Paris Climate Accord, an Important Step Forward, But Are We Solving the Right Problem?
JACKSON, Wyo., Dec. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- While the leaders of 195 countries crafting the historic climate change agreement Saturday deserve praise for their foresight and hard work, they may have been blinded to the real cause of global warming by the laser focus of most climate scientists on greenhouse gas warming.
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"Throughout Earth history, sudden warming has occurred as frequently as every few thousand years. Warming typically starts suddenly and cools slowly," says Dr. Peter Langdon Ward, author of the just published book, What Really Causes Global Warming? Greenhouse Gases or Ozone Depletion? Ward worked 27 years with the US Geological Survey studying volcanoes and other natural hazards around the world.
"Sudden warming usually occurs when basaltic lava flows form over large areas," Ward continues. "Such lava flows deplete Earth's ozone layer, allowing more solar ultraviolet radiation to reach Earth, causing global warming. There is no obvious way for slowly increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases to cause frequent periods of sudden warming."
The largest basalt flow in 231 years formed around Bardarbunga volcano in Iceland from August 2014 through February 2015, covering an area of 33 square miles—the size of Manhattan—and causing 2015 to be the hottest year on record.
Dr. Ward presents his findings this week at the American Geophysical Union meeting—a gathering of 24,000 Earth scientists—in San Francisco.
"Global warming was significant from 1970 to 1998," Ward explains, "caused by manufactured CFC gases depleting the ozone layer and forming the Antarctic Ozone Hole."
"Greenhouse warming theory," Ward says, "has never been confirmed in the laboratory or in the field. Increased concentrations of greenhouse gases have never been shown experimentally to increase air temperature substantially. Narrow frequencies of infrared energy are absorbed by greenhouse gases, but the amount of heat involved is small."
That is why Dr. Ward issued The Climate Change Challenge last month, offering to pay $10,000 to the first person who can demonstrate experimentally that warming caused by greenhouse gases was actually greater than warming caused by ozone depletion.
Spending trillions of dollars reducing greenhouse-gas concentrations could have no significant effect on reducing global warming. Can we afford to make this mistake?
For more information, visit WhyClimateChanges.com, WhyClimateChanges.com/challenge/, and #WhyClimateChanges.
For an interview with Ward, contact Lonni Miller at 973-686-3660 or Email
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SOURCE Peter Ward
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