating the earth (by Eliza Barlow)
A northern Alberta geologist has embarked on a crusade to stop what he says is the madness of the prevailing wisdom that human activity is heating the Earth.
"The truth has to start somewhere," said Bruno Wiskel in an interview with the Sun yesterday.
Wiskel, who teaches a University of Alberta faculty of extension course, says climate change is an eons-old force that has nothing to do with people.
Current global warming, he said, has been going on for about 18,000 years, with glaciers retreating and sea levels rising ever since.
"If this happened once and we were the cause of it, that would be cause for concern," said Wiskel. "But glaciers have been coming and going for billions of years."
Wiskel's comments came a day after opposition MPs and environmentalists blasted as inadequate Canada's efforts to combat global warming.
A Bonn-based development group, Germanwatch, placed Canada 51st out of 56 countries that were assessed for their performance and policies on climate change.
Wiskel says climate change has gone "from a science to a religion" that preaches carbon dioxide from human activity is to blame for increasing temperatures - something with which he soundly disagrees.
He blamed people grubbing for research dollars for perpetuating what he says is a myth.
"If you funnel money into things that can't be changed, the money is not going into the places that it is needed."
Wiskel, touting his latest book The Emperor's New Climate: Debunking the Myth of Global Warming, teaches a U of A course called Building an Energy Efficient Home for Less. He started to research climate change while building a "Kyoto house" in which he now lives near Athabasca, about 150 km north of Edmonton.
He claims his house is 5,500 square feet and uses less than 10% of the natural gas that a regular home in Edmonton would use.
In building the house, he says, he was seeking to prove that Kyoto Protocol targets could be met by people making small changes in their lives, without touching industry.
Instead, he said he realized global warming theory was full of holes and "red flags," and became convinced that humans are not responsible for rising temperatures.
Wiskel is giving a free lecture on the topic on Friday, Nov. 24 at the Provincial Museum of Alberta, starting at 7:30 p.m.
I dont think this is supported. The article quoted below talks about the 100k year glacier/interglacier cycle running the last 34 million years. Prior to that, (34 to 55 million years) the earth was considerably warmer with no glacier periods and carbon levels 4 times our levels.
From the article: "Eocene bipolar glaciation associated with global carbon cycle changes" July/05 Nature Magazine
"A change in the state of Earth's ocean−climate system occurred at the end of the Eocene (55−34 Myr ago), when the 'greenhouse' climate that had been sustained since the Cretaceous period evolved to the 'icehouse' conditions characterizing the Oligocene epoch through to the present1"
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v436/n7049/full/nature03874.html