Debunking Climate Change Denial.

http://theconversation.com/five-climate-change-science-misconceptions-debunked-122570 (h/t to Consortium News).

1. Climate change is just part of the natural cycle

A study using 700 climate records showed that, over the last 2,000 years, the only time the climate all around the World has changed at the same time and in the same direction has been in the last 150 years, when over 98% of the surface of the planet has warmed.

2. Changes are due to sunspots/galactic cosmic rays

... there are two problems with this idea. First, the scientific evidence shows that GCRs are not very effective at seeding clouds. And second, over the last 50 years, the amount of GCRs have actually increased, hitting record levels in recent years. If this idea were correct, GCRs should be cooling the Earth, which they aren’t.

3. CO₂ is a small part of the atmosphere – it can’t have a large heating affect

 ... it only takes 0.1 grams of cyanide to kill an adult, which is about 0.0001% of your body weight. Compare this with carbon dioxide, which currently makes up 0.04% of the atmosphere and is a strong greenhouse gas. Meanwhile, nitrogen makes up 78% of the atmosphere and yet is highly unreactive.

4. Scientists manipulate all data sets to show a warming trend

 

5. Climate models are unreliable and too sensitive to carbon dioxide