Is Climate Change Real? (aka Global Warming)

Is Global Warming a Hoax? Is Climate Change real?

This is Part 1 of a 5-part series on Climate Change or Global Warming

It’s a question I’m asked a lot. Is Climate Change real? Together with:

• Does Global Warming really exist?
• Why are we increasing regulations and spending money on it?
• Why slow down business and economic growth?
• Why do people keep bringing up this climate change hoax?

So, here are some answers.

Scientists

Think back to when you were in school. Was there someone there who always said nasty things? No matter what you did, he or she always had something bad to say.

Well, scientists are a little like that nastiest person. It’s not that they’re nasty – it’s what they do, in order to make sure that theories are correct. Scientific research is not democratic – it’s a competitive process.

A scientific paper that has been “peer reviewed” means that other scientists have looked into it very thoroughly for any errors.  The “scientific method” consists of trying to disprove everything.

There is no greater glory in science than in proving that everyone else is wrong.  Any scientist who uncovers some previously unknown understanding of science gains international recognition and prestige, so it’s in their own interests to be critical and sceptical.

Is Climate Change real? It’s one of those theories that has been attacked from all sides, at all levels. There are astonishing incentives for every scientist to try to disprove climate change.

(Most climate scientists don’t really gain anything for agreeing with the data. In general, the pay is much better if you work for the fossil fuel industry and say that climate change is NOT caused by humans).

And in fact, most scientists (like most of us) would probably prefer that climate change was NOT happening.

After all, fossil fuels have brought us great progress and tremendous rises in our standard of living.

And that’s why it’s so overwhelming to have 97% of climate scientists say that climate change IS happening and IS caused by us.

Trust

It really comes down to trust.

Very few people spend decades learning climate science. That means that most of us don’t understand climate science. And that’s OK.

Suppose you were told you had serious heart disease. Would you go to the best cardiologist available? Would you find another cardiologist for a second opinion? You’d probably trust a cardiologist to cut you open, because they’ve devoted their lives to medicine and to saving lives.

Or perhaps you’d pick up some very general tips and tricks on social media or TV and hope everything will be OK. Perhaps you’d trust your buddy the electrician who tells you he knows it’s not heart disease, it’s just indigestion and it’ll go away…….

You rely on experts every day. When your mobile phone or computer works, you don’t question the science that made it possible.

When you get behind the wheel of a car, take a plane or buy something over the internet, you trust others to have built a complex system for you to use even though you don’t know exactly how it all works.

Because we simply don’t have the time to become an expert in everything.

Is climate change real? Why would anyone question the findings of the majority of scientists, yet never tell a doctor to “get stuffed” because he showed you evidence that you have a disease?

It’s just silly to disregard the consensus understanding of scientists who are experts in their fields.

The job of a scientist is to figure out how the world works, not to win the next election by saying what people want to hear. It doesn’t get much more trustworthy than that.

Yet we are expected instead to take the word of the relatively very few scientists who disagree, most of whom are funded by those who would lose billions of dollars if we switched over to renewable energy sources.

Climate science is complex. Climate scientists have spent their lives studying it. They’re experts.

And the experts say:

• Climate change is real and happening globally
• It is happening as a result of industrial activity by humans
• Climate change is certain to continue in the foreseeable future

US Senator Jim Inhofe offering a snowball as “proof” that global warming is a hoax, is definitely not an expert.

When you want to know about climate change, you trust the scientists, not the fossil fuel salesmen.

You should be skeptical of opinions from people whose livelihood depends on climate change not being true. Money and self-interest are powerful enough to blind anyone to the truth – even when there’s overwhelming evidence.

And Then, There Are The Animals

Plants, fish, birds and animals don’t think about science.

Is climate change real? They don’t care. They need to survive.

They know that their environment is changing. And they are changing to adapt to those changes. For example, some birds now migrate early – and some no longer migrate at all. Some animals have moved further north than they have ever been recorded before.

They’re not changing their behaviour because they’ve been fooled by a scientific hoax. They’re responding to something very real that’s going on around them.

We humans are less in touch with nature. We depend more on research (or perhaps on what the media and our friends tell us).

But What About Common Sense?

Climate science is complex and most of us are not experts.  So why do people say it’s “common sense” that climate change is a hoax.  It isn’t.

But there is one way we can use common sense in connection with climate change.  Consider this:

We humans have been belching pollutants into the air since the industrial revolution.

We dump huge amounts of contaminants everywhere – from plastic waste to spilled oil to litter to mining and manufacturing waste. We fertilize crops with chemicals which run off, we spray toxic pesticides, we force highly toxic chemicals into the earth for fracking, we strip forests and lop the tops off mountains to extract more resources.

That is an undisputed fact.

Many cities are choking with air pollution, we are running out of clean water and arable land, and we need more food and water for yet more people.

It’s common sense (as well as basic science) to realize that we can’t just continue to pump rubbish into the ecosystem and assume there’ll be no effects.

We live on a circular planet. When we throw things away, there is no “away”.

Of course there are consequences and effects when we use the Earth as a dumping ground. We don’t see them all, but they include pollution, health risks, environmental degradation – and climate change.

Is climate change real? Yes. The proof is in – climate change is real, it’s happening right now, and we humans are causing it.

What’s Next?

OK, what’s next?

• Why do people deny climate science? They have very good reasons! Click here.
• What can we do for energy without making climate change even worse?
• Sometimes, we don’t even see everyday climate change denial. Here’s what to do.
• Drawdown – 100 Practical Climate Solutions

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What do you think about global warming? Do you think climate change is real?Let me know in the comments below.

Warm regards,

P.S.  Don’t forget to download your free climate change report here!

Related:

• How many will you get right in this climate change QUIZ?
• Air conditioning and Climate change – the link you hadn’t thought of !