Climate change activists held a Global Climate Action Summit [GCAS] September 13 and 14 in San Francisco. The speakers proclaimed they weren’t going to discuss the science because, in their view, it is settled. They are mistaken. In fact, science, based on careful study of historical evidence, contradicts the claims the activists are making. Their claims are not supported by careful analysis of the evidence.

The mainstream media (MSM) overwhelmingly support the narrative that manmade CO2 emissions are the main driver of global warming and the consequences for humans will be catastrophic:

• more severe hurricanes,
• more drought,
• an increase in sea levels sufficient to flood coastal cities,
• greater prevalence and severity of diseases such as malaria and yellow fever.

None of these claims is true. Activists are denying what good science is telling us.

Climate change realists, who are skeptical that anthropogenic (manmade) global warming [AGW] is a problem, do agree that:

• Climate change occurs. It always has and always will.
• Humans play some role, albeit a very minor one.
• Some slight warming has been occurring in recent decades.

I do not ask you to take these assertions on faith. Go see for yourself. Here are two links to information you should peruse here and here. If you do not have time to listen to the presentations or peruse the vast amount of information presented in the website, climatechangereconsidered.org, consider the following tidbits contrasting assertions made at the GCAS with historical evidence.

Claim: Global warming has increased the severity and frequency of hurricanes.
Facts:

• What we observe in recent years is no different from what has happened in recent decades and centuries.
• Globally, there has been no trend in the cycle of energy.
• CO2 levels have risen 50% from preindustrial levels to 410ppm (parts per million), but there has been a 50% decrease in major hurricanes (Class 3 or above) in the past 80 years.
• Warming is only one of many factors affecting the strength of a hurricane. Wind shear is much more important. High horizontal wind shear cuts the top off hurricanes, thus diminishing their energy.

Claim: It is warmer now since at any time since the last ice age.
Facts:

• The Earth has been warmer than today for 95% of the last 10,000 years. Temperatures today are not warmer than at any time since the last ice age.
• The hottest years since records have been kept were during the 1930’s.
• During the medieval warm period from 950 to 1250 AD, the Vikings were brewing beer in Greenland. Barley for making beer was grown where there is an ice sheet today.
• It was warmer around 1500BC in what is called the Minoan minimum.

In 1000 AD there was no ice at the north pole. We know this because carbon dated algae from that time were found at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Algae can’t grow without sunlight.

Claim: Rising CO2 levels are the main driver of global warming.
Fact:

• CO2 levels 440 million years ago in the depths of the coldest period in Earth’s history were 1100% of the atmospheric concentration of CO2 today.

Claim:Global warming is making people sick.
Facts:

• 9 times as many people die prematurely from excessive cold than heat.
• Temperature has little to do with the spread of disease.
• The greatest disease in history was the black plague which occurred in the 14th century when Europe was in a cooling period.

Claim: Global warming is killing polar bears.
Facts:

• In 1960 there were 5,000 – 6,000 polar bears in the arctic area.
• Today there are ~25,000.

Claim: The rise in sea levels will flood coastal cities.
Facts:

• No reputable study shows a substantial sea level rise. The sea level is not rising on a planetary basis.
• Where seal level change has been tracked near stable land masses, over the last 100 years the sea level has been rising six inches per century. Over the last 800 years the rate of increase per century has been constant at 6-7 inches.

Claim: Global warming is causing more and more severe droughts.
Facts:

• Droughts have been more prevalent during cold periods.
• Over the last several decades, there has been no increase in global droughts.
• Droughts have been less frequent and less severe in the recent years of the past century.

Claim: Computer models strongly support the “global warming with catastrophic consequences” narrative.
Facts:

• It is true that the foundation of the case for a global program to lower CO2 emissions rests on computer models. The problem is, they have proven to have no predictive value. If the models are wrong, the case for AGW falls apart.
• Computer models couldn’t predict the course of Hurricane Florence over a couple of days. It is ludicrous to expect they can predict climate change over the next quarter century.
• The only sure conclusion about climate change models is that they have been wrong. Since 1979, for example when the satellite records began, the models predicted a temperature rise of >1.0 o C. The actual trend was 0.2oC; after adjustment for the effect of volcanos, it was 0.1oC.

Claim: Scientists overwhelmingly support the catastrophic anthropogenic global warming hypothesis.
Facts:

• Climate scientists, including AGW skeptics agree that the climate is always changing and humans play a role. There is not a strong consensus, however, that global warming is harmful or even that global warming will persist.

The Global Warming Petition Project, aka the Oregon Project, had over 31,000 signatories, of whom 9,000 were PhD.s, in support of the following statement: There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth. That so many scientifically trained people would sign such a petition belies the idea that among scientists the claims of climate activists are considered settled science. Moreover, even if there were a consensus, that fact by itself would not prove the validity of activists’ claims. Both alarmist and skeptic alike must bow to the test of what hypothesis is best supported by evidence and good scientific analysis of root causes.

I hope these tidbits give you a feel for the huge amount of data that disconfirms the claims of climate activists. They are the true “deniers”. The climate change controversy has nothing to do with science and everything to do with power. The claims of climate change activists are devoid of science and devoid of supporting data, but they are useful as a means of promoting a global governance agenda by scaring the uninformed into believing that AGW is a serious problem requiring a global suppression by governments of fossil fuel usage. Such restriction necessarily requires further centralization of power in the hands of governments. The whole program is not just ridiculous, but tragic, because limitations on fossil fuel use and gargantuan expenditures addressing a non-problem condemn hundreds of millions of people to poverty.

Finally, let me repeat that I encourage you to dig into the data yourself. Take a look at ClimateChangeReconsidered.org as well as websites sympathetic to the man-made global warming narrative and decide whose points are best supported by the data.