The most recent news from Bonn, where the environmental conference is going
on, is increasingly showing all the aspects of a political dogfight rather
than any sort of calm, objective appraisal. America and Japan want
modifications to the proposal; the European Union is implacable in keeping
rigidly to the Kyoto Accord in order to show how macho it is.
Meanwhile, let us remind ourselves of what is known for certain about
global warming:
1. There is turbulence in weather patterns at the present time, but no more
severe than has occurred in the last one or two millenia.
2. CO2 content in the atmosphere has been going up due to fossil-fuel and
forest burning, but there is no precise knowledge of how the greatest
absorber of CO2 (surface micro-organisms in the oceans) will react to this
over the coming decades.
3. Satellite measurements of atmospheric temperature have been rock-steady
since 1973. By their nature, these measurements are fully representative of
the atmosphere of the whole planet.
4. Ground station temperature measurements are variable (mostly showing
warming) but are not representative of the whole earth, only the more
populated parts. Most of the earth's surface does not have ground stations.
Historic comparisons of ground temperatures in developed countries over the
past century (in one or two countries only) are not scientific because of
urban sprawl and warmer ambient temperatures.
Keith Hudson
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Keith Hudson, General Editor, Calus <http://www.calus.org>
6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England
Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727;
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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