The claim
“You can’t protect the climate”
Climate change is and always has been a reality. However, humans and CO₂ have nothing to do with it.
Our conclusion
The climate has always been changing, so far true. But the concentration of CO₂ in the Earth's atmosphere has not been this high for millions of years, and every ton further fuels climate change. There is an almost linear relationship between cumulative CO₂ emissions and increasing surface temperatures.
Lies don't come true, no matter how many times you repeat them. A video is currently being shared in which man-made climate change is once again denied. A connection between increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and rising temperatures is also disputed. The arguments for this are old, have long been scientifically refuted and do not correspond to the consensus of current research on climate change.
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You're not allowed to talk about the topic?
Of course you can publicly express your opinion on climate change. But anyone who demands freedom of expression must also be prepared for contradiction. “Anyone who questions the fact that CO₂ is the big killer will immediately be hit with the big defamation machine,” says the interviewer in the video. Contradiction is not the same as defamation. And sometimes the real experts are tired of responding to claims that no longer contribute anything to research and necessary policy measures.
For example, on October 12, 2022 there was an expert hearing in the German Bundestag. The topic of the hearing was: “How poor countries can be supported in the event of climate damage”. All parties represented in the Bundestag had nominated experts for the committee in advance, including the AfD. And who is considered an expert? The parties decide for themselves, the ARD fact finder researched. And who is interested in the opinion of the AfD-nominated AfD member ? Nobody there, except the AfD. What could that be about? Quite simply because this expert missed the topic.
He denies the role of carbon dioxide in climate change and glosses over the actual, “significant problems of developing countries.” The real experts roll their eyes at his words, but there is little they can do because the format of “Question Time” does not allow for discussion. Couldn't matter, right? No, the debate is streamed live, a clip of the chatter ends up on social media and is diligently shared. The denial of man-made climate change has a stage and an audience in Germany. Unfortunately.
The climate alarmists are deceiving the public?
Appearance: Stage right, an emeritus professor of geography and author who works closely with the German flagship of climate change deniers, the European Institute for Climate & Energy. V.”. He believes that warnings about global warming only serve to scare people into submission. Because this is how a senseless CO₂ tax can be implemented. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) climate change models would make no sense. They are based on calculations by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, where no real climatologists work, only meteorologists.
However, these models are just a gimmick: “If you enter the appropriate data into the computer, you get what you need.” The results of the models depend on parameters entered, some of which would not be known: atmospheric circulation, variations in ocean currents. As counter-evidence, graphics are shown and discussed in the video, which you can immediately see are not up to date at all, e.g. those from Schönwiese 1997. What you can't tell at first glance is that the data is a lot older. They are based on measurements from ice cores in Greenland , which were published in 1969.
So who is trying to deceive the “public” here? Newer visualizations of global temperature developments can be immediately recognized by a visual peculiarity that has earned them the name hockey stick diagram : After a slow cooling beginning around the year 1000, the temperature curve jumps significantly upwards from around 1900. An illustration of Schönwiese in a publication from 1995 also shows the characteristic “hockey stick”. The incident known as Climategate , which is also discussed in the video, has not changed the basic knowledge: man-made climate change has been clearly proven by the measurement data.
Was it significantly warmer than today?
“The last warm period was significantly warmer than today. Even in historical times it was warmer than today. But the amplitudes are no longer as large,” the emeritus geography professor explains to us in the video. If you look at his graphics, you could almost believe that. The last warm climate was a while ago, when dinosaurs still lived on earth. The last warm period before today, called the Eem warm period, ended 115,000 years ago. Only the current one, the Holocene, made civilization possible. The jump in temperature around 12,000 years ago is clearly visible in Schönwiese's graphics. In “historic times”, i.e. since we have man-made records, it has never been so warm – see the “hockey stick” again.
And what about carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas?
“Do we currently have high CO₂ concentrations?” asks the interviewer in the video. The expert's answer: 420 ppm (i.e. 420 molecules of carbon dioxide per 1 million air molecules), which is very low. 50 years ago the value was already at 500 ppm, millions of years ago it was 7000 ppm. Are the values correct? No, the CO₂ content of the Earth's atmosphere was much lower 50 years ago. Since 1958, there have been regular records from Hawaii's Mauna Loa, known as the Keeling Curve . First reading back then: 315 ppm. Today, on December 9th, 2022, it is 417 ppm.
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Learn more
The temperature is increasing and the CO₂ content in the earth's atmosphere is rising. This is not an illusion, as the emeritus geography professor explains in the video. The connection is clearly proven. Figures in the annual greenhouse gas index from the American weather agency NOAA show clearly: greenhouse gases caused by humans have increased by around 50 percent, 80 percent of which are CO₂. The IPCC goes one step further and clearly shows that “there is a nearly linear relationship between cumulative CO₂ emissions and the increase in global surface temperature.”
Calculating the carbon cycle
Only three to four percent of annual carbon dioxide emissions are caused by humans, you can hear in the video. This leaves the remaining 96 to 97% for natural processes. These numbers are old; the human share is now around 5 percent . What happens to the carbon dioxide emitted?
After carbon dioxide (CO₂) is introduced into the atmosphere, it is first rapidly distributed between the atmosphere, the upper ocean, and vegetation. The carbon then continues to be exchanged between the various reservoirs of the global carbon cycle, such as soils, the deeper ocean and rocks. Some of these exchange processes take place very slowly.
Depending on the amount of CO₂ released, between 15% and 40% remains in the atmosphere for up to 2,000 years; Afterwards, a new balance is established between the atmosphere, the land biosphere and the ocean. Geological processes will take anywhere between tens and hundreds of thousands of years, and possibly longer, to further redistribute carbon into geological stores. Higher atmospheric CO₂ concentrations and associated climatic consequences of today's CO₂ emissions will therefore persist for a very long time into the future.
From the climate FAQ of the German Climate Consortium
The five percent contributed by humans may seem small, but they upset the complex balance of natural processes. We also have another problem: the natural carbon dioxide sinks can absorb less and less of the greenhouse gas. Forest areas are decreasing globally and the oceans are able to release less CO₂ at higher sea temperatures. This leaves even more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the temperature continues to rise.
CONCLUSION
The video uses false numbers to make false information plausible. Because there is a clear scientific consensus: global warming is man-made and the increased entry of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is primarily responsible for it. Every additional ton of CO₂ heats the earth further. Should we continue to watch this development or finally massively reduce emissions? We have it in our own hands!
More on the topic: The Climate Report 2021 – Unfortunately, record values in many respects
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