The Great Global Warming Debate is a documentary bt Martin Durkin,which aired on British TV in February of this year.The makers of this program dispute prominent scientific views on global warming and claim that it is,”The greatest swindle of modern times”.
At the core of this documentary is the belief that the idea that climate change is a direct result of carbon dioxide emissions,is a flawed one. One of the theories put forward is that the “Global Warming Industry”,is the reason behind the current media attention and government concern over climate change.He poses the question,”How many jobs are dependant on global warming?”.This Industry,he claims,is made up of scientists who are happy to go along with it as research funding is rolling in from the government,and environmentalists who promote the use of expensive solar power instead of cheap fossil fuels in third world countries such as Africa,which in turn hinders industrial development.
Some of the arguments to support his views are:
If you look at carbon dioxide levels in recent years and the correlation with an increase in global temperature,they do not match up.The temperature in the troposphere should be increasing faster if the global warming theory is to be believed,but sattelite and weather balloon data do not show this.
Carbon dioxide only makes up 0.038% of the atmosphere,and humans only contribute 1% of that a year,as opposed to volcanoes which emit more carbon dioxide than all the cars and factories in the world.
Carbon dioxide levels increase or decrease because of variations in temperatures.To put it another way,if temperature change is an egg and carbon dioxide is a chicken,then the egg came first!
The earths oceans absorb carbon dioxide when they cool and release it when warm,thus,changes in the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide follow changes in global temperature with a lag of about 800 years,as it takes hundreds of years for the changes in ocean temperature to occur.
Solar activity is more likely the cause of current climate change and is far more relevant than carbon dioxide emitted by humans.
The most important and perhaps less scientific piece of evidence is that the current warming trend is not a new phenomenon.The Medieval Warm Period or Medieval Climate Optimum,was a time of unusually warm climate in the North Atlantic Region from about 800-1300AD,during the European Medieval Period.This era proved to be prosperous and not the apocalyptic scenario that some scientists would have us believe.
After watching this documentary,you have to at least question the agendas and motives of the politicians and scientists who will not submit to the fact that their theories on global warming are flawed.Even if you do not agree with all that Martin Durkin proposes,it is nonetheless a very thought provoking documentary.