The assertion that a climate crisis is rapidly approaching due to excess carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is said to be based on science. This science is summarized in the statements of the major scientific soci...The assertion that a climate crisis is rapidly approaching due to excess carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is said to be based on science. This science is summarized in the statements of the major scientific societies. These statements, have motivated, governments, the media, and much of the public to commit to abandoning fossil, i.e. going to “net zero” at some time in the not-so-distant future, perhaps by 2050, 26 years from now. The claims of these scientific societies clearly have a profound impact on the government, the media and the public, and therefore the scientific basis for these claims needs to be frequently and rigorously reexamined by the societies, and scrutinized by the public. This paper illustrates some serious concerns regarding the claims of these societies. It is not difficult to question these claims by comparing them with actual data from well-established organizations such as NOAA and NASA. Furthermore, the claims seem to go against such well-established scientific laws as the Stefan Boltzman radiation law, and le Chatelier’s principle. If the statements of the societies overstate the danger, or are even incorrect, they may be motivating the United States, the western world, or even the whole world to make an enormously expensive and unnecessary transition to an energy infrastructure that is more expensive, less reliable, and more environmentally damaging than the one we have today. This article suggests that these scientific societies reexamine their climate statements with the goal of making them more moderate and more scientifically correct.展开更多
文摘The assertion that a climate crisis is rapidly approaching due to excess carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is said to be based on science. This science is summarized in the statements of the major scientific societies. These statements, have motivated, governments, the media, and much of the public to commit to abandoning fossil, i.e. going to “net zero” at some time in the not-so-distant future, perhaps by 2050, 26 years from now. The claims of these scientific societies clearly have a profound impact on the government, the media and the public, and therefore the scientific basis for these claims needs to be frequently and rigorously reexamined by the societies, and scrutinized by the public. This paper illustrates some serious concerns regarding the claims of these societies. It is not difficult to question these claims by comparing them with actual data from well-established organizations such as NOAA and NASA. Furthermore, the claims seem to go against such well-established scientific laws as the Stefan Boltzman radiation law, and le Chatelier’s principle. If the statements of the societies overstate the danger, or are even incorrect, they may be motivating the United States, the western world, or even the whole world to make an enormously expensive and unnecessary transition to an energy infrastructure that is more expensive, less reliable, and more environmentally damaging than the one we have today. This article suggests that these scientific societies reexamine their climate statements with the goal of making them more moderate and more scientifically correct.
