Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Orange to Green Newsletter

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That Old Dog Won't Hunt

Given the model that increasing CO2 causes the earth to heat up, one would suppose that “whern there is more carbon dioxide, the temperature gets warmer,” (as Al Gore said).

We know that CO2 is a greenhouse gas, but we also know that warm oceans are a source of CO2 and cold oceans are a sink. Researchers in at least two studies have reviewed the timing in detail at Vostok (Antarctic glaciers), using also data from Law Dome, and have found that the temperature changes occurred before the CO2 changes.

“High-resolution records from Antarctic ice cores show that carbon dioxide concentrations increased by 80 to 100 parts per million by volume 600 (plus or minus 400) years after the warming of the last three deglaciations.”

To put it fairly, but bluntly, to believe that CO2 was responsible for the deglaciations of the past 400,000 years is to believe in retroactive causality, that the future can affect the past. Other than in the movies (Back to the Future, The Time Machine), “that old dog won’t hunt”. In reality, temperature increases precede CO2 increases – not the other way around.