n Polar bears are not endangered by climate change because in fact their population “has exploded.”
n “The globe ... has cooled a little over the last decade or so.”
n “Five of the top 10 warmest years on record were in the 1930s.”
n Thirty-one thousand have signed a petition stating that increased levels of carbon dioxide have produced no deleterious effect on global weather, climate or temperature.
n Greenland got its name because the climate was once much warmer and the island much greener.
Each of these claims will come as a surprise to those of us who believe that global warming is a serious problem, but Rowell is quite confident: if you don’t believe it, Rowell says, “Look it up.” So I did. And here’s what I found:
n Polar bear numbers grew rapidly after non-Native hunting was banned in 1973. Prior to that time their numbers had been drastically reduced by hunting. More recently, several sub-populations have declined in Western Hudson’s Bay by 22 percent since 1987. On May 14, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne placed polar bears on the threatened species list due to dramatic melting of their sea ice habitat. (U.S. Department of the Interior).
n The average annual global combined land and ocean temperature rose by .08 degrees Celsius between the first half and the second half of the past decade (1998-2007). Between the entire past decade and the one preceding it (1988-1997), the same temperature measure rose by .21 degrees Celsius. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA).
n The highest annual combined land and ocean temperature since 1880 occurred in 2005, .63 degrees Celsius warmer than in 1934. In 1998, this temperature measure was .59 degrees Celsius warmer than in 1934. (NOAA).
n The five warmest years of the 1930s (1931, 1936-1939) were not as warm as any year since 1975. (NOAA).
n Thirty-one thousand people have apparently signed the petition that Rowell cites, but there is no assurance at all that they are scientists, let alone atmospheric scientists. You can read a list of the signatures at the Web site of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine; you will see that no signers’ positions or fields of expertise are identified and only a few list their academic degrees.
n Greenland was warmer and greener during the Medieval Warm Period (10th to 14th centuries), but this warming was apparently confined to the North Atlantic and not world-wide (NOAA; IPCC). In any case, no climate scientist denies that changes in climate have occurred historically or claims that all such changes are due to human activity. Rather, they have studied those changes in order to understand how human activity can affect the climate.
I wish David Rowell had followed his own advice and “looked it up” before he wrote his column. He might not have written it then, and we could get on with the task of dealing with the problem rather than dealing with those who obstinately deny the problem exists.
Richard Barrett is a University of Montana emeritus professor of economics. He writes from Missoula.
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