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***Science Debate***
are legitimate scientists on the other side of the question. If you take, for example, a guy by the name of John Christy from the University of Alabama, who is very strongly
identified with climate change skeptics. That doesnt mean that his work is invalidated. He came out recently with a study that basically refuted the idea that theres been an observable shrinkage in the snow pack of the Sierra Nevada. And we talked to other scientists who do believe in anthropogenic or human-induced global warming and do believe that the Sierra snow pack is going to be shrinking, who thought that this study was sound. But thats one study in a sea of studies. And you
have look at the preponderance of the evidence and not at any one particular study, not any particular year, not even any particular ten years, because even a 10-year trend does not necessarily constitute climate change. BROOKS: What are some of the metrics scientists have looked at to come to the conclusion that human-caused climate change is real? MILLER: They study temperature records. There have been tidal gauges in place for a long time, looking at sea-level rise, and also augmented now by satellite data that measure with greater accuracy the rate of the rise. Theyve looked at things like ice cores from Greenland and elsewhere which gives us sort of a reverse chronological story of what the climate has done. And you can actually pull one of those ice cores and see the amount of C02 that was in the atmosphere at the time. And what they've found is what looks to be a pretty convincing relationship between the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the behavior of the Earths climate. BROOKS: But
there are some who refute that evidence? MILLER: Absolutely. Well get people frequently commenting on our blog who will say the sea level is not rising and that theres been no warming for the past ten years. As I already pointed out, ten
years of anything does not constitute a definitive pattern; its just too short a time span. Its this idea of cherry-picking data, which both sides accuse the other of doing. You have to look at the Earths climate over time as a really big, complicated jigsaw puzzle. And clearly there are pieces missing. And there are pieces sitting off to the side that arent missing, but we dont quite know how they fit into the puzzle yet. But still, you see enough of the picture to know whats going on. The science has yielded at least -- as Stanford's Chris Field of the IPCC puts it -- a blurry picture of the future. And the blurry
picture is enough to know the general direction were heading, even without knowing all of the specifics. BROOKS: Are there former critics who now acknowledge the reality of climate change? MILLER: Richard Muller would be a good example of that. Hes the physicist over at UC Berkeley who was identified with the skeptic camp for a long time. He wasnt buying a lot of climate change theory. He launched a temperature-data audit because he wasnt convinced that the temperature data being used by the IPCC and NOAA and others was accurate, that there were fundamental issues they were getting bad data, garbage in, garbage out.
Warming now-Laundry list Venkataramanan and smitha 11(Department of Economics, D.G. Vaishnav College, Chennai, India Indian Journal
of Science Causes and effects of global warming p.226-229 March 2011 http://www.indjst.org/archive/vol.4.issue.3/mar11-pages159-265.pdf KG) Increasing global temperatures are causing a broad range of changes. Sea levels are rising due to thermal expansion of the ocean, in addition to melting of land ice. Amounts and patterns of precipitation are changing. The total annual power of hurricanes has already increased markedly since 1975 because their average intensity and average duration have increased (in addition, there has been a high correlation of hurricane power with tropical sea-surface temperature). Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns increase the frequency, duration, and intensity of other extreme weather events,
Gonzaga Debate Institute 4 Warming Core such as floods, droughts, heat waves, and tornadoes. Other effects of global warming include higher or lower agricultural yields, further glacial retreat, reduced summer stream flows, species extinctions. As a further effect of global warming, diseases like malaria are returning into areas where they have been extinguished earlier. Although global warming
is affecting the number and magnitude of these events, it is difficult to connect specific events to global warming. Although most studies focus on the period up to 2100, warming
is expected to continue past then because carbon dioxide (chemical symbol CO2) has an estimated atmospheric lifetime of 50 to 200 years.
Warming extremely high and increasingcurrent action is key to solving Malcolm, University of Toronto, 2k (Jay Malcolm 9/2000 http://wwf.panda.org/?2143/Speed-KillsRates-of-Climate-Change-are-Threatening PB)
Boston, US: Global
warming represents a rapidly worsening threat to the world's wildlife and natural habitat . The increase of global temperatures seen in the late 20th century was unprecedented in the last 1,000 years. Professor Tom Crowley of Texas A&M University predicts that in the 21st century "the warming will reach truly extraordinary levels" surpassing anything in the last 400,000 years. New research by the conservation organization WWF indicates that the speed with which global warming occurs is critically
important for wildlife, and that the accelerating rates of warming we can expect in the coming decades are likely to put large numbers of species at risk. Species in the higher latitudes of the northern hemisphere, where the warming will be greatest, may have to migrate. Plants may need to move 10 times faster than they did at the end of the last ice-age. Very few plant species can move at rates faster than one kilometer per year, and yet this is what will be required in many parts of the world. The worst affected countries are likely to be Canada and Russia, where the computer models suggest that, on average, migration rates in excess of one kilometer per year will be required in a third or more of terrestrial habitats. High migration rates will particularly threaten rare, isolated or slow-moving species but will favour weeds and pests that can move, reproduce or adapt fast. The kudzu vine and Japanese honeysuckle are examples of nuisance plants in the US that will likely benefit from global warming. Conditions today make it far harder for species to move to new habitat than it was thousands of years ago. The last time the climate warmed anywhere near as fast as it is predicted to do this century, was 13,000 years ago when sabre-toothed tigers and wooly mammoths still roamed the earth and humans had just begun to populate the Americas. At that time the whole of human society probably numbered in the tens of millions and all were hunter gatherers. Farming and cities did not yet exist. Now,
the human population has swelled to six billion and vast swathes of habitat across the globe have been lost to urban development and agriculture. Any plant or animal that needs to move must contend with roads,
cities and farms. The WWF study shows that human barriers to climate-induced migration will have the worst impact along the northern edges of developed zones in central and northwestern Russia, Finland and central Canada. Large-scale range shifts will have a major effect on biodiversity if species are unable to move to find suitable conditions. For example, Mexico has the highest diversity of reptiles in the world because of its ancient, isolated desert habitats. However, several species, including the threatened desert tortoise may not be able to keep pace with the warming climate. In Africa, the nyala is vulnerable to expected habitat change in Malawi's Lengwe National Park, and scientists have predicted that South Africa's red lark could lose its entire remaining habitat. Reports of ecosystem changes due to recent global warming are already coming in from many parts of the world. Costa Rica's golden toad may be extinct because of its inability to adapt to climate changes; birds such as the great tit in Scotland and the Mexican jay in Arizona are beginning to breed earlier in the year; butterflies are shifting their ranges northwards throughout Europe; alpine plants are moving to higher altitudes in Austria; and mammals in many parts of the Arctic - including polar bears, walrus and caribou - are beginning to feel the impacts of reduced sea ice and warming tundra habitat. A
doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere has the potential to eventually destroy at least a third of the world's existing terrestrial habitats, with no certainty that they will be
replaced by equally diverse or productive ecosystems, or that similar ecosystems will establish elsewhere. Unfortunately, some projections for global greenhouse gas emissions suggest that CO2
will not only double from pre-industrial levels during the 21st Century but may in fact triple if action is not taken to rein in the inefficient use of fossil fuels such as coal and oil for energy production. Amongst the countries likely to lose 45 per cent or more of current habitat are Russia, Canada, Kyrgyzstan, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Uruguay, Bhutan and Mongolia. Bhutan and Mongolia in particular are havens for extraordinary wildlife riches to which climate change represents an alarming new threat. Local species loss may be as high as 20 per cent in the most vulnerable arctic and mountain ecosystems.
Fragmented habitats in highly sensitive regions including northern Canada, parts of eastern Siberia, Russia's Taimyr Peninsula, northern Alaska, northern Scandinavia, the Tibetan plateau, and southeastern Australia may be most at risk. Individual mountain species that may be under threat from global warming in isolated mountain habitats include the rare Gelada baboon of Ethiopia, the Andean spectacled bear, central America's resplendent quetzal, the mountain pygmy possum of Australia and the monarch butterfly at its Mexican wintering grounds. Many coastal and island species will be at risk from the combined threat of warming oceans, sea-level rise and range shifts, all of which can add significantly to existing human pressures. As can be seen from these examples, and the growing body of science, an alarm is sounding.
The rate of global warming may be a critical determinant in the future of the global biodiversity and we cannot afford to wait to reduce greenhouse gases. Urgent action is necessary to prevent the rate of change reaching a level that will be catastrophic for nature and which may bring about irreversible losses of our world's natural treasures.
Global Warming is real and anthropogenic multiple warrants. Romm 10 (Jon, Editor of Climate Progress, Senior Fellow at the American Progress, former Acting Assistant Secretary
of Energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Disputing the consensus on global warming, http://climateprogress.org/2010/06/16/scientific-consensuson-global-warming-climate-science/,)WZ A good example of how the consensus process confuses people especially the anti-science crowd, which gloms onto any apparent disagreement among scientists as evidence against the consensus can be found in two Dot Earth posts on Andrew A. Lacis, the NASA climatologist whose 2005 critique of the United Nations climate panel was embraced by bloggers seeking to cast doubt on human-driven climate change (Part I and Part II). Lacis had commented on the Fourth Assessment, There is no scientific merit to be found in the Executive Summary. WattsUpWithThat got all hot cool and bothered, writing, Remember, this guy is mainstream, not a sceptic. After pointing out the IPCC authors response, Rejected. *Executive Summary+ summarizes Ch 9, which is based on the peer reviewed literature, WattsUp wrote, Simply Astonishing. This is a consensus? Then Lacis explained exactly what he meant on DotEarth: Human-induced warming of the climate system is established fact. My earlier criticism had been that the IPCC AR4 report was equivocating in not stating clearly and forcefully enough that human-induced warming of the climate system is established fact, and not something to be labeled as very likely at the 90 percent probability level. And The bottom line is that CO2 is absolutely, positively, and without question, the single most important greenhouse gas in the
Gonzaga Debate Institute 6 Warming Core atmosphere. It acts very much like a control knob that determines the overall strength of the Earths greenhouse effect. Failure to control atmospheric CO2 is a bad way to run a business, and a surefire ticket to climatic disaster. Doh! He thought the IPCC consensus was some watered down, least-common denominator piece of wishywashiness that understates our scientific understanding, which it is. And that brings me to my Salon piece, which I excerpt below: The more I write about global warming, the more I realize I share some things in common with the doubters and deniers who populate the blogosphere and the conservative movement. Like them, I am dubious about the process used by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to write its reports. Like them, I am skeptical of the so-called consensus on climate science as reflected in the IPCC reports. Like them, I disagree with people who say the science is settled. But thats where the agreement ends. The science isnt settled its unsettling, and getting more so every year as the scientific community learns more about the catastrophic consequences of uncontrolled greenhouse gas emissions. The big difference I have with the doubters is they believe the IPCC reports seriously overstate the impact of human emissions on the climate, whereas the actual observed climate data clearly show the reports dramatically understate the impact. But I do think the scientific community, the progressive community, environmentalists and media are making a serious mistake by using the word consensus to describe the shared understanding scientists have about the ever-worsening impacts that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are having on this planet. When scientists and others say there is a consensus, many if not most people probably hear consensus of opinion, which can and often is dismissed out of hand. Ive met lots of people like CNBC anchor Joe Kernen, who simply cant believe that as old as the planet is that puny, gnawing little humans could possibly change the climate in 70 years. Well, Joe, it is more like 250 years, but yes, most of the damage to date was done in the last 70 years, and yes, as counterintuitive as it may seem, puny little humans are doing it, and its going to get much, much worse unless we act soon. Consensus of opinion is irrelevant to science because reality is often counterintuitive just try studying quantum mechanics. Fortunately Kernen wasnt around when scientists were warning that puny little humans were destroying the Earths protective ozone layer. Otherwise we might never have banned chlorofluorocarbons in time. Consensus of opinion is also dismissed as groupthink. In a December article ignorantly titled The Science of Gores Nobel: What If Everyone Believes in Global Warmism Only Because Everyone Believes in Global Warmism? Holman W. Jenkins Jr. of the Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote: What if the heads being counted to certify an alleged consensus arrived at their positions by counting heads?It may seem strange that scientists would participate in such a phenomenon. It shouldnt. Scientists are human; they do not wait for proof. Many devote their professional lives to seeking evidence for hypotheses, especially well-funded hypotheses, theyve chosen to believe. Less surprising is the readiness of many prominent journalists to embrace the role of enforcer of an orthodoxy simply because it is the orthodoxy. For them, a consensus apparently suffices as proof of itself. How sad that the WSJ and CNBC have so little conception of what science really is, especially since scientific advances drive so much of the economy. If thats what Jenkins thinks science is, one would assume he is equally skeptical of flossing, antibiotics and even boarding an airplane. (Note to WSJ: One reason science works is that a lot of scientists devote their whole lives to overturning whatever is the current hypothesis if it can be overturned. Thats how you become famous and remembered by history, like Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin and Einstein.) In fact, science doesnt work by consensus of opinion. Science is in many respects the exact opposite of decision by consensus. General opinion at one point might have been that the sun goes around the Earth, or that time was an absolute quantity, but scientific theory supported by observations overturned that flawed worldview. One of the most serious results of the overuse of the term consensus in the public discussion of global warming is that it creates a simple strategy for doubters to confuse the public, the press and politicians: Simply come up with as long a list as you can of scientists who dispute the theory. After all, such disagreement is prima facie proof that no consensus of opinion exists. So we end up with the absurd but pointless spectacle of the leading denier in the U.S. Senate, James Inhofe, R-Okla., who recently put out a list of more than 400 names of supposedly prominent scientists who supposedly recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called consensus on man-made global warming. As it turned out, the list is both padded and laughable, containing the opinions of TV weathermen, economists, a bunch of non-prominent scientists who arent climate experts, and, perhaps surprisingly, even a number of people who actually believe in the consensus. But in any case, nothing could be more irrelevant to climate science than the opinion of people on the list such as Weather Channel founder John Coleman or famed inventor Ray Kurzweil (who actually does think global warming is real). Or, for that matter, my opinion even though I researched a Ph.D. thesis at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography on physical oceanography in the Greenland Sea. What matters is scientific findings data, not opinions.
Gonzaga Debate Institute 7 Warming Core The IPCC relies on the peer-reviewed scientific literature for its conclusions, which must meet the rigorous requirements of the scientific method and which are inevitably scrutinized by others seeking to disprove that work. That is why I cite and link to as much research as is possible, hundreds of studies in the case of this article. Opinions are irrelevant. A good example of how scientific evidence drives our understanding concerns how we know that humans are the dominant cause of global warming. This is, of course, the deniers favorite topic. Since it is increasingly obvious that the climate is changing and the planet is warming, the remaining deniers have coalesced to defend their Alamo that human emissions arent the cause of recent climate change and therefore that reducing those emissions is pointless. Last year, longtime Nation columnist Alexander Cockburn wrote, There is still zero empirical evidence that anthropogenic production of CO2 is making any measurable contribution to the worlds present warming trend. The greenhouse fearmongers rely entirely on unverified, crudely oversimplified computer models to finger mankinds sinful contribution. In fact, the evidence is amazingly strong. Moreover, if the relatively complex climate models are oversimplified in any respect, it is by omitting amplifying feedbacks and other factors that suggest human-caused climate change will be worse than is widely realized. The IPCC concluded last year: Greenhouse gas forcing has very likely (>90 percent) caused most of the observed global warming over the last 50 years. This conclusion takes into account the possibility that the response to solar forcing could be underestimated by climate models. Scientists have come to understand that forcings (natural and human-made) explain most of the changes in our climate and temperature both in recent decades and over the past millions of years. The primary human-made forcings are the heat-trapping greenhouse gases we generate, particularly carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil and natural gas. The natural forcings include fluctuations in the intensity of sunlight (which can increase or decrease warming), and major volcanoes that inject huge volumes of gases and aerosol particles into the stratosphere (which tend to block sunlight and cause cooling). Over and over again, scientists have demonstrated that observed changes in the climate in recent decades can only be explained by taking into account the observed combination of human and natural forcings. Natural forcings alone just dont explain what is happening to this planet. For instance, in April 2005, one of the nations top climate scientists, NASAs James Hansen, led a team of scientists that made precise measurements of increasing ocean heat content over the past 10 years, which revealed that the Earth is absorbing far more heat than it is emitting to space, confirming what earlier computer models had shown about warming. Hansen called this energy imbalance the smoking gun of climate change, and said, There can no longer be genuine doubt that human-made gases are the dominant cause of observed warming . Another 2005 study, led by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, compared actual ocean temperature data from the surface down to hundreds of meters (in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans) with climate models and concluded: A warming signal has penetrated into the worlds oceans over the past 40 years. The signal is complex, with a vertical structure that varies widely by ocean; it cannot be explained by natural internal climate variability or solar and volcanic forcing, but is well simulated by two anthropogenically [human-caused] forced climate models. We conclude that it is of human origin, a conclusion robust to observational sampling and model differences. Such studies are also done for many other observations: land-based temperature rise, atmospheric temperature rise, sea level rise, arctic ice melt, inland glacier melt, Greeland and Antarctic ice sheet melt, expansion of the tropics (desertification) and changes in precipitation. Studies compare every testable prediction from climate change theory and models (and suggested by paleoclimate research) to actual observations. How many studies? Well, the IPCCs definitive treatment of the subject, Understanding and Attributing Climate Change, has 11 full pages of references, some 500 peer-reviewed studies. This is not a consensus of opinion. It is what scientific research and actual observations reveal. And the science behind human attribution has gotten much stronger in the past 2 years (see a recent literature review by the Met Office here). That brings us to another problem with the word consensus. It can mean unanimity or the judgment arrived at by most of those concerned. Many, if not most, people hear the second meaning: consensus as majority opinion. The scientific consensus most people are familiar with is the IPCCs Summary for Policymakers reports. But those arent a majority opinion. Government representatives participate in a line-by-line review and revision of these summaries. So China, Saudi Arabia and that hotbed of denialism the Bush administration get to veto anything they dont like. The deniers call this politicized science, suggesting the process turns the IPCC summaries into some sort of unscientific exaggeration. In fact, the reverse is true. The net result is unanimous agreement on a conservative or watered-down document. You could argue that rather than majority rules, this is minority rules. Last April, in an article titled Conservative Climate, Scientific American noted that objections by Saudi Arabia and China led the IPCC to remove a sentence stating that the impact of human greenhouse gas emissions
Gonzaga Debate Institute 8 Warming Core on the Earths recent warming is five times greater than that of the sun. In fact, lead author Piers Forster of the University of Leeds in England said, The difference is really a factor of 10. Then I discuss the evidence we had even back in 2008 that the IPCC was underestimating key climate impacts, a point I update here. The bottom line is that recent observations and research make clear the planet almost certainly faces a greater and more imminent threat than is laid out in the IPCC reports. Thats why climate scientists are so desperate. Thats why they keep begging for immediate action. And thats why the consensus on global warming is a phrase that should be forever retired from the climate debate. The leading scientific organizations in this country and around the world, including all the major national academies of science, arent buying into some sort of consensus of opinion. They have analyzed the science and observations and expressed their understanding of climate science and the likely impacts we face on our current emissions path an understanding that has grown increasingly dire in recent years (see An illustrated guide to the latest climate science and An introduction to global warming impacts: Hell and High Water).
Warming is real and human caused an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence Rahmstorf 8 (Stefan, Professor at the Postdam Institute for Climate Research, "Anthropogenic Climate Change:
Revisiting the Facts," http://www.pikpotsdam.de/~stefan/Publications/Book_chapters/Rahmstorf_Zedillo_2008.pdf) WZ This paper discussed the evidence for the anthropogenic increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration and the effect of CO2 on climate, nding that this anthropogenic increase is proven beyond reasonable doubt and that a mass of evidence points to a CO2 effect on climate of 3C 1.5C global warming for a doubling of concentration. (This is the classic IPCC range; my personal assessment is that, in the light of new studies since the IPCC Third Assessment Report, the uncertainty range can now be narrowed somewhat to 3C 1C.) This is based on consistent results from theory, models, and data analysis, and, even in the absence of any computer models, the same result would still hold based on physics and on data from climate history alone. Considering the plethora of consistent evidence, the chance that these conclusions are wrong has to be considered minute. If the preceding is accepted, then it follows logically and incontrovertibly that a further increase in CO2 concentration will lead to further warming. The magnitude of our emissions depends on human behavior, but the climatic response to various emissions scenarios can be computed from the information presented here. The result is the famous range of future global temperature scenarios shown in gure 3-6.50 Two additional steps are involved in these computations: the consideration of anthropogenic forcings other than CO2 (for example, other greenhouse gases and aerosols) and the computation of concentrations from the emissions. Other gases are not discussed here, although they are important to get quantitatively accurate results. CO2 is the largest and most important forcing. Concerning concentrations, the scenarios shown basically assume that ocean and biosphere take up a similar share of our emitted CO2 as in the past. This could turn out to be an optimistic assumption; some models indicate the possibility of a positive feedback, with the biosphere turning into a carbon source rather than a sink under growing climatic stress.51 It is clear that even in the more optimistic of the shown (non-mitigation) scenarios, global temperature would rise by 23C above its preindustrial level by the end of this century. Even for a paleoclimatologist like myself, this is an extraordinarily high temperature, which is very likely unprecedented in at least the past 100,000 years. As far as the data show, we would have to go back about 3 million years, to the Pliocene, for comparable temperatures. The rate of this warming (which is important for the ability of ecosystems to cope) is also highly unusual and unprecedented probably for an even longer time. The last major global warming trend occurred when the last great Ice Age ended between 15,000 and 10,000 years ago: this was a warming of about 5C over 5,000 years, that is, a rate of only 0.1C per century.52 The expected magnitude and rate of planetary warming is highly likely to come with major risks and impacts in terms of sea level rise (Pliocene sea level was 25 35 meters higher than now due to smaller Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets), extreme events (for example, hurricane activity is expected to increase in a warmer climate), and ecosystem loss.53 The second part of this paper examined the evidence for the current warming of the planet and discussed what is known about its causes. This part showed that global warming is already a measured and well-established fact, not a theory. Many different lines of evidence consistently show that most of the observed warming of the past fifty years was caused by human activity. Above all, this warming is exactly what would be expected given the anthropogenic rise in greenhouse gases, and no viable alternative explanation for this warming has been proposed in the scientic literature. Taken together, the very strong evidence, accumulated from thousands of independent studies, has over the past decades convinced virtually every climatologist around the
Gonzaga Debate Institute 9 Warming Core world (many of whom were initially quite skeptical, including myself) that anthropogenic global warming is a reality with which we need to deal.
Warming is anthropogenic Wood 10 Duncan Wood is Full Professor, Director of the Program in International Relations (Duncan, Environment,
Development and Growth: U.S.-Mexico Cooperation in Renewable Energies, 7/1/2013, http://www.statealliancepartnership.org/resources_files/USMexico_Cooperation_Renewable_Energies.pdf JJ)
The urgency of finding alternatives to fossil fuels has been confirmed in recent years by mounting scientific evidence that we
are undergoing a noticeable anthropogenic shift in the worlds weather and temperature. Not only are a range of indicators showing that the planet is warming, but the retreat of the polar ice caps, the melting of glaciers, and most importantly in the short term extreme weather conditions and increased incidence of natural disasters have highlighted the consequences of maintaining the status quo in our patterns of energy consumption and industrial development. It is estimated that we have
experienced a 1 degree Celsius rise in global temperatures over the past 100 years and that by the end of the current century global temperatures may have risen by as much 7 or 8 degrees. Even with
the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that is contemplated by the most ambitious mitigation strategies, global temperatures may raise by as much as 6%. This would have a dramatic and disastrous impact on both
developed and developing nations and will threaten the existence of both humans and animal and plant species. Though the connection between manmade greenhouse gases and global warming was denied for many years by industry and governments alike, it has now been accepted that something
must be done to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. Given that 86% of all global energy comes from fossil
fuels, and that these fossil fuels produce 27,000,000,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually, finding alternative sources of energy is a crucial component of climate change mitigation strategies.
Laundry list of indicators prove warming anthropogenic Shulman 10 (Seth Shulman, citing Benjamin Santer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Max Planck Institute for
Meteorology, Last updated: 7/15/10, "Global Warming Science and Impacts: Climate Fingerprinter," Union of Concerned Scientists, http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/science/climate-scientist-benjaminsanter.html) The key insight of the research is straightforward: the factors that might account for global warmingwhat climate scientists call "forcings"operate in different ways. For instance, Santer explains, if the earth's warming were caused by an increase in the sun's energy output, "you would expect to see warming from the top of the atmospheric column straight down to the surface." But if massive volcanic eruptions, say, were a significant factor, their influence would show up with a distinctly different
profile. When such eruptions occur, the dust they produce can reach upper portions of Earth's atmosphere, and remain there for several years. Because volcanic dust absorbs incoming sunlight, preventing it from penetrating to the earth's surface, the data would show cooling in the troposphere (the atmospheric layer closest to the surface) and heating in the stratosphere (the layer above the troposphere).
But, Santer points out, those two profiles are "not at all what the data show." His research, now replicated by many others, instead documents a telltale warming of the troposphere and cooling of the stratospherethe precise fingerprint that scientists since the 1960s had predicted would occur from the intensified "greenhouse effect" as increasing amounts of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel emissions built up in the atmosphere. Because of his groundbreaking work, Santer was selected as the lead author on a chapter of the 1995 report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). That year, for the
first time, the report said that "the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate." That measured statement has, of course, been dramatically strengthened in the latest IPCC report, which concludes that there is a greater than 90 percent likelihood that human activities have been the main cause of warming since the middle of the twentieth century. Santer's cutting-edge research led to widespread acclaim from his colleagues and earned him many accolades, including a MacArthur "genius grant," but his high-profile role in the 1995 IPCC report made him a target of those trying to stir up controversy and confuse the public about global warming. For instance, after the 1995 report was issued, an industryfunded group led an effort to discredit Santer personally by spuriously claiming that he had altered the IPCC's findings. He had not. "Nothing in my university training prepared me for what I faced in the aftermath of that report," Santer says of the vicious personal attacks by fossil-fuel interests. "You are prepared as a scientist to defend your research. But I was not prepared to defend my personal integrity. I
Fifteen years later, the evidence that human activity is causing global warming is stronger than ever and accepted by the overwhelming majority of scientists. Our understanding of climate fingerprinting has also become far more sophisticated and now shows human causation in the measured changes in ocean temperatures, Arctic sea ice, precipitation, atmospheric moisture, and many other aspects of climate change. Some of Santer's more recent work, for instance, addresses changes in the height of the tropopausethe boundary between the troposphere, the more turbulent lower layer, and the more stable stratosphere above. (Between 5 and 10 miles above the earth's surface, a marker of the tropopause can be seen in the flat, anvil-like top of a
never imagined I'd have to do that."
Gonzaga Debate Institute 10 Warming Core thundercloud.) Measurements over the course of several recent decades have shown that the tropopause has risen markedly. By studying tropopause changes in computer climate models, and comparing model output with observations, Santer was able to show that both the warming of the lower atmosphere and cooling of the stratosphere led to a rise in the height of the
tropopauseand that the observed rise in the tropopause matched the fingerprint of an increase in heat-trapping gases. "Nobody had looked at it before," Santer says, "but the data showed clearly that natural causes alone simply could not provide a convincing explanation for the observed change." All the climate
"natural causes cannot provide a convincing explanation for the particular patterns of climate change we see." That, he says, is why scientists "have come to have such confidence in our understanding of what is happeningnot because of the claims of any one individual, but because of the breadth of scientific work and reproducibility of the results."
fingerprinting research to date, Santer explains, has arrived at the same conclusion, namely that
Warming is anthropogenic - even if there are alt causes, human emissions are the biggest factor Fitzpatrick 6 (Melanie Fitzpatrick, Earth and Space Sciences and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of
Washington, 5/11/06, "Human Fingerprints," Union of Concerned Scientists, http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/science/global-warming-human.html)\
Background: Driving the Climate ("Forcing") Climate is influenced by many factors, both natural and human. [7] Things that increase temperature, such as increases in heat-trapping emissions from cars and power plants or an increase in the amount of radiation the sun emits, are examples of "positive" forcings or drivers. Volcanic events and some types of human-made pollution, both of which inject sunlight-reflecting aerosols into the atmosphere, lower temperature and are examples of "negative" forcings or drivers.
Natural climate drivers include the sun's energy output, aerosols from volcanic activity, and changes in snow and ice cover. Human climate drivers include heat-trapping emissions from cars and power plants, aerosols from pollution, and soot particles. Much as the Air Force develops computer programs to simulate aircraft flight under different conditions, climate scientists develop computer programs to simulate global climate changes under different conditions. These programs use our knowledge of physical, chemical, and biological processes that occur within Earth's atmosphere and oceans and on its land surfaces. Mathematical models allow scientists to simulate the behavior of complex systems such as climate and explore how these systems respond to natural and human factors. Fingerprint 1: The Ocean Layers Warm The world's oceans have absorbed about 20 times as much heat as the atmosphere over the past half-century, leading to higher temperatures not only in surface waters but also in water 1,500 feet below the surface. [8,9] The measured increases in water temperature lie well outside the bounds of natural climate variation.
Fingerprint 2: The Atmosphere Shifts Recent research shows that human activities have lifted the boundary of Earth's lower atmosphere. Known as the troposphere (from the Greek tropos, which means "turning"), this lowest layer of the atmosphere contains Earth's weather. The stable layer above is called the stratosphere. The boundary that separates the two layers, the tropopause, is as high as nine miles above the equator and as low as five miles above the poles. In an astounding development, a 2003 study showed that this tropopause has shifted upward over the last two decades by more than 900 feet. [10] The rising tropopause marks another human fingerprint on Earth's climate. In their search for clues, scientists compared two natural drivers of climate (solar changes and volcanic aerosols) and three human drivers of climate (heat-trapping emissions, aerosol pollution, and ozone depletion), altering these one at a time in their sophisticated models. Changes in the sun during the twentieth century have warmed both the troposphere and stratosphere. But human activities have increased heat-trapping emissions and decreased stratospheric ozone. This has led to the troposphere warming more because the increase in heat-trapping emissions is trapping more of Earth's outgoing heat. The stratosphere has cooled more because there is less ozone to absorb incoming sunlight to heat up the stratosphere. Both these effects combine to shift the boundary upward. Over the period 1979-1999, a study shows that human-induced changes in heat-trapping emissions and ozone account for more than 80 percent of the rise in tropopause height. [10] This is yet another example of how science detectives are quantifying the impact of human activities on climate. Fingerprint 3: The Surface Heats Up Measurements show that global average temperature has risen by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 100 years, with most of that happening in the last three decades. [1,2] By comparing Earth's temperature over that last century with models comparing climate drivers, a study showed that, from 1950 to the present, most of the warming was caused by heat-trapping emissions from human activities [3]. In fact, heat-trapping emissions are driving the climate about three
The spatial pattern of where this warming is occurring around the globe indicates human-induced causes. Even accounting for the occasional short-lived cooling from volcanic events and moderate levels of cooling from aerosol pollution as well as minor fluctuations in the sun's output in the last 30 years, heattrapping emissions far outweigh any other current climate driver. Once again, our scientific fingerprinting identifies human activities as the main driver of our warming climate. Human Causes, Human Solutions
times more strongly now than they were in 1950.
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AT: Bias
Scientists are unbiased and mostly agree that warming is real Bowman 94+ (Robert M. Lt. Cl., President of the Institute for Space and Security Studies, What About Global Warming?, http://www.rmbowman.com/ssn/warming.htm) KA
Naturally, if I didnt think it was real, I wouldnt be writing this paper. But the polluters and their mouthpieces (like Rush Limbaugh) claim its just a bunch of hot air. Fred Palmer of the Western Fuels Association (a front for coal and other corporate interests), for example, says, "Known apocalyptic global warming advocates, in their zeal to convince the world that the holocaust will be upon us unless we curtail our use of fossil fuels, compose conclusions which ignore actual observations. ... Satellites, that measure the worlds temperature so accurately that they can detect when the moon is full, find no warming whatsoever in their entire 18-year record." On the other hand, most of
the worlds scientists, acting through the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have reached consensus on the fact that Global Warming is real and is already happening. Dan Becker of the Sierra Club (a moderate environmental group) says, "Assertions that satellite records show no global warming are either misinformed or intentionally untrue. The reality is that the last 30 years have seen the warmest surface temperatures in recorded history, and they have been documented not by alarmists, but by responsible, unbiased scientists from NASA, NOAA, and countless universities and research institutions around the world. The average surface temperature of the first seven years of the 1990s is already higher than the
average for the entire decade of the 1980s (the 1980s had previously been the warmest decade in recorded history)." J. W. Anderson of Resources for the Future (a non-profit research group with environmental leanings) agrees that surface temperatures have risen a full degree since reliable measurements began, and that recent
Over two thousand scientists have now concluded that global warming is already changing our climate. 1995 was the warmest year since humans began keeping accurate
decades are the warmest since at least 1400. (Little is known about the earths climate before that time.) measurements of temperature. (Recent data indicates that it wont hold that distinction for long 1997 has been even hotter.) Scientists are documenting the rapid melting of glaciers. Snow cover is melting much earlier in the year. Ocean temperatures have warmed, sea levels have risen almost one foot, and the patterns of deep sea currents are shifting. Average surface temperatures in Antarctica have risen two degrees Fahrenheit since 1950. In 1994, warming temperatures caused a 48 by 22 mile chunk to break off from the Larsen ice shelf, exposing rocks that had been encased in ice for over 20,000 years. Permafrost in Alaska is thawing, threatening the oil pipeline, buckling highways, and causing other havoc. The ten hottest years in recorded history have all taken place since 1980! With the Sierra Club, the Natural Resource Defense Council, and scientists around the world, ISSS believes that the evidence is indisputable. Global Warming is real.
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AT: Idsos
Idsos are paid off Union of Concerned Scientists, 2007
(Responding to Global Warming SkepticsProminent Skeptics Organizations, http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/skeptic-organizations.html)
Greening Earth Society The Greening Earth Society (GES) was founded on Earth Day 1998 by the Western Fuels Association to promote the view that increasing levels of atmospheric CO2 are good for humanity. GES and Western Fuels are essentially the same organization. Both used to be located at the same office suite in Arlington, VA. Until December 2000, Fred Palmer chaired both institutions. The GES is now chaired by Bob Norrgard, another long-term Western Fuels associate. The Western Fuels Assocation (WFA) is a cooperative of coal-dependent utilities in the western states that works in part to discredit climate change science and to prevent regulations that might damage coal-related industries. Spin: CO2 emissions are good for the planet; coal is the best energy source we have. Affiliated Individuals: Patrick Michaels, Robert Balling, David Wojick, Sallie Baliunas, Sylvan Wittwer, John Daley, Sherwood Idso Funding: The
Greening Earth Society receives its funding from the Western Fuels Association, which in turn receives its funding from its coal and utility company members. Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide & Global Change The Center claims to
"disseminate factual reports and sound commentary on new developments in the world-wide scientific quest to determine the climactic and biological consequences of the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 content." The
Center is led by two brothers, Craig and Keith Idso. Their father, Sherwood Idso, is affiliated with the Greening Earth Society; the Center also shares a board member (Sylvan Wittwer) with GES. Both Idso brothers have been on the Western Fuels payroll at one time or another. Spin: Increased levels of CO2 will help plants, and that's good. Funding: The Center is extremely secretive of its funding sources, stating that it is their policy not to divulge it funders. There is evidence for a strong connection to the Greening Earth Society (ergo Western Fuels Association). Affiliated Individuals: Craig Idso, Keith Idso, Sylvan Wittwer
Idsos dont have a peer review they fill their work with meaningless jargon Union of Concerned Scientists, 2000
(Misinformation About Climate Science, February, http://www.ucsusa.org/ssi/archive/climate-misinformation.html) In an attempt to bank on the credibility science generally enjoys and to fight off accusations of making unscientific, biased claims, skeptics also pursue the idea "if you can't beat them, join them"if only in appearance. EXAMPLE: The
Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change This pseudo-scientific research center located in Tempe, AZ, who are also involved with the Greening Earth Society. In a position paper on global warming [13], the two authors (the only listed staff of the Center) state, "There is little doubt the air's CO2 concentration has risen significantly since the inception of the Industrial Revolution; and there are few who do not attribute the CO2 increase to the increase in humanity's use of fossil fuels. There is also little doubt that the earth has warmed slightly over the same period; but there is no compelling reason to believe that the rise in temperature was caused by the rise in CO2. Furthermore it is highly unlikely that future increases in the air's CO2 content will produce any global warming; for there are numerous problems with the popular hypothesis that links the two phenomena." The
authors then go on to flesh out these "problems" with scientific jargon, criticizing unscientific interpretations, and debunking claims never made by serious climate scientists. The "scientific" positions held by Center staff are not subjected to peerreview, and the Center's Scientific Advisors are mostly retired scientists without past or current research in climate-related sciences. It is not clear whether the CO2 Center is actually a separate entity from the Greening Earth Society.
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AT: Adaption
Adaptation isnt sufficient reducing emissions key Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, recently named the worlds top environmental think tank, 2011
(June 2011, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, Science FAQs, http://www.c2es.org/global-warmingbasics/faq_s/glance_faq_science.cfm, accessed 7/12/13, CBC)
However, different regions and sectors will differ in their ability to adapt. Natural ecosystems have inherent, but limited capability to adapt to climate change, which is further impeded by other human impacts to the environment such as development and habitat fragmentation. Even human societies, particularly developing countries, have limited resources to respond to the challenge of climate change. Poor countries and poor populations within rich countries will be disproportionately impacted by climate change because of their limited resources for adaptation. Some climate related impacts are difficult to adapt to. For example, extreme weather events, such as storms and floods, are not easily ameliorated by adaptation measures. By investing in the reduction of greenhouse gases, it will offset necessary investments in adaptation in addition to protecting against those adverse effects of climate change for which adaptation is particularly difficult. It isclear that responding to climate change requires both mitigation of greenhouse gases and adaptation to unavoidable change.
Uncertainty and limitation on tech prevent short-term adaptation Stern, head of the Government Economic Service and adviser to the Government on the Economics of Climate Change and Development, 2006
(Nicholas, Stern Review Report on the Economics of Climate Change, p. 413, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/media/C/2/Chapter_18_Understanding_the_Economics_of_Adaptation.pdf, accessed 7/12/13, CBC)
An inherent difficulty for long-term adaptation decisions is uncertainty, due to limitations in our scientific knowledge of a highly complex climate system and the likely impacts of perturbing it. Even as scientific understanding improves, there will always remain some residual uncertainty, as the size of impacts also depend on global efforts to control greenhouse gas emissions. Effective adaptation will involve decisions that are robust to a range of plausible climate futures and are flexible so they can be modified relatively easily. But there will always be a cost to hedging bets in this way, compared to the expert optimal adaptation strategy that is revealed only with the benefit of hindsight. There are clear limits to adaptation in natural ecosystems. Even small changes in climate may be disruptive for some ecosystems (e.g. coral reefs, mangrove swamps) and will be exacerbated by existing stresses, such as pollution. Beyond certain thresholds, natural systems may be unable to adapt at all, such as mountainous habitats where the species have nowhere to migrate. But even for human society, there are technical limits to the ability to adapt to abrupt and large-scale climate change, such as a rapid onset of monsoon failure in parts of South Asia. Sudden or severe impacts triggered by warming could test the adaptive limits of human systems. Very high temperatures alone could become lethal, while lack of water will undermine peoples ability to survive in a particular area, such as regions that depend on glacier meltwater. Rising sea levels will severely challenge the survival of low-lying countries and regions such as the Maldives or the Pacific Islands, and could result in the abandonment of some highly populated coastal regions, including several European cities.
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AT: China
China would model US action on climate change Gardner, correspondent on energy and the environment, 2007
(Timothy, Oct. 2, Scribd, Experts Say China Would Follow U.S. Lead On Climate, http://www.scribd.com/doc/30958756/Warming-General, accessed 7/12/13, CBC)
China would soon follow the U.S. lead if Washington agrees to tackle its emissions in the next few years because China's government takes the threat of global warming more seriously than the United States does , a climate expert said on Tuesday. "My impression is that the national government -- top level ministry officials -- in China regard the threats of global warming to their country with a much higher level of seriousness than their counterparts do here in the United States," said David Hawkins of the environmental group National Resources Defense Council. Hawkins, head of the group's climate center, spoke by telephone to the Reuters Environment Summit in New York. If the United States agrees to cut emissions deeply with a baseline that gets tougher over time, it would spur U.S. manufacturers to buildlow-emissions technologies like alternative energy and coal plants that store carbon dioxide underground. It could then market those technologies to the world, forcing China to act."The biggest carrot is to have the U.S. to take a leadership role," he said. "Then countries like China are going to say, 'What does the United States know that we don't know?' and agree to their own cuts," said Hawkins. Hawkins is based in Washington but visits China often, meeting with government ministers heading the country's science and technology, environmental protection, agriculture, and development reform agencies. He said they are very concerned about the possibility that global warming would lead to drastic cuts in water for agriculture.
China reducing emissions now Leader in many areas of renewable energy, multiple pledges to reduce emissions, and committed officials prove Coonan, reporter for the independent, 2010
(Clifford, Sep. 3, The Independent, China's renewed effort to clean up its act, http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/newenergyfuture/chinas-renewed-effort-to-clean-up-its-act2068595.html, accessed 7/12/13, CBC)
When it comes to environmental issues, China tends to generate negative headlines its badly polluted skies, its dirty rivers, and its melting glaciers are all images we associate with Chinas remarkable economic rise. What is less well known is that China is leading the world in adopting key green technologies to help to fuel the countrys economic boom. The central government in Beijing has set a target of generating 15 per cent of all electricity from renewable sources by 2020, and the effects of China going green will be felt all around the world. There is a lot to do. China assumed the mantle of the worlds largest carbon emitter from the United States in 2007, and its people are forced to live with the consequences of rapid industrialisation, mostly driven by burning fossil fuels. Coal provides nearly 70 per cent of Chinas energy needs, and this is not likely to end any time soon, but what is crucial is the mix of how China supplies its energy. According to REN21s 2010 Renewables Global Status Report, China added 37GW of renewable power capacity, more than any other country, to reach 226GW of total renewables capacity. Globally, nearly 80GW of renewable capacity was added, including 31GW of hydropower and 48GW of non-hydro capacity. China was the top market for windpower, doubling its windpower capacity for the fifth year in a row. China added 13.8GW of windpower, representing more than one-third of the world market up from just a 2 per cent market share in 2004. China has nearly doubled its hydropower capacity during the five years to 2009, adding 23GW in 2009 to end the year with 197GW. Moreover, more than 70 per cent of the worlds solar hot-water heaters are in China, and they are the main source of hot water for many households. In July, Chinas National Development and Reform Commission
Gonzaga Debate Institute 16 Warming Core announced an alternative energy planning programme which would invest 5,000 billion yuan (470bn) between 2011 and 2020, creating 15 million jobs in the sector. The plan was announced by Jiang Bing, the head of the National Energy Administration, who said the bureau envisages that, by 2015, natural gas would account for 8.3 per cent of energy, with hydropower and nuclear power jumping from 7 per cent to 9 per cent of primary energy consumption. Windpower, solar power and biomass would increase from less than 1 per cent now to almost 2.6 per cent of the total. There are other groundbreaking projects taking place. China installed the first major offshore wind project outside of Europe last year, adding 63MW by year-end for a project that reached 102MW earlier this year. Shi Pengfei of the China Hydropower Engineering consulting group believes China has the best and the newest wind turbines. By the end of 2009, Chinas total capacity of windpower operations increased by 92.26 per cent compared with the same period of 2008, Shi said. Although China adopted some muscular negotiating tactics at the Copenhagen summit on climate change, and some countries accuse Beijing of hijacking the talks, the smart money is on Chinas efforts to boost green technology and clean energy options. China has pledged to cut the intensity of carbon emissions per unit of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020 by 40 to 45 per cent against 2005 levels. While this will not cut the overall amount of emissions, it is a step in the right direction. Post-Copenhagen, China needs to continue its domestic efforts to improve green tech and sustainability, and Im confident it will. China should also see a strong demand for it to play a leadership role internationally, said Yang Ailun, the head of Climate and Energy at Greenpeace China. China is committed to developing clean energy because of all the domestic imperatives to do so. Its good for energy security and its good for economic development. Announcing a target was an effort to be seen as willing to do its fair share, Yang said. The Chinese government is investing serious resources to stop pollution, and binding reduction targets have been included in the central governments 11th Five-Year Plan to control the discharges of key water pollutants, such as chemical oxygen demand (COD) and sulphur dioxide. Chinas Vice-Minister of Environmental Protection, Li Ganjie, said in December if it achieves a reduction in these pollutants, this would result in a reduction of 250 million tons in CO2 emissions. Yang believes the main potential in clean energy lies in energy efficiency and clean energy technology. One area of particular interest is how to make more efficient cars China is already a world leader in electric cars. Other areas include wind energy, and solar energy, where China is already a top-three manufacturer. The solar market is mainly manufacturing for export but growth is slowing, so its now crucial for the government to give support for the domestic market, he said. Huang Min, the founder of the Himin Solar Energy Group in Dezhou, is on a quest to convince his fellow Chinese of the need to go green. China has already made a promise on emissions reduction. It shows China can behave like a big country and it shows the Chinese government is committed. This promise is not only a challenge, but a huge business opportunity. This pledge lifts China on to the global political and economic stage, said Huang. When it comes to issues of sustainability, China is too big to be ignored.
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AT: El Nino
El Nino cant explain warming your authors misfiltered data Cook, Penn State Metereology Professor, Professor of Environmental Science at Auckland University, and Climatic Researcher at University of East Anglia, 2010
(John, March 18, Skeptical Science, http://www.skepticalscience.com/peer-reviewed-response-to-mclean-elnino-paper.html, accessed 7/12/13, CBC)
A paper published mid-2009 claimed a link between global warming and the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (McLean et al 2009). According to one of its authors, Bob Carter, the paper found that the "close relationship between ENSO and global temperature, as described in the paper, leaves little room for any warming driven by human carbon dioxide emissions". This result is in strong contrast with two decades of peer-reviewed research which find ENSO has little influence on long-term trends. Why the discrepancy? A response has now been accepted for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research (Foster et al 2010) explaining why McLean 2009 differs from the body of peerreviewed research. First, let's examine how McLean et al arrived at their conclusion. They compared both weather balloon (RATPAC) and satellite (UAH) measurements of tropospheric temperature to El Nio activity (SOI). To remove short-term noise, they plotted a 12 month running average of Global Tropospheric Temperature Anomaly (GTTA, the light grey line) and the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI, the black line). The Southern Oscillation Index shows no long term trend while the temperature record shows a long-term warming trend. Consequently, McLean et al found only a weak correlation between temperature and SOI. Next, they applied another filter to the data by subtracting the 12 month running average from the same average 1 year later. The comparison between the filtered data for El Nino and Temperature are as follows: From this close correlation, McLean et al argued that more than two thirds of interseasonal and long-term variability in temperature changes can be explained by the Southern Oscillation Index. This result contradicts virtually every other study into the connection between ENSO and temperature variability, particularly with regard to long-term warming trends. Past analyses have found ENSO was responsible for 15 to 30% of interseasonal variability but little of the global warming trend over the past half century (Jones 1989, Wigley 2000, Santer 2001, Trenberth 2002, Thompson 2008). Why does McLean come to a different result? This question is examined in Comment on "Influence of the Southern Oscillation on tropospheric temperature" by J. D. McLean, C. R. de Freitas, and R. M. Carter (Foster et al 2010). Foster et al examine the filtering process that McLean et al applied to the temperature and ENSO data. This filtering has two steps - they take 12-month moving averages then take the differences between those values which are 12 months apart. The first step filters the high-frequency variation from the time series while the second step filters low-frequency variation. The problem with the latter step is it removes any long-term trends from the original temperature data. The long-term warming trend in the temperature record is where the disagreement between temperature and ENSO is greatest. Why do McLean et al remove the long-term trend? They justify it by noting a lack of correlation between SOI and GTTA, speculating that the derivative filter might remove noise caused by volcanoes or wind. However, taking the derivative of a time series does not remove, or even reduce, shortterm noise. It has the opposite effect, amplifying the noise while removing longer-term changes. To further illustrate how the filtering process increases the correlation between SOI and temperature, the authors construct an artificial "temperature" time series as -0.02 times the SOI time series. They then add white noise and a linear trend. This has the effect of creating a temperature time series with a long term warming trend. The correlation between the raw artificial temperature series and the SOI series is very low (R2 = 0.0161). However, when the McLean et al filters are applied to both time series, the correlation is now very high (R2 = 0.8295). This is because the filtering removes low frequency elements such as the long term warming trend. Despite the extreme distorting effect of their filter, McLean et al consistently refer to the correlations as between SOI and tropospheric temperature. They draw no attention to the fact that the correlations are between heavily filtered time series. This failure causes what is essentially a mistaken result to be misinterpreted as a direct relationship between important climate variables. Another interesting feature of McLean et al 2009 is a plot of unfiltered temperature data (GTTA) against the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) to
Gonzaga Debate Institute 19 Warming Core illustrate the quality of the match between them. However the temperature signal is a splice of weather balloon data (RATPAC-A) to the end of 1979 followed by satellite data (UAH TLT) since 1980. RATPAC-A data show a pronounced warming trend from 1960 to 2008 with the temperature line rising away from the SOI line. This warming trend is obscured by substituting the weather balloon data with satellite data after 1980. It is especially misleading because the mean values of RATPAC-A and UAH TLT data during their period of overlap differ by nearly 0.2 K. Splicing them together introduces an artificial 0.2-degree temperature drop at the boundary between the two. Unfortunately, the splicing is obscured by the fact that the graph is split into different panels precisely at the splicing boundary. This splicing + graph splitting technique is an effective way to "hide the incline" of the warming trend. It has been well known for many years that ENSO is associated with significant variability in global temperatures on short timescales of several years. However, this relationship cannot explain temperature trends on decadal and longer time scales. McLean et al 2009 grossly overstates the influence of ENSO, primarily by filtering out any long-term trends.
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The conclusion from both the IPCC and subsequent analyses is blunt and stark - immediate and dramatic emission reductions of all greenhouse gases are urgently needed if the 2 deg C (or 3.6 deg F) limit is to be respected. This scientific conclusion illustrates a key point, which is that it will be governments that will decide, by actions or inactions, what level of climate change they regard as tolerable. This choice by governments may be affected by risk tolerance, priorities, economics, and other considerations, but in the end it is a choice that humanity as a whole, acting through national governments, will make. Science and scientists will not and should not make that choice. After governments have set a tolerable limit of climate change, however, climate science can then provide valuable information about what steps will be required to keep climate change within that limit.
Slowing the rate of climate change buys us time to adapt Flavin, the former president of the Worldwatch Institute, an independent research organization focused on natural resource and environmental issues, Tunali, researcher for the Worldwatch Institute, 1996
(Christopher, Odil, June 1996, Worldwatch Institute, Worldwatch Paper 130, p. 43, CBC) To assist policymakers, several recent studies have begun to explore the limits within which the energy economy
will have to stay if the world is to be protected from overly rapid climate change. They show that it is the rate of warming as much as the absolute amount that will determine the scale of the human and ecological impact. While both people and natural systems may be able to adapt to slow change, they could be devastated by more rapid shifts, which are more likely to cause major disruptions.
Warming is not inevitable even if temporarily over the tipping point, CO2 concentration can be brought back down. Dyer, PhD in Middle Eastern history, MA in military history, and environmental author, 2008
(Gwynne, Jan. 1, Climate Wars, CBC)
There is no need to despair. The slow-feedback effects take a long time to work their way through the climate system, and if we could manage to get the carbon dioxide concentration back down to a safe level before they have run their course, they might be stopped in their tracks. As Hansen et al. put it in their paper: A point of no return can be avoided, even if the tipping level [which puts us on course for an ice-free world] is temporarily exceeded. Ocean and ice-sheet inertia permit overshoot, provided the [concentration of carbon dioxide] is returned below the tipping level before initiating irreversible dynamic change .... However, if overshoot is in place for centuries, the thermal perturbation will so penetrate the ocean that recovery without dramatic effects, such as ice-sheet disintegration, becomes unlikely. The real, long-term target is 350 parts per million or lower, if we want the Holocene to last into the indefinite future, but for the remainder of this book I am going to revert to the 450 parts per million ceiling that has become common currency among most of those who are involved in climate change issues. If we manage to stop the rise in the
Gonzaga Debate Institute 22 Warming Core carbon dioxide concentration at or not far beyond that figure, then we must immediately begin the equally urgent and arduous task of getting it back down to a much lower level that is safe for the long term, but one step at a time will have to suffice. I suspect that few now alive will see the day when we seriously start work on bringing the concentration back down to 350, so let us focus here on how to stop it rising past 450.
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Best data proves global temperature averages are higher now than the Medieval warm period NOAA, 2008
(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Aug. 20, National Climatic Data Center, "The Medieval Warm Period," http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/globalwarming/medieval.html, accessed 7/12/13, CBC)
Norse seafaring and colonization around the North Atlantic at the end of the 9th century indicated that regional North Atlantic climate was warmer during medieval times than during the cooler "Little Ice Age" of the 15th - 19th centuries. As paleoclimatic records have become more numerous, it has become apparent that "Medieval Warm Period" or "Medieval Optimum" temperatures were warmer over the Northern Hemisphere than during the subsequent "Little Ice Age", and also comparable to temperatures during the early 20th century. The regional patterns and the magnitude of this warmth remain an area of active research because the data become sparse going back in time prior to the last four centuries. The plot below, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (2007), shows numerous Northern Hemisphere paleoclimatic temperature reconstructions. The various studies differ in methodology, and in the underlying paleoclimate proxy data utilized, but all reconstruct the same basic pattern of cool "Little Ice Age", warmer "Medieval Warm Period", and still warmer late 20th and 21st century temperatures. In summary, it appears that the late 20th and early 21st centuries are likely the warmest period the Earth has seen in at least 1200 years. For a summary of the latest available research on the nature of climate during the "Medieval Warm Period", please see Box 6.4 of the IPCC 2007 Palaeoclimate chapter. To learn more about the "Medieval Warm Period", please read this review published in Climatic Change, written by M.K. Hughes and H.F. Diaz. (Click here for complete review reference). Discussion of the last 2,000 years, including the Medieval Warm Period, and regional patterns and uncertainties, appears in the National Research Council Report titled "Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Last 2,000 Years", available from the National Academy Press.
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Gonzaga Debate Institute 25 Warming Core century changes in temperature when they include all of the most important external factors, including human influences from sources such as greenhouse gases and natural external factors. The model-estimated responses to these external factors are detectable in the 20th-century climate globally and in each individual continent except Antarctica, where there are insufficient observations. The human influence on climate very likely dominates over all other causes of change in global average surface temperature during the past half century. An important source of uncertainty arises from the incomplete knowledge of some external factors, such as human sourced aerosols. In addition, the climate models themselves are imperfect. Nevertheless, all models simulate a pattern of response to greenhouse gas increases from human activities that is similar to the observed pattern of change. This pattern includes more warming over land than over the oceans. This pattern of change, which differs from the principal patterns of temperature change associated with natural internal variability, such as El Nio, helps to distinguish the response to greenhouse gases from that of natural external factors. Models and observations also both show warming in the lower part of the atmosphere (the troposphere) and cooling higher up in the stratosphere. This is another fingerprint of change that reveals the effect of human influence on the climate. If, for example, an increase in solar output had been responsible for the recent climate warming, both the troposphere and the stratosphere would have warmed. In addition, differences in the timing of the human and natural external influences help to distinguish the climate responses to these factors. Such considerations increase confidence that human rather than natural factors were the dominant cause of the global warming observed over the last 50 years. Estimates of Northern Hemisphere temperatures over the last one to two millennia, based on natural thermometers such as tree rings that vary in width or density as temperatures change, and historical weather records, provide additional evidence that the 20th-century warming cannot be explained by only natural internal variability and natural external forcing factors. Confidence in these estimates is increased because prior to the industrial era, much of the variation they show in Northern Hemisphere average temperatures can be explained by episodic cooling caused by large volcanic eruptions and by changes in the Suns output. The remaining variation is generally consistent with the variability simulated by climate models in the absence of natural and human-induced external factors. While there is uncertainty in the estimates of past temperatures, they show that it is likely that the second half of the 20th century was the warmest 50-year period in the last 1300 years. The estimated climate variability caused by natural factors is small compared to the strong 20th-century warming.
CO2 concentrations indicate this cycle is not natural IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2011
(Is the Current Climate Change Unusual Compared to Earlier Changes in Earths History?," https://www.ipcc.unibe.ch/publications/wg1-ar4/faq/wg1_faq-6.2.html, accessed 7/12/13, CBC)
Climate has changed on all time scales throughout Earths history. Some aspects of the current climate change are not unusual, but others are. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has reached a record high relative to more than the past half-million years, and has done so at an exceptionally fast rate. Current global temperatures are warmer than they have ever been during at least the past five centuries, probably even for more than a millennium. If warming continues unabated, the resulting climate change within this century would be extremely unusual in geological terms. Another unusual aspect of recent climate change is its cause: past climate changes were natural in origin (see FAQ 6.1), whereas most of the warming of the past 50 years is attributable to human activities . When comparing the current climate change to earlier, natural ones, three distinctions must be made. First, it must be clear which variable is being compared: is it greenhouse gas concentration or temperature (or some other climate parameter), and is it their absolute value or their rate of change? Second, local changes must not be confused with global changes. Local climate changes are often much larger than global ones, since local factors (e.g., changes in oceanic or atmospheric circulation) can shift the delivery of heat or moisture from one place to another and local feedbacks operate (e.g., sea ice feedback). Large changes in global mean temperature, in contrast, require some global forcing (such as a change in greenhouse gas concentration or solar activity). Third, it is necessary to distinguish between time scales. Climate changes over millions of years can be much larger and have different causes (e.g., continental drift) compared to climate changes on a centennial time scale. The main reason for the current concern about climate change is the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration (and some other greenhouse gases), which is very unusual for the Quaternary (about the last two million years). The concentration of CO2 is now known accurately for the past 650,000 years from antarctic ice cores.
Gonzaga Debate Institute 26 Warming Core During this time, CO2 concentration varied between a low of 180 ppm during cold glacial times and a high of 300 ppm during warm interglacials. Over the past century, it rapidly increased well out of this range, and is now 379 ppm (see Chapter 2). For comparison, the approximately 80-ppm rise in CO2 concentration at the end of the past ice ages generally took over 5,000 years. Higher values than at present have only occurred many millions of years ago (see FAQ 6.1). Temperature is a more difficult variable to reconstruct than CO2 (a globally well-mixed gas), as it does not have the same value all over the globe, so that a single record (e.g., an ice core) is only of limited value. Local temperature fluctuations, even those over just a few decades, can be several degrees celsius, which is larger than the global warming signal of the past century of about 0.7C. More meaningful for global changes is an analysis of large-scale (global or hemispheric) averages, where much of the local variation averages out and variability is smaller. Sufficient coverage of instrumental records goes back only about 150 years. Further back in time, compilations of proxy data from tree rings, ice cores, etc., go back more than a thousand years with decreasing spatial coverage for earlier periods (see Section 6.5). While there are differences among those reconstructions and significant uncertainties remain, all published reconstructions find that temperatures were warm during medieval times, cooled to low values in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, and warmed rapidly after that. The medieval level of warmth is uncertain, but may have been reached again in the mid-20th century, only to have likely been exceeded since then. These conclusions are supported by climate modelling as well. Before 2,000 years ago, temperature variations have not been systematically compiled into largescale averages, but they do not provide evidence for warmer-than-present global annual mean temperatures going back through the Holocene (the last 11,600 years; see Section 6.4). There are strong indications that a warmer climate, with greatly reduced global ice cover and higher sea level, prevailed until around 3 million years ago. Hence, current warmth appears unusual in the context of the past millennia, but not unusual on longer time scales for which changes in tectonic activity (which can drive natural, slow variations in greenhouse gas concentration) become relevant (see Box 6.1). A different matter is the current rate of warming. Are more rapid global climate changes recorded in proxy data? The largest temperature changes of the past million years are the glacial cycles, during which the global mean temperature changed by 4C to 7C between ice ages and warm interglacial periods (local changes were much larger, for example near the continental ice sheets). However, the data indicate that the global warming at the end of an ice age was a gradual process taking about 5,000 years (see Section 6.3). It is thus clear that the current rate of global climate change is much more rapid and very unusual in the context of past changes. The much-discussed abrupt climate shifts during glacial times (see Section 6.3) are not counter-examples, since they were probably due to changes in ocean heat transport, which would be unlikely to affect the global mean temperature. Further back in time, beyond ice core data, the time resolution of sediment cores and other archives does not resolve changes as rapid as the present warming. Hence, although large climate changes have occurred in the past, there is no evidence that these took place at a faster rate than present warming. If projections of approximately 5C warming in this century (the upper end of the range) are realised, then the Earth will have experienced about the same amount of global mean warming as it did at the end of the last ice age; there is no evidence that this rate of possible future global change was matched by any comparable global temperature increase of the last 50 million years.
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Recent evidence proves that when the Suns activity increases, it tends to cool the Earth ScienceDaily, 2010
(Oct. 7, ScienceDaily, Decline in Suns Activity Does Not Always Mean That Earth Becomes Cooler, Study Shows, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101006141558.htm, accessed 7/13/12, CBC)
The Sun's activity has recently affected Earth's atmosphere and climate in unexpected ways, according to a new study published in the journal Nature. The study, by researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Colorado, shows that a decline in the Sun's activity does not always mean that Earth becomes cooler. It is well established that the Sun's activity waxes and wanes over an 11-year cycle and that as its activity wanes, the overall amount of radiation reaching Earth decreases. This latest study looked at the Sun's activity over the period 2004-2007, when it was in a declining part of its 11-year activity cycle. Although the Sun's activity declined over this period, the new research shows that it may have actually caused Earth to become warmer. Contrary to expectations, the amount of energy reaching Earth at visible wavelengths increased rather than decreased as the Sun's activity declined, causing
Gonzaga Debate Institute 28 Warming Core this warming effect. Following this surprising finding, the researchers behind the study believe it is possible that the inverse is also true and that in periods when the Sun's activity increases, it tends to cool, rather than warm, Earth. This is based on what is already known about the relationship between the Sun's activity and its total energy output. Overall solar activity has been increasing over the past century, so the researchers believe it is possible that during this period, the Sun has been contributing a small cooling effect, rather than a small warming effect as had previously been thought.
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Warming over oceans disprove narrow urban heat island theory Revkin, senior editor of Discover, staff writer at the LA Times, and senior writer at Science Digest, 2007
(Andrew, Jan. 14, New York Times, Connecting the Global Warming Dots, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/weekinreview/14basics.html?_r=0, accessed 7/13/13, CBC)
If thought of as a painting, the scientific picture of a growing and potentially calamitous human influence on the climate has moved from being abstract a century ago to impressionistic 30 years ago to pointillist today. The impact of a buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is now largely undisputed. Almost everyone in the field says the consequences can essentially be reduced to a formula: More CO2 = warmer world = less ice = higher seas. (Throw in a lot of climate shifts and acidifying oceans for good measure.) But the prognosis and the proof that people are driving much of the warming still lacks the sharpness and detail of a modern-day photograph, which makes it hard to get people to change their behavior. Indeed, the closer one gets to a particular pixel, be it hurricane strength, or the rate at which seas could rise, the harder it is to be precise. So what is the basis for the ever-stronger scientific agreement on the planets warming even in the face of blurry details? As in a pointillist painting, the meaning emerges from the broadest view, from the balance of evidence, as the scientific case is described in the periodic reports issued by an enormous international network of experts: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, www.ipcc.ch. The main findings of the panels fourth assessment since 1990 will be released in Paris on Feb. 2. In the panels last report, issued in 2001, and in more recent studies reviewed for the coming report, various trends provide clues that human activity, rather than natural phenomena, probably caused most of the recent warming. A number of trends have been identified:The global average minimum nighttime temperature has risen. (This is unlikely to be caused by some variability in the sun, for example, and appears linked to the greenhouse gases that hold in heat radiating from the earths surface, even after the sun has gone down.)The stratosphere, high above the earths surface, has cooled, which is an expected outcome of having more heat trapped by the gases closer to the surface, in the troposphere. (Scientists say that variations in the suns output, for example, would instead cause similar trends in the two atmospheric layers instead of opposite ones.)There has been a parallel warming trend over land and oceans. (In other words, the increase in the amount of heat-trapping asphalt cannot be the only culprit.) Theres no urbanization going on on the ocean, said Jay Lawrimore, chief of the climate monitoring branch of the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. Another important finding comes from computer simulations of the climate system. While the several dozen top models remain rough approximations, they have become progressively better at replicating climate patterns, past and present. In the models, the only way to replicate the remarkable warming, and extraordinary Arctic
Gonzaga Debate Institute 30 Warming Core warming, of recent decades is to add greenhouse gases as people have been doing, Dr. Lawrimore said. Without the greenhouse gases, he said, you just dont get what weve observed.
The Urban Heat Island Effect is not relevant to warming trends Muller, professor of physics at Berkely, 2011
(Richard, Mar. 31, Climate Change Policy Issues, CQ Congressional Testimony, Lexis, CBC)
Let me now address the problem of Poor Temperature Station Quality Many temperature stations in the U.S. are located near buildings, in parking lots, or close to heat sources. Anthony Watts and his team has shown that most of the current stations in the US Historical Climatology Network would be ranked "poor" by NOAA's own standards, with error uncertainties up to 5 degrees C. Did such poor station quality exaggerate the estimates of global warming? We've studied this issue, and our preliminary answer is no. The Berkeley Earth analysis shows that over the past 50 years the poor stations in the U.S. network do not show greater warming than do the good stations. Thus, although poor station quality might affect absolute temperature, it does not appear to affect trends, and for global warming estimates, the trend is what is important. Our key caveat is that our results are preliminary and have not yet been published in a peer reviewed
journal. We have begun that process of submitting a paper to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, and we are preparing several additional papers for publication elsewhere. NOAA has already published a similar conclusion - that station quality bias did not affect estimates of global warming based on a smaller set of stations, and Anthony Anthony Watts and his team have a paper submitted, which is in late stage peer review, using over 1000 stations, but it has not yet been accepted for publication and I am not at liberty to discuss their conclusions and how they might differ. We have looked only at average temperature changes, and additional data needs to be studied, to look at (for example) changes in maximum and minimum temperatures. In fact, in our preliminary analysis the good stations report more warming in the U.S. than the poor stations by 0.009 0.009 degrees per decade, opposite to what might be expected, but also consistent with zero. We are currently checking these results and performing the calculation in several different ways. But we are consistently finding that there is no enhancement of global warming trends due to the inclusion of the poorly ranked US stations.
The Urban Heat Island Effect has zero influence on climate modeling studies prove Archer, professor of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago, 2008
(David, Oct. 6, The Long Thaw, pg. 32, CBC)
One oft-discussed issue with regard to the reconstruction of average temperature is called the urban heat island effect. Paved land is measurably warmer than vegetated land, no doubt about it, because vegetated land cools by evaporation. The question is whether any warming in the computed average temperature could actually be the urban heat island effect instead of global warming. Hot urban centers are part of the Earth, and they do contribute to the average temperature of the Earth, but their warmth is not caused by rising CO2 concentration. The easiest solution is to throw out urban data, by picking it out by hand, to leave the average temperature of the non-urban Earth. This is a subjective, imprecise task, but replicate studies find that it makes little difference to the global average whether urban areas are excluded or not. It turns out to be a non-issue. Independent, competing studies produce very similarlooking global average land temperature records, regardless of how they deal with urban heat island effects (Figure 4). So unless someone comes up with believable proof that the urban heat island is important, we'll not worry about it.
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AT: Volcanoes
Volcanoes are comparatively irrelevant to global warming humans emit over a 100 times more CO2 Gerlach, geologist at the USGS, 2010
(Terry, June 30, Earth Magazine, Voices: Volcanic versus anthropogenic carbon dioxide: The missing science, http://www.earthmagazine.org/earth/article/371-7da-7-1e, accessed 7/13/13, CBC)
Volcanoes add far more carbon dioxide to the oceans and atmosphere than humans. So says geologist Ian Plimer of the University of Adelaide in his 2009 best seller Heaven and Earth: Global Warming the Missing Science. With this assertion, Plimer brings volcanic carbon dioxide degassing front and center in the climate change debate, reviving and reinforcing this wildly mistaken notion. Although discussions of volcanic carbon dioxide emissions make up less than 5 percent of Heaven and Earths text, the alleged predominance of volcanic over human carbon dioxide emissions is one of its most publicized takeaway messages. And one that will reverberate in the media and blogosphere no matter how vociferously professionals who investigate volcanic carbon dioxide emissions bristle and huff about how appallingly at odds Plimers claim is with our research findings. The treatment of volcanic versus anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions in this book illustrates one of the pathways by which myths, misrepresentations and spurious information get injected into the climate change debate. Like several climate skeptic publications, blogs and websites, Heaven and Earth does not provide the published estimates of the present-day global carbon dioxide emission rate from volcanoes. These estimates are, ironically, the missing science of a book professing to rectify supposed excesses of missing science a book that appears impressively authoritative by citing a mountain of scientific literature. Several studies containing these estimates are among its 2,311 citations, but the estimates themselves are never divulged. Moreover, the book and other purveyors of this myth never explain, nor cite sources that explain, how it is known that volcanoes wholly outdo humans in adding carbon dioxide to the oceans and atmosphere. Published estimates based on research findings of the past 30 years for present-day global emission rates of carbon dioxide from subaerial and submarine volcanoes range from about 150 million to 270 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, with an average of about 200 million metric tons, These global volcanic estimates are utterly dwarfed by carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning, cement production, gas flaring and land use changes ; these emissions accounted for some 36,300 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2008, according to an international study published in the December 2009 issue of Nature Geoscience. Even if you take the highest estimate of volcanic carbon dioxide emissions, at 270 million metric tons per year, human-emitted carbon dioxide levels are more than 130 times higher than volcanic emissions. Occasionally, scaled-down versions of the myth surface for example, Volcanoes produce more carbon dioxide than the worlds cars and industries combined. The truth is that data from the Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the International Energy Agency indicate that light-duty vehicles (cars, pickup trucks, SUVs, vans, wagons) contribute about 3,040 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, and industry adds another 6,100 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. The combined output is about 35 times greater than estimates of global volcanic carbon dioxide output. Another version of the myth is the all-powerful but poorly understood volcanic source. For example, Heaven and Earth describes submarine volcanoes as poorly understood because of the lack of continuous observation and measurement, yet carbon dioxide from tens of thousands of submarine hot springs associated with these submarine basalt volcanoes quietly dissolves in the cold highpressure deep ocean water. Then, this statement: One hot spring can release far more carbon dioxide than a 1,000 megawatt coal-fired power station yet they are neither seen nor measured. If this is neither seen nor measured, then how does Plimer know how much carbon dioxide a hot spring emits? No supporting evidence or references are offered. In fact, there are measurements on the carbon dioxide flux of mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal fluids, but they do not support the power station comparison. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average carbon dioxide emission rate from coal-fired power generation in the United States is 1.02 metric tons per megawatt-hour. So, 1.02 metric tons of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour, times 1,000 megawatts, times 24 hours per day, times 365 days per year, equals 8,935,200 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. Thus, one of these submarine hot springs allegedly generates far more than 9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year or far more than three times
Gonzaga Debate Institute 32 Warming Core the annual baseline output of Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii! Just 12 of these hot springs would exceed carbon dioxide emission rate estimates for the entire 65,000-kilometer-long mid-ocean ridge system. To scale up volcanic carbon dioxide output to the current anthropogenic level would require adding thousands of volcanoes to the 50 to 60 normally active volcanoes of the subaerial landscape and more than a hundred additional mid-ocean ridge systems to the seafloor. Global volcanic carbon dioxide emission estimates contain uncertainties and are variable, but there is virtually no doubt that volcanism adds far less carbon dioxide to the oceans and atmosphere than humans.
Volcanoes prove that climate models are accurate and that warming is anthropogenic Science Daily, 2002
(Feb. 1, Science Daily, Pinatubo Volcano Research Boosts Case For Human -Caused Global Warming, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/02/020220075850.htm, accessed 7/13/13, CBC)
Feb. 21, 2002 NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, NJ Research into the worldwide climatic impact of the 1991 Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption during the 10 years since the eruption has strengthened the case for human causes of global warming, a Rutgers scientist reports in a paper published in the February 14 issue of the international journal, Science. Share This: The Pinatubo research also has improved scientists' ability to forecast the impact of future volcanoes on weather and climate, says the paper's author, Alan Robock of the university's Center for Environmental Prediction in the Department of Environmental Sciences, Cook College. According to Robock, the eruption on Luzon Island in the Philippines on June 15, 1991 produced the largest volcanic cloud of the 20th century and caused changes in worldwide climate and weather that were felt for years. The changes wrought by Pinatubo's sulfuric acid cloud, which blocked a large percentage of sunlight from reaching the earth, initially included cooler summers and warmer winters, an overall net cooling at the earth's surface and altered winds and weather patterns, Robock said. In certain areas such as the Middle East, it produced a rare snowstorm in Jerusalem and led to the death of coral at the bottom of the Red Sea, he noted. The cloud also caused depletion of the ozone layer over Temperate Zone regions of the Northern Hemisphere where much of the world's population resides, in addition to the regular ozone "hole" which appears in October over Antarctica, the researcher said. Most significant, the scientist said, Pinatubo helped validate computer-generated climate models that demonstrate human-caused global warming. Using computer modeling, said Robock, scientists have been able to account for natural warming and cooling, as found in Arctic and Antarctic ice core samples and tree rings covering hundreds of years up to the last century. "If you plug in volcanic eruptions, El Nios, solar variations and other natural causes and try to simulate past climate changes, you can do a pretty good job of modeling climate change until the end of the 19th Century," the researcher said. After that period, he said, natural causes alone don't account for the amount of warming, about 0.6 degrees Celsius (1.1 degrees Fahrenheit), that has taken place in the last century. "But when you factor in Pinatubo and other eruptions along with anthropogenic (human-caused) emissions," said the scientist, "it accounts for the observed record of climate change for the past century, including the overall warming and episodic cooling, and validates the climate models."
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Impacts
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Global Instability
Climate change will cause global instability
The Guardian 2007 [Climate Wars Threaten Billions, Common Dreams, 11/5/07,http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/05/5016/] Victor, 7-12-13, KB A total of 46 nations and 2.7 billion people are now at high risk of being overwhelmed by armed conflict and war because of climate change. A further 56 countries face political destabilization, affecting another 1.2 billion individuals. This stark warning will be outlined by the peace group International Alert in a report, A Climate of Conflict, this week. Much of Africa, Asia and South America will suffer outbreaks of war and social disruption as climate change erodes land, raises seas, melts glaciers and increases storms, it concludes. Even Europe is at risk. 'Climate change will compound the propensity for violent conflict, which in turn will leave communities poorer and less able to cope with the consequences of climate change,' the report states. The worst threats involve nations lacking resources and stability to deal with global warming, added the agency's secretary-general, Dan Smith. 'Holland will be affected by rising sea levels, but no one expects war or strife,' he told The Observer. 'It has the resources and political structure to act effectively. But other countries that suffer loss of land and water and be buffeted by increasingly fierce storms will have no effective government to ensure corrective measures are taken. People will form defensive groups and battles will break out.' Consider Peru, said Smith. Its fresh water comes mostly from glacier melt water. But by 2015 nearly all Peru's glaciers will have been removed by global warming and its 27 million people will nearly all lack fresh water. If Peru took action now, it could offset the impending crisis, he added. But the country has little experience of effective democracy, suffers occasional outbreaks of insurgency, and has border disputes with Chile and Ecuador. The result is likely to be 'chaos, conflict and mass migration'. A different situation affects Bangladesh. Here climate-linked migration is already triggering violent conflict, says International Alert. Droughts in summer combined with worsening flooding in coastal zones, triggered by increasingly severe cyclones, are destroying farmland. Millions have already migrated to India, causing increasingly serious conflicts that are destined to worsen. In Africa, rivers such as the Niger and Monu are key freshwater resources passing through many nations. As droughts worsen and more water is extracted from them conflicts will be inevitable. In Europe, most countries are currently considered stable enough to cope with global warming, apart from the Balkans; wars have left countries such as Serbia and Montenegro politically weakened. As temperatures rise and farmland is reduced, population pressures will trigger violence that authorities will be unable to contain. Some nations on the risk map, such as Russia, may cause surprise. 'Moscow's control of Russia as a whole will not be undermined by global warming,' said Smith. 'But loss of farmland in some regions will lead to local rebellions like those already triggered in Chechnya.' Conflict triggered by climate change is not a vague threat for coming years, he added. 'It is already upon us.'
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Gonzaga Debate Institute 36 Warming Core threat not only to the security and prosperity to the United States, but potentially to the continued existence of life on this planet.
Warming causes biodiversity loss, storms, and agriculture Weart 11 (Spencer Weart, Director of the Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics,
December 2011, The Discovery of Global Warming) A large body of scientific studies, exhaustively reviewed, has produced a long list of possibilities. Nobody can say that any of the items on the list are certain to happen. But the world's climate experts almost all agree that the impacts listed below are more likely than not to happen. For some items, the probabilities range up to almost certain. The following are the likely consequences of warming by a few degrees Celsius that is, what we may expect if humanity manages to begin restraining its emissions soon, so that greenhouse gases do not rise beyond twice the pre-industrial level. Without strong action the doubling will come well before the end of this century, bringing the planet to temperatures not seen since the spread of agriculture. By 2007, many of the predicted changes were observed to be actually happening. For details see reports referenced in this footnote: (22) * Most places will continue to get warmer, especially at night and in winter. The temperature change will benefit some regions while harming others for example, patterns of tourism will shift. The warmer winters will improve health and agriculture in some areas, but globally, mortality will rise and food supplies will be endangered due to more frequent and extreme summer heat waves and other effects. Regions not directly harmed will suffer indirectly from higher food prices and a press of refugees from afflicted regions. * Sea levels will continue to rise for many centuries. The last time the planet was 3C warmer than now, the sea level was at least 6 meters (20 feet) higher.(23) That submerged coastlines where many millions of people now live, including cities from New York to Shanghai. The rise will probably be so gradual that later generations can simply abandon their parents' homes, but a ruinously swift rise cannot be entirely ruled out. Meanwhile storm surges will cause emergencies. <=Sea rise & ice * Weather patterns will keep changing toward an intensified water cycle with stronger floods and droughts. Most regions now subject to droughts will probably get drier (because of warmth as well as less precipitation), and most wet regions will get wetter. Extreme weather events will become more frequent and worse. In particular, storms with more intense rainfall are liable to bring worse floods. Some places will get more snowstorms, but most mountain glaciers and winter snowpack will shrink, jeopardizing important water supply systems. Each of these things has already begun to happen in some regions.(24) Drought in the 2060s * Ecosystems will be stressed, although some managed agricultural and forestry systems will benefit, at least in the early decades of warming. Uncounted valuable species, especially in the Arctic, mountain areas, and tropical seas, must shift their ranges. Many that cannot will face extinction. A variety of pests and tropical diseases are expected to spread to warmed regions. These problems have already been observed in numerous places. * Increased carbon dioxide levels will affect biological systems independent of climate change. Some crops will be fertilized, as will some invasive weeds (the balance of benefit vs. harm is uncertain). The oceans will continue to become markedly more acidic, gravely endangering coral reefs, and probably harming fisheries and other marine life. <=Biosphere * There will be significant unforeseen impacts. Most of these will probably be harmful, since human and natural systems are well adapted to the present climate. The climate system and ecosystems are complex and only partly understood, so there is a chance that the impacts will not be as bad as predicted. There is a similar chance of impacts grievously worse than predicted. If the CO2 level keeps rising to well beyond twice the pre-industrial level along with a rise of other greenhouse gases, as must inevitably happen if we do not take strong action soon, the results will certainly be worse . Under a "business as usual" scenario, recent calculations give even odds that global temperature will rise 5C or more by the end of the century causing a radical reorganization and impoverishment of many of the ecosystems that sustain our civilization.(25) All this is projected to happen to people who are now alive. What of the more distant future? If emissions continue to rise for a century whether because we fail to rein them in, or because we set off an unstoppable feedback loop in which the warming itself causes ever more greenhouse gases to be evaporated into the air then the gases will reach a level that the Earth has not seen since tens of millions of years ago. The consequences will take several centuries to be fully realized, as the Earth settles into its new state. It is probable that, as in the distant geological eras with high CO2, sea levels will be many tens of meters higher and the average global temperature will soar far above the present value: a planet grossly unlike the one to which the human species is adapted.
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Climate change leads to massive death and economic and agricultural loss Reuters, international news agency, 12 (Reuters 9/6/12 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/26/climate-changedeaths_n_1915365.html PB) LONDON, Sept 26 (Reuters) - More than 100 million people will die and the global economy will miss out on as much as 3.2 percent of its potential output annually by 2030 if the world fails to tackle climate change , a report commissioned by 20 governments said on Wednesday. As global average temperatures rise due to greenhouse gas emissions, the effects on the planet, such as melting ice caps, extreme weather, drought and rising sea levels, will threaten populations and livelihoods, said the report conducted by humanitarian organisation DARA. It calculated that five million deaths occur each year from air pollution, hunger and disease as a result of climate change and carbonintensive economies, and that toll would likely rise to six million a year by 2030 if current patterns of fossil fuel use continue. More than 90 percent of those deaths will occur in developing countries, said the report that calculated the human and economic impact of climate change on 184 countries in 2010 and 2030. It was commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a partnership of 20 developing countries threatened by climate change. "A combined climate-carbon crisis is estimated to claim 100 million lives between now and the end of the next decade," the report said. It said the effects of climate change was already costing the global economy a potential 1.6 percent of annual output or about $1.2 trillion a year, and this could double to 3.2 percent by 2030 if global temperatures are allowed to rise. COUNTING THE COST Responding to the report, Oxfam International said the costs of political inaction on climate were "staggering". "The losses to agriculture and fisheries alone could amount to more than $500 billion per year by 2030 , heavily focussed in the poorest countries where millions depend on these sectors to make a living," said executive director Jeremy Hobbs. British economist Nicholas Stern told Reuters earlier this year investment equivalent to 2 percent of global GDP was needed to limit, prevent and adapt to climate change. His report on the economics of climate change in 2006 said that without any action to tackle climate change, the overall costs and risks of climate change would be equivalent to a cut in per-capita consumption of perhaps up to 20 percent. Temperatures have already risen by about 0.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times. Almost 200 nations agreed in 2010 to limit the global average temperature rise to below 2C (3.6 Fahrenheit) to avoid dangerous impacts from climate change. But climate scientists have warned that the chance of limiting the rise to below 2C is getting smaller as global greenhouse gas emissions rise due to burning fossil fuels. The world's poorest nations are the most vulnerable as they face increased risk of drought, water shortages, crop failure, poverty and disease. On average, they could see an 11 percent loss in GDP by 2030 due to climate change, DARA said. "One degree Celsius rise in temperature is associated with 10 percent productivity loss in farming. For us, it means losing about 4 million metric tonnes of food grain, amounting to about $2.5 billion. That is about 2 percent of our GDP," Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in response to the report. "Adding up the damages to property and other losses, we are faced with a total loss of about 3-4 percent of GDP." Even the biggest and most rapidly developing economies will not escape unscathed. The United States and China could see a 2.1 percent reduction in their potential GDPs by 2030, while India could experience a more than 5 percent loss of potential output.
Climate change leads to death and instability Vidal, The guardians environment chief editor, 09 (John Vidal 2/29/2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/29/1 PB) Climate change is already responsible for 300,000 deaths a year and is affecting 300m people, according to the first comprehensive study of the human impact of global warming. It projects that increasingly severe heatwaves, floods, storms and forest fires will be responsible for as many as 500,000 deaths a year by 2030, making it the greatest humanitarian challenge the world faces. Economic losses due to climate change today amount to more than $125bn a year more than all the present world aid. The report comes from former UN secretary general Kofi Annan's thinktank, the Global Humanitarian Forum. By 2030, the report says, climate change could cost $600bn a year. Civil unrest may also increase because of weather-related events, the report says: "Four billion people are vulnerable now and 500m are now at extreme risk. Weather-related disasters ... bring hunger, disease, poverty and lost livelihoods.
Gonzaga Debate Institute 38 Warming Core They pose a threat to social and political stability". If emissions are not brought under control, within 25 years, the report states: 310m more people will suffer adverse health consequences related to temperature increases 20m more people will fall into poverty 75m extra people will be displaced by climate change. Climate change is expected to have the most severe impact on water supplies, it said. "Shortages in future are likely to threaten food production, reduce sanitation, hinder economic development and damage ecosystems. It causes more violent swings between floods and droughts. Hundreds of millions of people are expected to become water stressed by climate change by the 2030." The study says it is impossible to be certain who will be displaced by 2030, but that tens of millions of people "will be driven from their homelands by weather disasters or gradual environmental degradation. The problem is most severe in Africa, Bangladesh, Egypt, coastal zones and forest areas." The study compares for the first time the number of people affected by climate change in rich and poor countries. Nearly 98% of the people seriously affected, 99% of all deaths from weather-related disasters and 90% of the total economic losses are now borne by developing countries. The populations most at risk it says, are in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, south Asia and the small island states of the Pacific. But of the 12 countries considered least at risk, including Britain, all but one are industrially developed. Together they have made nearly $72bn available to adapt themselves to climate change but have pledged only $400m to help poor countries. "This is less than one state in Germany is spending on improving its flood defences," says the report. The study comes as diplomats from 192 countries prepare to meet in Bonn next week for UN climate change talks aimed at reaching a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in December in Copenhagen. "The world is at a crossroads. We can no longer afford to ignore the human impact of climate change. This is a call to the negotiators to come to the most ambitious agreement ever negotiated or to continue to accept mass starvation, mass sickness and mass migration on an ever growing scale," said Kofi Annan, who launched the report today in London. Annan blamed politicans for the current impasse in the negotiations and widespread ignorance in many countries. "Weak leadership, as evident today, is alarming. If leaders cannot assume responsibility they will fail humanity. Agreement is in the interests of every human being." Barabra Stocking, head of Oxfam said: "Adaptation efforts need to be scaled up dramatically.The world's poorest are the hardest hit, but they have done the least to cause it. Nobel peace prizewinner Wangari Maathai, said: "Climate change is life or death. It is the new global battlefield. It is being presented as if it is the problem of the developed world. But it's the developed world that has precipitated global warming." Calculations for the report are based on data provided by the World Bank, the World Health organisation, the UN, the Potsdam Insitute For Climate Impact Research, and others, including leading insurance companies and Oxfam. However, the authors accept that the estimates are uncertain and could be higher or lower. The paper was reviewed by 10 of the world's leading experts incluing Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change, Jeffrey Sachs, of Columbia University and Margareta Wahlstrm, assistant UN secretary general for disaster risk reduction.
Warming causes famine, disease, and resource wars impacts already happening Lean 7 (Geoffrey Lean, Enviorment Editor for The Indepedant, news agency,
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/wars-of-the-world-how-global-warming-puts-60-nationsat-risk-442788.html) Scores of countries face war for scarce land, food and water as global warming increases. This is the conclusion of the most devastating report yet on the effects of climate change that scientists and governments prepare to issue this week. More than 60 nations, mainly in the Third World, will have existing tensions hugely exacerbated by the struggle for everscarcer resources. Others now at peace - including China, the United States and even parts of Europe - are expected to be plunged into conflict. Even those not directly affected will be threatened by a flood of hundreds of millions of "environmental refugees". The threat is worrying world leaders. The new UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, told a global warming conference last month: "In coming decades, changes in the environment - and the resulting upheavals, from droughts to inundated coastal areas - are likely to become a major driver of war and conflict." Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, has repeatedly called global warming "a security issue" and a Pentagon report concluded that abrupt climate change could lead to "skirmishes, battles and even war due to resource constraints". The fears will be increased by the second report this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The result of six years' work by 2,500 of the world's top scientists, it will be published on Good Friday. The first report, released two months ago, concluded that global warming was now "unequivocal" and it was 90 per cent certain that human activities are
Gonzaga Debate Institute 39 Warming Core to blame. The new one will be the first to show for certain that its effects are already becoming evident around the world. Tomorrow, representatives of the world's governments will meet in Brussels to start four days of negotiation on the ultimate text of the report, which they are likely to tone down somewhat. But the final confidential draft presented to them by the scientists makes it clear that the consequences of global warming are appearing far sooner and faster than expected. "Changes in climate are now affecting biological and physical systems on every continent," it says. In 20 years, tens of millions more Latin Americans and hundreds of millions more Africans will be short of water, and by 2050 one billion Asians could face water shortages. The glaciers of the Himalayas, which feed the great rivers of the continent, are likely to melt away almost completely by 2035, threatening the lives of 700 million people. Though harvests will initially increase in temperate countries - as the extra warmth lengthens growing seasons - they could fall by 30 per cent in India, confronting 130 million people with starvation, by the 2050s. By 2080, 100 million people could be flooded out of their homes every year as the sea rises to cover their land, turning them into environmental refugees . And up to a third of the world's wild species could be "at high risk of irreversible extinction" from even relatively moderate warming. International Alert, "an independent peace-building organisation", has complied a list of 61 countries that are already unstable or have recently suffered armed conflict where existing tensions will be exacerbated by shortages of food and water and by the disease, storm flooding and sea-level rise that will accompany global warming, or by the deforestation that helps to cause it. The list forms the basis of the map on the opposite page. Four years ago the Pentagon report concluded: "As famine, disease and weather-related disasters strike... many countries' needs will exceed their carrying capacity. This will create a sense of desperation, which is likely to lead to offensive aggression ." Many experts believe this has begun. Last year John Reid, the Home Secretary, blamed global warming for helping to cause the genocide in Darfur. Water supplies are seen as a key cause of the Arab-Israeli conflicts. The Golan Heights are important because they control key springs and rivers and the Sea of Galilee, while vital aquifers lie under the West Bank. John Ashton, the Government's climate change envoy, says that global warming should be addressed "not as a long-term threat to our environment, but as an immediate threat to our security and prosperity".
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effects of climate change - particularly when coupled with rapid population growth, and existing economic, political, ethnic or religious tensions - could be a contributory factor in both national and cross-border conflicts in some developing countries. Longterm climate deterioration (such as rising temperatures and sea levels) will exacerbate the competition for resources and may contribute to forced dislocation and migration that can generate destabilising pressures and tensions in neighbouring areas. Increased climate variability (such as periods of intense rain to prolonged dry periods) can result in adverse growth shocks and cause higher risks of conflict as work opportunities are reduced, making recruitment into rebel groups much easier. Support for this relationship has been provided by empirical work in Africa, using rainfall shocks as an instrument for growth shocks.99 Adverse climatic conditions already make societies more prone to violence and conflict across the developing world, both internally and cross-border. Long periods of drought in the 1970s and 1980s in Sudans Northern Darfur State, for example, resulted in deep, widespread poverty and, along with many other factors such as a breakdown in methods of coping with drought, has been identified by some studies as a contributor to the current crisis
there.100 Whilst climate change can contribute to the risk of conflict, however, it is very unlikely to be the single driving factor. Empirical evidence shows that a changing and hostile climate has resulted in tension and conflict in some countries but not others. The
risk of climate change sparking conflict is far greater if other factors such as poor governance and political instability, ethnic tensions and, in the case of declining water availability, high water interdependence are already present. In light of this, West Africa, the Nile Basin and Central
Asia have been identified as regions potentially at risk of future tension and conflict. Box 4.6 indicates areas vulnerable to future tension and past conflicts where an adverse climate has played an important role. Future risks West part of the world, the region is
Africa: Whilst there is still much uncertainty surrounding the future changes in rainfall in this already exposed to declining average annual rainfall (ranging from 10% in the wet tropical zone to more than 30% in the Sahelian zone since the early 1970s) and falling discharge in major river systems of between 40 to 60% on average. Changes of this magnitude already give some indication of the magnitude of risks in the future given that we have only seen 0.7C increase and 3C or 4C more could be on the way in the next 100 to 150 years. The implications of this are amplified by both the high water interdependence in the region - 17 countries share 25 transboundary watercourses and plans by many of the countries to invest in large dams that will both increase water withdrawals and change natural water allocation patterns between riparian countries.101 The region faces a serious risk of water-related conflict in the future if cooperative mechanisms are not agreed. 102 The Nile: Ten countries share the Nile. 103 While
Egypt is water scarce and almost entirely dependent on water originating from the upstream Nile basin countries, approximately 70% of the Niles waters flow from the Ethiopian highlands. Climate
change threatens an increase in competition for water in the region, compounded by rapid population growth that will increase demand for water. The population of the ten Nile countries is projected to increase from 280 million in
2000 to 860 million by 2050. A recent study by Strzepek et al (2001) found a propensity for lower Nile flows in 8 out of 8 climate scenarios, with impacts ranging from no change to a roughly 40% reduction in flows by 2025 to over 60% by 2050 in 3 of the flow scenarios. 104 Regional cooperation will be critical to avoid future climate-driven conflict and tension in the region.
Great power war Glick 7 - Senior Middle East Fellow Center for Security Policy (Caroline, Condis African Holiday, 12-12,
http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/home.aspx?sid=56&categoryid=56&subcategoryid=90&newsid=11568) The Horn of Africa is a dangerous and strategically vital place. Small wars, which rage continuously, can easily escalate into big wars. Local conflicts have regional and global aspects. All of the conflicts in this tinderbox, which controls shipping lanes from the Indian Ocean into the Red Sea, can potentially give rise to regional, and indeed global conflagrations between competing regional actors and global powers. The Horn of Africa includes the states of Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia,
Somalia, Sudan and Kenya.
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Nuclear war Staples 9 (Stephen, Rideau Institute, Danish Institute of International Studies, "Steps Toward an Arctic Nuclear
Weapon Free Zone," August) The fact is, the Arctic is becoming an zone of increased military competition. Russian President Medvedev has announced the creation of a special military force to defend Arctic claims. Russian General Vladimir Shamanov declared
Gonzaga Debate Institute 43 Warming Core that Russian troops would step up training for Arctic combat, and that Russias submarine fleet would increase its operational radius. This week, two Russian attack submarines were spotted off the U.S. east coast for the first time in 15 years.6 In January, on the eve of Obamas inauguration, President Bush issued a National Security Presidential Directive on Arctic Regional Policy. As Michael Hamel-Greene has pointed out, it affirmed as a priority to preserve U.S. military vessel and aircraft mobility and transit throughout the Arctic, including the Northwest Passage, and foresaw greater capabilities to protect U.S. borders in the Arctic. The Bush administrations disastrous eight years in office, particularly its decision to withdraw from the ABM treaty and deploy missile defence interceptors and a radar in Eastern Europe, has greatly contributed to the instability we are seeing today. The Arctic has figured in this renewed interest in Cold War weapons systems, particularly the upgrading of the Thule Ballistic Missile Early Warning System radar for ballistic missile defence. The Canadian government, as well, has put forward new military capabilities to protect Canadian sovereignty claims in the Arctic, including proposed ice-capable ships, a northern military training base and a deep water port. Denmark last week released an all-party defence position paper that suggests the country should create a dedicated Arctic military contingent that draws on army, navy and air force assets with ship-based helicopters able to drop troops anywhere. Danish fighter planes could be patrolling Greenlandic airspace. Last year, Norway chose to buy 48 Lockheed F-35 fighter jets, partly because of their suitability for Arctic patrols. In March, that country held a major Arctic military practice involving 7,000 soldiers from 13 countries in which a fictional country called Northland seized offshore oil rigs. The manoeuvres prompted a protest from Russia which objected again in June after Sweden held its largest northern military exercise since the end of the Second World War. About 12,000 troops, 50 aircraft and several warships were involved. Jayantha Dhanapala, President of Pugwash and former UN Under-Secretary for Disarmament Affairs, summarizes the situation bluntly. He warns us that From those in the international peace and security sector, deep concerns are being expressed over the fact that two nuclear weapon states the United States and the Russian Federation, which together own 95 per cent of the nuclear weapons in the world converge on the Arctic and have competing claims. These claims, together with those of other allied NATO countries Canada, Denmark, Iceland, and Norway could, if unresolved, lead to conflict escalating into the threat or use of nuclear weapons.
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Climate change doubles risk of civil conflict Schiermeier 11 (Quirin Schiermeier, staff writer, published online on 8/24/11, Climate cycles drive civil war,
Nature, International weekly journal of science, accessed online, http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110824/full/news.2011.501.html) Previous studies have focused on the question of how anthropogenic climate change might increase conflict risk. A 2009 study2 by economist Marshall Burke at the University of California, Berkeley, and his co-workers found that the probability of armed conflict in sub-Saharan Africa was about 50% higher than normal in some unusually warm years since 1981. But critics point to statistical problems for instance when linking possibly random local temperature and rainfall variations with outbreaks of civil war that may have resulted in a false appearance of causality. To overcome this problem, Solomon Hsiang, an economist currently at Princeton University in New Jersey, and his colleagues opted to look at how historical changes in the global, rather than local, climate affect conflict risk1. Clear signal The team designed a 'quasi-experiment' for which they divided the world into regions strongly affected by the ENSO the tropical parts of South America, Africa and the AsiaPacific region, including parts of Australia and regions only weakly affected by it. They then searched for a link between climate and armed conflicts that arose in the first group between 1950 and 2004. A very clear signal appeared in the data. The team found that the risk of annual civil conflict doubles, from 3% to 6%, in countries of the ENSO-affected, or 'teleconnected', group during El Nio years relative to La Nia years. In many cases, conflicts that might have broken out anyway may have occurred earlier owing to the effects of El Nio, Hsiang suggests.
Climate change could link to one fifth of global civil conflicts Schiermeier 11 (Quirin Schiermeier, staff writer, published online on 8/24/11, Climate cycles drive civil war,
Nature, International weekly journal of science, accessed online, http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110824/full/news.2011.501.html) Civil conflicts have been by far the most common form of organized political violence in recent decades, Hsiang says. Globally, one-fifth of the 240 or so civil conflicts since 1950 could be linked to the 47-year climate cycle originating in the southern Pacific, the study concludes. The results were unaffected by any modification to the statistical set-up of the analysis such as excluding particularly crisis-prone African countries which the team performed to confirm the robustness of their findings.
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Climate change impacts stability doubles likelihood of civil war and may have caused one fifth of global conflicts Goodman 11 interview conducted by Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, A Daily Independent Global News
Hour, 8/29/11, Global Warming & War: New Study Finds Link Between Climate Change and Conflict, an interview with Solomon Hsiang, lead author of a study linking civil wars with global climate change, and postdoctoral researcher at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Democracy Now!) We move to another issue around climate. A new study has found that war is associated with global climate. According to the report, there are links between the climate phenomenon El Nio and outbreaks of violence in countries from southern Sudan to Indonesia and Peru. In fact, the scientists find that El Nio, which brings hot and dry conditions to tropical nations, doubles the risk of civil war in up to 90 countries. The study was published online last week in the journal Nature. El Nio may help account for a fifth of conflicts worldwide during the past 50 years .
Global warming is real, feedbacks cause rapid escalation, and it causes population migrations fueling political instability and failed states, escalating to nuclear war and extinction
Kaku , co-creator of string field theory, a branch of string theory. 11 Michio Kaku, He received a B.S. (summa cum
laude) from Harvard University in 1968 where he came first in his physics class. (Physics of the Future http://213.55.83.52/ebooks/physics/Physics%20of%20the%20Future.pdf PB)
By midcentury, the full impact of a fossil fuel economy should be in full swing: global warming. It is now indisputable that the earth is heating up. Within the last century, the earths temperature rose 1.3 F, and the pace is accelerating. The signs are unmistakable everywhere we look: The thickness of Arctic ice has decreased by an astonishing 50 percent in just the past fifty years. Much of this Arctic ice is just below the freezing point, floating on water. Hence, it is acutely sensitive to small temperature variations of the oceans, acting as a canary in a mineshaft, an early warning system. Today, parts of the northern polar ice caps disappear during the summer months, and may disappear entirely during summer as early as 2015. The polar
ice cap may vanish permanently by the end of the century, disrupting the worlds weather by altering the flow of ocean and air currents around the planet. Greenlands ice shelves shrank by twenty-four square miles in 2007.
This figure jumped to seventy-one square miles in 2008. (If all the Greenland ice were somehow to melt, sea levels would rise about twenty feet around the world.) Large chunks of Antarcticas ice, which have been stable for tens of thousands of years, are gradually breaking off. In 2000, a piece the size of Connecticut broke off, containing 4,200 square miles of ice. In 2002, a piece of ice the size of Rhode Island broke off the Thwaites Glacier. (If all Antarcticas ice were to melt, sea levels would rise about 180 feet around the world.) For every vertical foot that the ocean rises, the horizontal spread of the ocean is about 100 feet. Already, sea levels have risen 8 inches in the past century, mainly caused by the expansion of seawater as it heats up. According to the United Nations, sea levels could rise by 7 to 23 inches by 2100. Some scientists have said that the UN report was too cautious in interpreting the data. According to scientists at the University of Colorados Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, by 2100 sea levels could rise by 3 to 6 feet. So gradually the map of the earths coastlines will change. Temperatures started to be reliably recorded in the late 1700s; 1995, 2005, and 2010 ranked among the hottest years ever recorded; 2000 to 2009 was the hottest decade. Likewise, levels of carbon dioxide are rising dramatically. They are at the highest levels in 100,000 years . As the earth heats up, tropical diseases are gradually migrating northward. The recent spread of the West Nile virus carried by mosquitoes may be a harbinger of things to come. UN officials are especially concerned about the spread of malaria northward. Usually, the eggs of many harmful insects die every winter when the soil freezes. But with the shortening of the winter season, it means the inexorable spread of dangerous insects northward. CARBONDIOXIDE GREENHOUSEGAS According to the UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, scientists have concluded with 90 percent confidence that global warming is driven by human activity, especially the production of carbon dioxide via the burning of oil and coal. Sunlight easily passes through carbon dioxide. But as sunlight heats up the earth, it creates infrared radiation, which does not pass back through carbon dioxide
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so easily. The energy from sunlight cannot escape back into space and is trapped. We also see a somewhat similar effect in greenhouses or cars. The sunlight warms the air, which is prevented from escaping by the glass. Ominously, the amount of carbon dioxide generated has grown explosively, especially in the last century. Before the Industrial Revolution, the carbon dioxide content of the air was 270 parts per million (ppm). Today, it has soared to 387 ppm. (In 1900, the world consumed 150 million barrels of oil. In 2000, it jumped to 28 billion barrels, a 185-fold jump. In 2008, 9.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide were sent into the air from fossil fuel burning and also deforestation, but only 5 billion tons were recycled into the oceans, soil, and vegetation. The remainder will stay in the air for decades to come, heating up the earth.) VISIT TO ICELAND The rise in temperature is not a fluke, as we can see by analyzing ice cores. By drilling deep into the ancient ice of the Arctic, scientists have been able to extract air bubbles that are thousands of years old. By chemically analyzing the air in these bubbles, scientists can reconstruct the temperature and carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere going back more than 600,000 years. Soon, they will be able to determine the weather conditions going back a million years. I had a chance to see this firsthand. I once gave a lecture in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, and had the privilege of visiting the University of Iceland, where ice cores are being analyzed. When your airplane lands in Reykjavik, at first all you see is snow and jagged rock, resembling the bleak landscape of the moon. Although barren and forbidding, the terrain makes the Arctic an ideal place to analyze the climate of the earth hundreds of thousands of years ago. When I visited their laboratory, which is kept at freezing temperatures, I had to pass through thick refrigerator doors. Once inside, I could see racks and racks containing long metal tubes, each about an inch and a half in diameter and about ten feet long. Each hollow tube had been drilled deep into the ice of a glacier. As the tube penetrated the ice, it captured samples from snows that had fallen thousands of years ago. When the tubes were removed, I could carefully examine the icy contents of each. At first, all I could see was a long column of white ice. But upon closer examination, I could see that the ice had stripes made of tiny bands of different colors. Scientists have to use a variety of techniques to date them. Some of the ice layers contain markers indicating important events, such as the soot emitted from a volcanic eruption. Since the dates of these eruptions are known to great accuracy, one can use them to determine how old that layer is. These ice cores were then cut in various slices so they could be examined. When I peered into one slice under a microscope, I saw tiny, microscopic bubbles. I shuddered to realize that I was seeing air bubbles that were deposited tens of thousands of years ago, even before the rise of human civilization. The carbon dioxide content within each air bubble is easily measured. But calculating the temperature of the air when the ice was first deposited is more difficult. (To do this, scientists analyze the water in the bubble. Water molecules can contain different isotopes. As the temperature falls, heavier water isotopes condense faster than ordinary water molecules. Hence, by measuring the amount of the heavier isotopes, one can calculate the temperature at which the water molecule condensed.) Finally, after painfully analyzing the contents of thousands of ice cores, these scientists have come to some important conclusions. They found that temperature and carbon dioxide levels have oscillated in parallel, like two roller coasters moving together, in synchronization over many thousands of years. When one curve rises or falls, so does the other. Most important, they found a sudden spike in temperature and carbon dioxide content happening just within the last century. This is highly unusual, since most fluctuations occur slowly over millennia. This unusual spike is not part of this natural heating process, scientists claim, but is a direct indicator of human activity. There are other ways to show that this sudden spike is caused by human activity, and not natural cycles. Computer simulations are now so advanced that we can simulate the temperature of the earth with and without the presence of human activity. Without civilization producing carbon dioxide, we find a relatively flat temperature curve. But with the addition of human activity, we can show that there should be a sudden spike in both temperature and carbon dioxide. The predicted spike fits the actual spike perfectly. Lastly, one can measure the amount of sunlight that lands on every square foot of the earths surface. Scientists can also calculate the amount of heat that is reflected into outer space from the earth. Normally, we expect these two amounts to be equal, with input equaling output. But in reality, we find the net amount of energy that is
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currently heating the earth. Then if we calculate the amount of energy being produced by human activity, we find a perfect match. Hence, human activity is causing the current heating of the earth. Unfortunately, even if we were to suddenly stop producing any carbon dioxide, the gas that has already been released into the atmosphere is enough to continue global warming for decades to come. As a result, by midcentury, the situation could be dire. Scientists have created pictures of what our coastal cities will look like at midcentury and beyond if sea levels continue to rise. Coastal cities may disappear. Large parts of Manhattan may have to be evacuated, with Wall Street underwater. Governments will have to decide which of their great cities and capitals are worth saving and which are beyond hope. Some cities may be saved via a combination of sophisticated dikes and water gates. Other cities may be deemed hopeless and allowed to vanish under the ocean, creating mass migrations of people. Since most of the commercial and population centers of the world are next to the ocean, this could have a disastrous effect on the world economy. Even if some cities can be salvaged, there is still the danger that large storms can send surges of water into a city, paralyzing its infrastructure. For example, in 1992 a huge storm surge flooded Manhattan, paralyzing the subway system and trains to New Jersey. With transportation flooded, the economy grinds to a halt. FLOODING BANGLADESH AND VIETNAM A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change isolated three hot spots for potential disaster: Bangladesh, the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, and the Nile Delta in Egypt. The worst situation is that of Bangladesh, a country regularly flooded by storms even without global warming. Most of the country is flat and at sea level. Although it has made significant gains in the last few decades, it is still one of the poorest nations on earth, with one of the highest population densities. (It has a population of 161 million, comparable to that of Russia, but with 1/120 of the land area.) About 50 percent of the land area will be permanently flooded if sea levels rise by three feet. Natural calamities occur there almost every year, but in September 1998, the world witnessed in horror a preview of what may become commonplace. Massive flooding submerged two-thirds of the nation, leaving 30 million people homeless almost overnight; 1,000 were killed, and 6,000 miles of roads were destroyed. This was one of the worst natural disasters in modern history. Another country that would be devastated by a rise in sea level is Vietnam, where the Mekong Delta is particularly vulnerable. By midcentury, this country of 87 million people could face a collapse of its main foodgrowing area. Half the rice in Vietnam is grown in the Mekong Delta, home to 17 million people, and much of it will be flooded permanently by rising sea levels. According to the World Bank, 11 percent of the entire population would be displaced if sea levels rise by three feet by midcentury. The Mekong Delta will also be flooded with salt water, permanently destroying the fertile soil of the area. If millions are flooded out of their homes in Vietnam, many will flock to Ho Chi Minh City seeking refuge. But one-fourth of the city will also be underwater. In 2003 the Pentagon commissioned a study, done by the Global Business Network, that showed that, in a worst-case scenario, chaos could spread around the world due to global warming. As millions of refugees cross national borders, governments could lose all authority and collapse, so countries could descend into the nightmare of looting, rioting, and chaos. In this desperate situation, nations, when faced with the prospect of the influx of millions of desperate people, may resort to nuclear weapons . Envision Pakistan, India, and Chinaall armed with nuclear weaponsskirmishing at their borders over refugees, access to shared rivers, and arable land, the report said. Peter Schwartz, founder of the Global Business Network and a principal author of the Pentagon study, confided to me the details of this scenario. He told me that the biggest hot spot would be the border between India and Bangladesh. In a major crisis in Bangladesh, up to 160 million people could be driven out of their homes, sparking one of the greatest migrations in human history. Tensions could rapidly rise as borders collapse, local governments are paralyzed, and mass rioting breaks out. Schwartz sees that nations may use nuclear weapons as a last resort. In a worst-case scenario, we could have a greenhouse effect that feeds on itself. For example, the melting of the tundra in the Arctic regions may release millions of tons of methane gas from rotting vegetation. Tundra covers nearly 9 million square miles of land in the Northern Hemisphere, containing vegetation frozen since the last Ice Age tens of thousands of years ago. This tundra contains more carbon dioxide and methane than the atmosphere, and this poses an enormous
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threat to the worlds weather. Methane gas, moreover, is a much deadlier greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. It does not stay in the atmosphere as long, but it causes much more damage than carbon dioxide. The release of so much methane gas from the melting tundra could cause temperatures to rapidly rise, which will cause even more methane gas to be released, causing a runaway cycle of global warming.
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Food shortages from warming will threaten the CCP and lead to violent protests and draw in other major powers Feffer and Bleicher, co-director of Institute for Foreign Policys Foreign Policy in Focus, and Professor of Law at Georgetown 2008 (John and Samuel, May 8 2008, Foreign Policy in Focus China: Superpower or Basket Case?
http://fpif.org/china_superpower_or_basket_case/ NMS) In light of these realities, the West is overly focused on the Chinese emerging superpower threat and giving far too little attention to the real risks and foreign policy challenges that would flow from a serious breakdown in Chinese economic, political, or social structures. A crisis might be triggered by any number of factors. A dramatic slowdown in the Chinese or world economy could disrupt the lives of millions of factory workers. Serious rationing of water, food, or energy, whether by dramatic price increases or some other mechanism, could be unacceptably painful for a large part of the population. The loss of individual savings from a stock market or banking collapse could fuel popular discontent among the new urban elite. Even with continuing economic progress, widening income disparities could generate increasingly serious opposition in rural areas. A widespread farmers strike might cut off food to the urban centers, leaving them in a state of chaos. Systemic crisis could then lead to an open challenge to the regime. Here are two scenarios to consider. In one, students, factory workers, and peasants gather again in Tiananmen Square to protest economic conditions and perceived political non-responsiveness. When urban professionals start to join them, the central government calls in the army. It begins a brutal campaign of violently repressing demonstrators, arresting domestic and foreign media representatives, and purging uncooperative members of the Party and civilian government, entirely disregarding the legal system. The demonstrations do not stop, and various groups ask for outside help to protect foreign residents and foreign investment and to end the wholesale disregard of human rights. Overseas Chinese and major U.S. banks and corporations with investments and supply lines at stake argue that the situation is too dangerous to ignore.
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Mutated disease cause extinction Discover 00 (Twenty Ways the World Could End by Corey Powell in Discover Magazine, October 2000,
http://discovermagazine.com/2000/oct/featworld)
Gonzaga Debate Institute 54 Warming Core If Earth doesn't do us in, our fellow organisms might be up to the task. Germs and people have always coexisted, but occasionally the balance gets out of whack. The Black Plague killed one European in four during the 14th century; influenza took at least 20 million
lives between 1918 and 1919; the AIDS epidemic has produced a similar death toll and is still going strong. From 1980 to 1992, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mortality from infectious disease in the United States rose 58 percent.
Old diseases such as cholera and measles have developed new resistance to antibiotics. Intensive agriculture and land development is bringing humans closer to animal pathogens. International travel means diseases can spread faster than ever. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert who recently left the Minnesota Department of Health, described the situation as "like trying to swim against the current of a raging river." The grimmest possibility would be the emergence of a strain that spreads so fast we are caught off guard or that resists all chemical means of control, perhaps as a result of our stirring of the ecological pot.
About 12,000 years ago, a sudden wave of mammal extinctions swept through the Americas. Ross MacPhee of the American Museum of Natural History argues the culprit was extremely virulent disease, which humans helped transport as they migrated into the New World.
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Warming spreads tropical disease everywhere Irfan 12 (Umfair Irfan, reporter for Scientific America, a scientific news agency, June 4, 2012,
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=exotic-diseases-warmer-climate-us-gain) Diseases once thought to be rare or exotic in the United States are gaining a presence and getting new attention from medical researchers who are probing how immigration, limited access to care and the impacts of climate change are influencing their spread. Illnesses like schistosomiasis, Chagas disease and dengue are endemic in warmer, wetter and poorer areas of the world, often closer to the equator. According to the World Health Organization, almost 1 billion people are afflicted with more than one tropical disease. Caused by bacteria, parasites and viruses, these diseases are spread through bites, excrement and dirty water stemming from substandard housing and sanitation. Consequently, the United States has been largely isolated from them. But Americans are traveling more, and as tropical vacationers return home, they may unwittingly bring back dangerous souvenirs. Immigrants from endemic regions are also bringing in these diseases, some of which can lie dormant for years. All the while, the flies, ticks and mosquitoes that spread these illnesses are moving north as rising temperatures make new areas more welcoming. In 2009, dengue emerged in south Florida and infected more than 60 people, the first outbreak since 1934, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dengue is caused by four closely related viruses spread by mosquitoes. It results in joint and muscle pain, severe headaches and bleeding. The outbreak was first detected in a Rochester, N.Y., woman who traveled to Key West, Fla., for one week, with several Key West residents subsequently reporting infections. The infection rate rose to 5 percent, which CDC said indicated "a serious risk of transmission." According to the Monroe County Health Department, there hasn't been a confirmed dengue case in the Florida Keys since November 2010. "We keep the public aware that they need to be dumping standing water and wearing mosquito repellent," explained Chris Tittle, public information officer at the health department. The outbreak may have been linked to travel from Latin America and the Caribbean, where the disease's incidence has risen fourfold over the past 30 years. In 2010, Puerto Rico faced the largest dengue epidemic in its history. However, not every outbreak is imported, and future epidemics may come from within. "There's a substantial but hidden burden of tropical disease in the United States, particularly among people in poverty," said Peter Hotez, founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, the first such school in the United States, at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. Diseases like leishmaniasis often are not tracked rigorously in this country and are classified as neglected, unlike vector-borne illnesses like Lyme disease that are monitored.
Warming makes spreads disease misquitos Surendran et al 12 (Ranjan Ramasamy and Sinnathamby Noble Surendran, National Center for Biotechnology
Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Published online 2012 June 19, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3377959/) Models have been developed for forecasting the impact of global climate change on mosquito-borne diseases, notably the global distributions of malaria (Lindsay and Martens, 1998; Githeko et al., 2000; Rogers and Randolph, 2000; Paaijmans et al., 2009) and dengue (Hales et al., 2002). One model used current temperature, rainfall, and humidity ranges that permit malaria transmission to forecast malaria distribution in 2050 in a global climate change scenario (Rogers and Randolph, 2000). This model found surprisingly few changes, but predicted that some parts of the world that are presently free of malaria may be prone to a greater risk of malaria transmission while certain malaria-endemic areas will have a decreased risk of malaria transmission (Rogers and Randolph, 2000). Larger areas of northern and eastern Australia are expected to become more conducive for the transmission of dengue (McMichael et al., 2006) and a greater proportion of the global population at risk of dengue (Hales et al., 2002) as a result of global climate change. While these models did not specifically address changes in coastal zones, the transmission of malaria (Rogers and Randolph, 2000) and dengue (Hales et al., 2002; McMichael et al., 2006) were generally predicted to increase in coastal areas of northern and eastern Australia. Many modeling forecasts are limited by uncertainties in the extent of global climate change as a result of the inability to accurately predict major drivers such as future emission
Gonzaga Debate Institute 56 Warming Core rates of greenhouse gases. Other factors such as the resilience of the geosphere and biosphere that are difficult to estimate precisely, and regional characteristics, can also influence climate change parameters. Furthermore, the considerable adaptability of mosquito vectors and their pathogens to changing environments are difficult to model. Models however have an important role in highlighting potential problems and the need to develop measures to counter possible increases in disease transmission. Global climate change has led to observable alterations in the global distribution of plants and animals with species adapted to warmer temperatures moving to higher latitudes (Root et al., 2003). However there is no unequivocal evidence yet that global climate change has already affected the distribution of a mosquito-borne disease in inland or coastal areas. The reports of increased incidence of malaria epidemics related to warmer temperatures in the Kenyan highlands have been controversial as changes in many other factors could have influenced malaria transmission in this area, and perhaps even masked an increase in transmission due to higher temperatures (Githeko et al., 2000; Alonso et al., 2011; Omumbo et al., 2011; Chaves et al., 2012 ). However it is clear that the incidence of malaria has decreased over the last decade in many countries due primarily to better case detection and treatment, the use of insecticide treated mosquito nets and indoor residual spraying of more effective insecticides (World Health Organization, 2011). It seems quite likely that such improvements in malaria control measures worldwide have masked any tendency for the incidence of malaria to increase as a result of global climate change (Gething et al., 2010). On the other hand, there is evidence that short term changes in global climate can influence the incidence of mosquito-borne diseases. The El-Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) entails multi-annual cyclic changes in the temperature of the eastern Pacific Ocean that influences air temperature and rainfall in large areas of the bordering continents, spreading as far as Africa. ENSO has been associated with a higher incidence of dengue in some countries, notably in parts of Thailand in recent times (Tipayamongkholgul et al., 2009). Global warming due to the greenhouse effect may increase the frequency of ENSO events (Timmermann et al., 1999) and therefore cause more numerous epidemics of dengue. The warming of surface sea temperatures in the western Indian Ocean due to short term fluctuations known as the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is associated with higher malaria incidence in the western Kenyan highlands (Hashizume et al., 2009). The effects of short term ENSO and IOD events are a likely indication of the potential impacts of long term global climate change on mosquito-borne diseases that can also affect coastal zones. There have been very few studies on other primary climate changes like wind and atmospheric pollution that can also affect mosquito populations in coastal areas. Changes in wind patterns as a result of climate change are difficult to predict and likely to be locality-specific. It can be expected that higher onshore wind velocities will tend to disperse mosquito populations further inland. Atmospheric pollution will be higher in the vicinity of urban coastal areas, and it may be anticipated that mosquitoes will adapt to pollution with time. The gaps in knowledge in these areas need to be addressed.
Warming causes disease parasites SPPI 12 (Science and Public Policy Institute, Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change. "Global
Warming and Animal Parasitic Diseases. Last modified February 8, 2012. http://www.co2science.org/subject/p/summaries/animalparasites.php.) One of the perceived great tragedies of CO2-induced global warming is that rising temperatures will increase the development, transmission, and survival rates of parasites in general, leading to a perfect storm of biological interactions that will raise the prevalence of parasitic disease among animals in the future. But is this really so? In a provocative paper analyzing the intricacies of this complex issue, Hall et al. (2006)1 begin their analysis of the subject by asking Will an increasingly warmer world necessarily become a sicker world? T hey posed this question because, in their words, increased temperatures can accelerate the fitness of parasites, reduce recruitment bottlenecks for parasites during winter, and weaken hosts, while further noting that warmer temperatures may allow vector s of parasites to expand their range, which would enable them to introduce diseases to novel habitats, which is something climate alarmists frequently claim about mosquitoes and malaria. However, as they continue, these doomand-gloom scenarios do not necessarily apply to all taxa or all situations, and they note that warming does not necessarily increase the fitness of all parasites. Enlarging upon these latter points, the four biologists and their statistician co-author write that the virulence of parasites may not change, may decrease, or may respond unimodally to increasing temperatures (Stacey et al., 2003; Thomas and Blanford, 2003), and in this regard they further note that vital rates increase with temperature until some optimum is reached, and that once temperature
Gonzaga Debate Institute 57 Warming Core exceeds this optimum, vital rates decline gradually with increasing temperature for some taxa, but rapidly for others, such that in some host-parasite systems, a parasites optimum occurs at cooler temperatures than the optim um of its host, citing the work of Carruthers et al. (1992), Blanford and Thomas (1999) and Blanford et al. (2003) on fungusgrasshopper associations in substantiation of this scenario. In such cases, as they describe it, a host can use warmer temperatures to help defeat its parasites through behavioral modification of its thermal environment.However, the situation sometimes can be even more complex than this; for Hall et al. write that warmer temperatures can also lead to shifts in temperature optima (Huey and Hertz, 1984; Huey and Kingsolver, 1989, 1993), and that the exact evolutionary trajectory of host-parasite systems in a warmer world may depend sensitively upon underlying genetic correlation structures and interactions between host genotypes, parasite genotypes, and the environment (Blanford et al., 2003; Thomas and Blanford, 2003; Stacey et al., 2003; Mitchell et al., 2004). Consequently, they conclude that longer-term response of the physiology of host-parasite systems to global warming becomes difficult to predict. But these considerations are not the end of the story either; for the researchers note that other species can profoundly shape the outcome of parasitism in host populations, and that predators provide an important example bec ause, as they elucidate, predators can actually inhibit epidemics by selectively culling sick hosts and/or by maintaining host densities below levels required for parasites to persist (Hudson et al., 1992; Packer et al., 2003, Lafferty, 2004; Ostfeld and Holt, 2004; Duffey et al., 2005; Hall et al., 2005). When all is said and done, therefore, Hall et al. conclude that global warming does not necessarily mean that disease prevalence will increase in all systems.
Warming will increase our vulnerability to HIV/AIDs and will cause new, drug resistant strains Age News, 2008 (April 29. Age NewsGlobal warming set to fan the HIV fire.
http://news.theage.com.au/national/global-warming-set-to-fan-the-hiv-fire-20080430-29eh.html NMS) Climate change is the latest threat to the world's growing HIV epidemic, say Australian experts who warn of the "grim" outlook in the fight against the infectious disease. A leading professor of health and human rights, Daniel Tarantola, has cautioned that global warming will indirectly make citizens of developing countries even more vulnerable to death and severe ill health from HIV/AIDS. "It was clear soon after the emergence of the HIV epidemic that discrimination, gender inequality and lack of access to essential services have made some populations more vulnerable than others," said Prof Tarantola, of the University of NSW. Those problems had not gone away, he said, and extra threats were lurking on the horizon "as the global economic situation deteriorates, food scarcity worsens and climate change begins to affect those who were already dependent on survival economies". Advertisement "Climate change will trigger a chain of events which is likely to increase the stress on society and result in higher vulnerability to diseases including HIV," said Prof Tarantola, due to address an HIV forum in Sydney. Prominent HIV scientist Professor David Cooper, director of the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, agreed environmental change would have a negative impact on HIV sufferers. "Climate change will lead to food scarcity and poorer nutrition, putting people with perilous immune systems at more risk of dying of HIV, as well as contracting and transmitting new and unusual infections," Prof Cooper said. "And this would effect Australia too, because these infections could potentially spread. Just look at the horror that SARS and avian flu have caused." The specialist said the HIV landscape was grim, with 16,000 new infections worldwide each day and the failure of research to produce a much-needed cure or vaccine. He echoed the deep pessimism of 35 top British and US scientists who predicted this week that a vaccine would be at least 10 years and maybe even 20 years away. "It's a pretty grim situation," Prof Cooper said. "I don't think we have any idea of how to harness a vaccine for this and we need a strong basic science breakthrough to get anywhere with it."
Climate change can spread disease Harvard School of Public Health, The medical section of the University studying Diseases, 12 (Harvard School of
Public Health 2012 http://chge.med.harvard.edu/topic/climate-change-and-infectious-disease PB) Many prevalent human infections, including malaria, dengue fever, and cholera, are climate sensitive. In some cases, such as with malaria and dengue fever, this is in part because the disease is transmitted by mosquitoes which cannot survive if temperatures are too low. For others, climate restricts where an infection can occur because it limits the distribution of other species that are required for disease transmission. Although some evidence indicates that
Gonzaga Debate Institute 58 Warming Core warming may be causing malaria, for instance, to spread to higher elevations on mountains in East Africa, predicting how climate change will ultimately influence the incidence of diseases transmitted by insects remains challenging. Consider that malaria was once common over much of North America and Europe in the 19th century but is not routinely present on either continent today, even after the temperature has warmed in the intervening century. More predictable as climate change unfolds is the spread of so-called waterborne infections. These infections most often cause diarrheal illness and flourish in the wake of heavy rainfalls as runoff from land enters into and may contaminate water supplies. Many pathogens that cause diarrheal disease reproduce more quickly in warmer conditions as well
Climate Changes has claimed many lives and will continue to spread disease Patz, Professor & Director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, 05 (Jonathan A
Patz, 11/17/2205 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7066/abs/nature04188.html PB) The World Health Organisation estimates that the warming and precipitation trends due to anthropogenic climate change of the past 30 years already claim over 150,000 lives annually. Many prevalent human diseases are linked to climate fluctuations, from cardiovascular mortality and respiratory illnesses due to heatwaves, to altered transmission of infectious diseases and malnutrition from crop failures. Uncertainty remains in attributing the expansion or resurgence of diseases to climate change, owing to lack of long-term, high-quality data sets as well as the large influence of socio-economic factors and changes in immunity and drug resistance. Here we review the growing evidence that climatehealth relationships pose increasing health risks under future projections of climate change and that the warming trend over recent decades has already contributed to increased morbidity and mortality in many regions of the world. Potentially vulnerable regions include the temperate latitudes, which are projected to warm disproportionately, the regions around the Pacific and Indian oceans that are currently subjected to large rainfall variability due to the El Nio/Southern Oscillation sub-Saharan Africa and sprawling cities where the urban heat island effect could intensify extreme climatic events
The Spread of Disease leads to extinction Smith, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University., 06 (Katherine F. Smith 10/5/2006,
http://www.brown.edu/Research/Sax_Research_Lab/Documents/PDFs/evidemnce%20for%20role%20of%20disease.pdf PB) Infectious disease is listed among the top five causes of global species extinctions . However, the majority of available data supporting this contention is largely anecdotal. We used the IUCN Red List of Threatened and Endangered Species and literature indexed in the ISI Web of Science to assess the role of infectious disease in global species loss. Infectious disease was listed as a contributing factor in <4% of species extinctions known to have occurred since 1500 (833 plants and animals) and as contributing to a species status as critically endangered in <8% of cases (2852 critically endangered plants and animals). Although infectious diseases appear to play a minor role in global species loss, our findings underscore two important limitations in the available evidence: uncertainty surrounding the threats to species survival and a temporal bias in the data. Several initiatives could help overcome these obstacles, including rigorous scientific tests to determine which infectious diseases present a significant threat at the species level, recognition of the limitations associated with the lack of baseline data for the role of infectious disease in species extinctions, combining data with theory to discern the circumstances under which infectious disease is most likely to serve as an agent of extinction, and improving surveillance programs for the detection of infectious disease. An evidence-based understanding of the role of infectious disease in species extinction and endangerment will help prioritize conservation initiatives and protect global biodiversity. Recent studies suggest that infectious diseases in wildlife populations are emerging at unusually high rates. Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) are those caused by parasites and pathogens that have recently increased in incidence, occupied host species or geographic extent; have been newly discovered; or are caused by a newly evolved agent. The diversity of EIDs afflicting wildlife, coupled with the fear that an increased frequency of outbreaks will occur in the future, have raised concern that infectious disease may play a strong role
Gonzaga Debate Institute 59 Warming Core in species extinction. Indeed, infectious diseases can extirpate local populations, mediate community dynamics, and shrink host ranges. Given the effects of infectious diseases on wildlife, it is not surprising that a survey of biologists listed infectious disease among the top five causes of species extinctions in the United States (Wilcove et al. 1998). However, the majority of available data supporting this contention is largely anecdotal. Moreover, epidemiological theory predicts that infectious diseases should only drive species to extinction under specific circumstancesmost commonly when pre-epidemic population size is small, reservoir hosts are available, or when the infectious agent can survive in the abiotic environment (de Castro & Bolker 2005). In response to a growing interest in global species loss and emerging infectious diseases, it is worth investigating the generalization that infectious diseases play a widespread role in species extinction. Infectious disease was infrequently listed as a contributing factor to species extinction or endangerment. The IUCN Red List (IUCN 2004) reports that in the past 500 years, 100 plant and 733 animal species are known to have gone extinct. Whereas multiple causal factors are typically listed as having contributed to a species extinction, the most common causes appear to be habitat loss and overexploitation (IUCN 2004). Of these 833 known species extinctions, only 31 cases (3.7%) have been attributed, at least in part, to infectious disease
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Food crisis triggers global war. Stephen Hume, 4/16/2008. Senior writer for the Vancouver Sun. World Food Crisis Threatens Rich Nations (That's
Us), Too, Vancouver Sun, http://miami.indymedia.org/news/2008/04/10852.php In Rome, Reuters reported Jacques Diouf, head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, warning that with 37 countries already in crisis, each day brings greater risk of global famine. "I'm surprised that I have not been summoned to the UN Security Council," Diouf said. "Naturally people won't be sitting dying of starvation, they will react." India's finance minister was more direct. "It is becoming starker by the day," Palaniappan Chidambaram said. "Unless we act fast for a global consensus on the price spiral, the social unrest induced by food prices in several countries will conflagrate into a global contagion, leaving no country -- developed or otherwise -- unscathed."
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XT Food
Warming reduces global food production, which leads to global starvation IPCC 2007 (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, December 12-17-2007, p. 26 NMS)
At lower latitudes, especially in seasonally dry and tropical regions, crop productivity is projected to decrease for even small local temperature increases (1 to 2C), which would increase the risk of hunger (medium confidence). {WGII 5.4, SPM} _ Globally, the potential for food production is projected to increase with increases in local average temperature over a range of 1 to 3C, but above this it is projected to decrease (medium confidence).
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Middle East wars cause extinction Russell, 9 (James A. Russell, Senior Lecturer, National Security Affairs, Naval Postgraduate School, 9 (Spring)
Strategic Stability Reconsidered: Prospects for Escalation and Nuclear War in the Middle East IFRI, Proliferation Papers//, #26, __http://www.ifri.org/downloads/PP26_Russell_2009.pdf__) Strategic stability in the region is thus undermined by various factors: (1) asymmetric interests in the bargaining framework that can introduce unpredictable behavior from actors; (2) the presence of non-state actors that introduce unpredictability into relationships between the antagonists; (3) incompatible assumptions about the structure of the deterrent relationship that makes the bargaining framework strategically unstable; (4) perceptions by Israel and the United States that its window of opportunity for military action
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is closing, which could prompt a preventive attack; (5) the prospect that Irans response to pre-emptive attacks could involve unconventional weapons, which could
lack of a communications framework to build trust and cooperation among framework participants. These systemic weaknesses in the coercive bargaining framework all suggest that escalation by any the parties could happen either on purpose or as a result of miscalculation or the pressures of wartime circumstance. Given these factors, it is disturbingly easy to imagine scenarios under which a conflict could quickly escalate in which the regional antagonists would consider the use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons. It would be a mistake to believe the nuclear taboo can somehow magically keep nuclear
weapons from being used in the context of an unstable strategic framework. Systemic asymmetries between actors in fact suggest a certain increase in the probability of war a war in which escalation could happen quickly and from a variety of participants. Once such a war starts, events would likely develop a momentum all their own and decision-making would consequently be shaped in unpredictable ways. The international community must take this possibility seriously, and muster every tool at its disposal to prevent such an outcome, which would be an substantial risk for the entire
world.
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XT Mid East
Warming leads to middle east instability and conflicts Guttman Washington correspondent for the Israeli daily newspaper, 2007 (Nathan, June 13, 2007 The Jewish Daily,
Congress Warned That Global Warming Is Threat to Israel and Moderate Arab States http://forward.com/articles/10954/congress-warned-that-global-warming-is-threat-to-i/#ixzz2Yxg65IFY NMS) Israel is an insignificant player in contributing to global warming, but it suffers from it in a nonproportional rate, Bar-Or said. The main changes, the Israeli experts predicted, would be a drop in the water supply already a scarce commodity in the Middle East and an expected rise in temperature that will make it even more difficult to replenish water sources. According to the information presented this week, if action is not taken, then Israel might be facing a loss of up to 100 millimeters of rain a year almost 20% of the countrys annual rainfall. For Israel, water shortages could influence not only its population but also the future of its relations with neighboring countries. Israel is already facing difficulties fulfilling its agreement as part of its 1994 peace treaty with Jordan to transfer water to the Hashemite kingdom, and will face great problems when trying to work out water arrangements with Palestinians in a final status agreement. The Jordanian monarchy, which is based on support of the agricultural communities, might be in danger. The same is true for the Palestinian leadership, which might encounter an uprising of extremists who will feed on the poverty and despair caused by the collapse of agriculture due to lack of water.
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Climate change diplaces millions and destroys fundamental human rights EFJ 11 Environmental Justice Foundation EJF a UK Registered charity working internationally to protect the natural environment and human rights 2011 Climate Change and migration:forced displacement, climate refugees and the need for a new legal instrument http://www.ejfoundation.org/pdf/climate_briefing.pdf
Climate change is without doubt one of the foremost and most profound threats to environmental security and basic human rights, and its eects are already being observed across the globe. For human populations, the impacts are considerable, with an estimated 325 million people adversely aected, and 300,000 deaths each year 1 . Climate change is deteriorating environmental conditions and compromising the most basic human rights to life, food, shelter, health, and water. The short and long-term eects of climate change will compound existing poverty levels and obstruct social and economic development. The overall impacts for the developing world are sobering: within this century, hundreds of millions of people are likely to be displaced by Sea Level Rise (SLR); accompanying economic and ecological damage will be severe for many. The world has not previously faced a crisis on this scale, and planning for adaptation should begin immediately 17 . Environmental factors arising from climate change and leading to migration may be fast occurring. For example more intense tropical cyclones or in the longer-term, eects such as desertication or sea level rise that inundates lowlying regions damaging homes and infrastructure, increased health risks, declining soil fertility and lack of freshwater . Fisheries and agriculture are already showing signs of stress, yet they are projected to face a 50% increase in demand by 2030 18 . In the oceans, climate change is reducing the abundance and diversity of sh and other marine life this could be devastating for the 520 million people around 8% of the global population who are dependent on sheries for food and income. In Africa, an estimated 10 million people have migrated or been displaced over the last two decades mainly because of environmental degradation and desertication 7,19 . A recent (2009) report suggested that about 12 million people have fallen into poverty today because of climate change 1 .
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Acidification alters seawater chemical speciation and biogeochemical cycles of many elements and compounds. One well-known effect is the lowering of calcium carbonate saturation states, which impacts shellforming marine organisms from plankton to benthic molluscs, echinoderms, and corals. Many calcifying species exhibit reduced calcification and growth rates in laboratory experiments under high-CO2 conditions. Ocean acidification also causes an increase in carbon fixation rates in some photosynthetic organisms (both calcifying and noncalcifying). The potential for marine organisms to adapt to increasing CO 2 and broader implications for ocean ecosystems are not well known; both are high priorities for future research. Although ocean pH has varied in the geological past, paleo-events may be only imperfect analogs to current conditions. Over the past 250 years, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels increased by nearly 40%, from preindustrial levels of approximately 280 ppmv (parts per million volume) to nearly 384 ppmv in 2007 (Solomon et al. 2007). This rate of increase, driven by human fossil fuel combustion and deforestation, is at least an order of magnitude faster than has occurred for millions of years (Doney & Schimel 2007), and the current concentration is higher than experienced on Earth for at least the past 800,000 years (Lthi et al. 2008). Rising atmospheric CO2 is tempered by oceanic uptake, which accounts for nearly a third of anthropogenic carbon added to the atmosphere (Sabine & Feely 2007, Sabine et al. 2004), and without which atmospheric CO2 would be approximately 450 ppmv today, a level of CO2 that would have led to even greater climate change than witnessed today. Ocean CO2 uptake,
however, is not benign; it causes pH reductions and alterations in fundamental chemical balances that together are commonly referred to as ocean acidification. Because climate change and ocean acidification are both caused by
increasing atmospheric CO2, acidification is commonly referred to as the other CO2 problem (Henderson 2006, Turley 2005). Ocean acidification is a predictable consequence of rising atmospheric CO2 and does not suffer from uncertainties associated with climate change forecasts. Absorption of anthropogenic CO2, reduced pH, and lower calcium carbonate (CaCO3) saturation in surface waters, where the bulk of oceanic production occurs, are well verified from models, hydrographic surveys, and time series data (Caldeira & Wickett 2003,2005; Feely et al. 2004, 2008; Orr et al. 2005; Solomon et al. 2007). At the Hawaii Ocean Time-Series (HOT) station ALOHA the growth rates of surface water pCO2 and atmospheric CO2 agree well (Takahashi et al. 2006) (Figure 1), indicating uptake of anthropogenic CO2 as the major cause for long-term increases in dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and decreases in CaCO3 saturation state. Correspondingly, since the 1980s average pH measurements at HOT, the Bermuda Atlantic Time-Series Study, and European Station for Time-Series in the Ocean in the eastern Atlantic have decreased approximately 0.02 units per decade (Solomon et al. 2007). Since preindustrial times, the average ocean surface water pH has fallen by approximately 0.1 units, from approximately 8.21 to 8.10 (Royal Society 2005), and is expected to decrease a further 0.30.4 pH units (Orr et al. 2005) if atmospheric CO2 concentrations reach 800 ppmv [the projected end-of-century concentration according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) business-as-usual emission scenario]. Fossil fuel combustion and agriculture also produce increased atmospheric inputs of dissociation products of strong acids (HNO3 and H2SO4) and bases (NH3) to the coastal and open ocean. These inputs are particularly important close to major source regions, primarily in the northern hemisphere, and cause decreases in surface
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seawater alkalinity, pH, and DIC (Doney et al. 2007). On a global scale, these anthropogenic inputs (0.8 Tmol/yr reactive sulfur and 2.7 Tmol/yr reactive nitrogen) contribute only a small fraction of the acidification caused by anthropogenic CO2, but they are more concentrated in coastal waters where the ecosystem responses to ocean acidification could be more serious for humankind. Seawater carbon dioxide measurements have been conducted since the beginning of the nineteenth century (Krogh 1904) but were sparse until the middle of the twentieth century (Keeling et al. 1965, Takahashi 1961) and particularly until the Geochemical Sections (GEOSECS) (19731979) (Craig & Turekian 1976, 1980) and Transient Tracers in the Ocean (TTO) (19811983) (Brewer et al. 1985) programs. Even so, the GEOSECS and TTO measurements were significantly less precise than those of today. Although researchers recognized that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the surface ocean was more or less in equilibrium with overlying atmosphere CO2, they largely dismissed the potential impact on the ocean biota because calcite (the assumed CaCO3 mineralogy of most calcifying organisms) would remain supersaturated in the surface ocean. Since then, multiple studies revealed several issues that elevate ocean acidification as a threat to marine biota: (a) the calcification rates of many shell-forming organisms respond to the degree of supersaturation (e.g.,Smith & Buddemeier 1992, Kleypas et al. 1999); (b) aragonite, a more soluble CaCO3 mineral equally important in calcifying organisms, may become undersaturated in the surface ocean within the early 21st century (Feely & Chen 1982, Feely et al. 1988, Orr et al. 2005); and (c) the biological effects of decreasing ocean pH reach far beyond limiting calcification.
Marine ecosystems are critical to the survival of all life on earth. Craig 3 (Robin Kundis Craig, Associate Professor of Law, Indiana University School of Law, 34 McGeorge L. Rev. 155)
Biodiversity and ecosystem function arguments for conserving marine ecosystems also exist, just as they do for terrestrial ecosystems, but these arguments have thus far rarely been raised in political debates. For example, besides significant tourism values - the most economically valuable ecosystem service coral reefs provide, worldwide - coral reefs protect against storms and dampen other environmental fluctuations, services worth more than ten times the reefs' value for food production. n856 Waste treatment is another significant, non-extractive ecosystem function that intact coral reef ecosystems provide. n857 More generally, "ocean ecosystems play a major role in the global geochemical cycling of all the elements that represent the basic building blocks of living organisms , carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur, as well as other less abundant but necessary elements." n858 In a very real and direct sense, therefore, human degradation of marine ecosystems impairs the planet's ability to support life. Maintaining biodiversity is often critical to maintaining the functions of marine ecosystems. Current evidence shows that, in general, an ecosystem's ability to keep functioning in the face of disturbance is strongly dependent on its biodiversity, "indicating that more diverse ecosystems are more stable." n859 Coral reef ecosystems are particularly dependent on their biodiversity. [*265] Most ecologists agree that the complexity of interactions and degree of interrelatedness among component species is higher on coral reefs than in any other marine environment. This implies that the ecosystem functioning that produces the most highly valued components is also complex and that many otherwise insignificant species have strong effects on sustaining the rest of the reef system. n860 Thus, maintaining and restoring the biodiversity of marine ecosystems is critical to maintaining and restoring the ecosystem services that they provide. Non-use biodiversity values for marine ecosystems have been calculated in the wake of marine disasters, like the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. n861 Similar calculations could derive preservation values for marine wilderness. However, economic value, or economic value equivalents, should not be "the sole or even primary justification for conservation of ocean ecosystems. Ethical arguments also have considerable force and merit." n862 At the forefront of such arguments should be a recognition of how little we know about the sea - and about the actual effect of human activities on marine ecosystems. The United States has traditionally failed to protect marine ecosystems because it was difficult to detect anthropogenic harm to the oceans, but we now know that such harm is occurring - even though we are not completely sure about causation or about how to fix every problem. Ecosystems like the NWHI coral reef ecosystem should inspire lawmakers and policymakers to admit that most of the time we really do not know what we
Gonzaga Debate Institute 70 Warming Core are doing to the sea and hence should be preserving marine wilderness whenever we can - especially when the United States has within its territory relatively pristine marine ecosystems that may be unique in the world. We may not know much about the sea, but we do know this much: if we kill the ocean we kill ourselves, and we will take most of the biosphere with us . The Black Sea is almost dead, n863 its once-complex and productive ecosystem almost entirely replaced by a monoculture of comb jellies, "starving out fish and dolphins, emptying fishermen's nets, and converting the web of life into brainless, wraith-like blobs of jelly." n864 More importantly, the Black Sea is not necessarily unique. The Black Sea is a microcosm of what is happening to the ocean systems at large. The stresses piled up: overfishing, oil spills, industrial discharges, nutrient pollution, wetlands destruction, the introduction of an alien species. The sea weakened, slowly at first, then collapsed with [*266] shocking suddenness. The lessons of this tragedy should not be lost to the rest of us, because much of what happened here is being repeated all over the world. The ecological stresses imposed on the Black Sea were not unique to communism. Nor, sadly, was the failure of governments to respond to the emerging crisis. n865 Oxygen-starved "dead zones" appear with increasing frequency off the coasts of major cities and major rivers, forcing marine animals to flee and killing all that cannot. n866 Ethics as well as enlightened self-interest thus suggest that the United States should protect fully-functioning marine ecosystems wherever possible even if a few fishers go out of business as a result.
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Ozone depletion causes complete extinction scientific consensus is on our side Greenpeace, 1995, Full of Holes: Montreal Protocol and the Continuing Destruction of the Ozone Layer,
http://archive.greenpeace.org/ozone/holes/holebg.html When chemists Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina first postulated a link between chlorofluorocarbons and ozone layer depletion in 1974, the news was greeted with scepticism, but taken seriously nonetheless. The vast majority of credible scientists have since confirmed this hypothesis. The ozone layer around the Earth shields us all from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Without the ozone layer , life on earth would not exist . Exposure to increased levels of ultraviolet radiation can cause cataracts, skin cancer, and immune system suppression in humans as well as innumerable effects on other living systems. This is why Rowland's and Molina's theory was taken so seriously, so quickly - the stakes are literally the continuation of life on earth.
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The two most likely reactions to a sudden drop in carrying capacity due to climate change are defensive and offensive. The United States and Australia are likely to build defensive fortresses around their countries because they have the resources and reserves to achieve self-sufficiency. With diverse growing climates, wealth, technology, and abundant resources, the United States could likely survive shortened growing cycles and harsh weather conditions without catastrophic losses. Borders will be strengthened around the country to hold back unwanted starving immigrants from the Caribbean islands (an especially severe problem), Mexico, and South America. Energy supply will be shored up through expensive (economically, politically, and morally) alternatives such as nuclear, renewables, hydrogen, and Middle Eastern contracts. Pesky skirmishes over fishing rights, agricultural support, and disaster relief will be commonplace. Tension between the U.S. and Mexico rise as the U.S. reneges on the 1944 treaty that guarantees water flow from the Colorado River. Relief workers will be commissioned to respond to flooding along the southern part of the east coast and much drier conditions inland. Yet, even in this continuous state of emergency the U.S. will be positioned well compared to others. The intractable problem facing the nation will be calming the mounting military tension around the world. As famine, disease, and weather-related disasters strike due to the abrupt climate change, many countries needs will exceed their carrying capacity. This will create a sense of desperation, which is likely to lead to offensive aggression in order to reclaim balance. Imagine eastern European countries, struggling to feed their populations with a falling supply of food, water, and energy, eyeing Russia, whose population is already in decline, for access to its grain, minerals, and energy supply. Or, picture Japan, suffering from flooding along its coastal cities and contamination of its fresh water supply, eying Russias Sakhalin Island oil and gas reserves as an energy source to power desalination plants and energy-intensive agricultural processes. Envision Pakistan, India, and China all armed with nuclear weapons skirmishing at their borders over refugees, access to shared rivers, and arable land. Spanish and Portuguese fishermen might fight over fishing rights leading to conflicts at sea. And, countries including the United States would be likely to better secure their borders. With over 200 river basins touching multiple nations, we can expect conflict over access to water for drinking, irrigation, and transportation. The Danube touches twelve nations, the Nile runs though nine, and the Amazon runs through seven.
Proliferation leads to a global nuclear war. Taylor 6 *Theodore B., Chairman of NOVA. July 6 2006, Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,
http://wwwee.stanford.edu/~hellman/Breakthrough/book/chapters/taylor.html] Nuclear proliferation - be it among nations or terrorists - greatly increases the chance of nuclear violence on a scale that would be intolerable. Proliferation increases the chance that nuclear weapons will fall into the hands of irrational people, either suicidal or with no concern for the fate of the world. Irrational or outright psychotic leaders of military factions or terrorist groups might decide to use a few nuclear weapons under their control to stimulate a global nuclear war, as an act of vengeance against humanity as a whole. Countless scenarios of this type can be constructed. Limited nuclear wars between countries with small numbers of nuclear weapons could escalate into major nuclear wars between superpowers. For example, a nation in an advanced stage of "latent proliferation," finding itself losing a nonnuclear war, might complete the transition to deliverable nuclear weapons and, in desperation, use them. If that should happen in a region, such as the Middle East, where major superpower interests are at stake, the small nuclear war could easily escalate into a global nuclear war.
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Gonzaga Debate Institute 74 Warming Core inevitable negativity of the condition of the dominated; that is it illuminates in a certain sense the entire human condition. The anti-racist struggle, difficult though it is, and always in question, is nevertheless one of the prologues to the ultimate passage from animality to humanity. In that sense, we cannot fail to rise to the racist challenge. However, it remains true that ones moral conduct only emerges from a choice: one has to want it. It is a choice among other choices, and always debatable in its foundations and its consequences. Let us say, broadly speaking, that the choice to conduct oneself morally is the condition for the establishment of a human order for which racism is the very negation. This is almost a redundancy. One cannot found a moral order, let alone a legislative order, on racism because racism signifies the exclusion of the other and his or her subjection to violence and domination. From an ethical point of view, if one can deploy a little religious language, racism is the truly capital sin.fn22 It is not an accident that almost all of humanitys spiritual traditions counsel respect for the weak, for orphans, widows, or strangers. It is not just a question of theoretical counsel respect for the weak, for orphans, widows or strangers. It is not just a question of theoretical morality and disinterested commandments. Such unanimity in the safeguarding of the other suggests the real utility of such sentiments. All things considered, we have an interest in banishing injustice, because injustice engenders violence and death. Of course, this is debatable. There are those who think that if one is strong enough, the assault on and oppression of others is permissible. But no one is ever sure of remaining the strongest. One day, perhaps, the roles will be reversed. All unjust society contains within itself the seeds of its own death. It is probably smarter to treat others with respect so that they treat you with respect. Recall, says the bible, that you were once a stranger in Egypt, which means both that you ought to respect the stranger because you were a stranger yourself and that you risk becoming once again someday. It is an ethical and a practical appeal indeed, it is a contract, however implicit it might be. In short, the refusal of racism is the condition for all theoretical and practical morality. Because, in the end, the ethical choice commands the political choice. A just society must be a society accepted by all. If this contractual principle is not accepted, then only conflict, violence, and destruction will be our lot. If it is accepted, we can hope someday to live in peace. True, it is a wager, but the stakes are irresistible.
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US-Russia war causes extinction Bostrom 2 - Professor of Philosophy and Global Studies at Yale (Nick, "Existential Risks: Analyzing Human Extinction
Scenarios and Related Hazards," 38, www.transhumanist.com/volume9/risks.html)
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A much greater existential risk emerged with the build-up of nuclear arsenals in the US and the USSR. An all-out nuclear war was a possibility with both a substantial probability and with consequences that might have been persistent enough to qualify as global and terminal. There was a real worry among those best acquainted with the information available at the time that a nuclear Armageddon would occur and that it might annihilate our species or permanently destroy human civilization. Russia and the US retain large nuclear arsenals that could be used in a future confrontation, either accidentally or deliberately. There is also a risk that other states may one day build up large nuclear arsenals. Note however that a smaller nuclear exchange, between India and Pakistan for instance, is not an existential risk, since it would not destroy or thwart humankinds potential permanently.
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Resource conflict causes prolif and nuclear conflict. Wooldridge 9. (Frosty, free lance writer, once lectured at Cornell University, Humanity galloping toward its greatest
crisis in the 21st century http://www.australia.to/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10042:humanitygalloping-toward-its-greatest-crisis-in-the-21st-century&catid=125:frosty-wooldridge&Itemid=244 It is clear that most politicians and most citizens do not recognize that returning to more of the same is a recipe for promoting the first collapse of a global civilization. The required changes in energy technology, which would benefit not only the environment but also national security, public health, and the economy, would demand a World War II type mobilization -- and even that might not prevent a global climate disaster. Without transitioning away from use of fossil fuels, humanity will move further into an era of resource wars (remember, Africom has been added to the Pentagons structure -- and China has noticed), clearly with intent to protect US interests in petroleum reserves. The consequences of more resource wars, many likely triggered over water supplies stressed by climate disruption, are likely to include increased unrest in poor nations, a proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, widening inequity within and between nations, and in the worst (and not unlikely) case, a nuclear war ending civilization.
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Indo-China territorial disputes go nuclear - results in great-power draw-in Kahn 9 (Jeremy Kahn, staff writer for Newsweek, 10/9/2009, "Why India Fears China," http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/10/09/why-india-fears-china.print.html)
Ever since the anti-Chinese unrest in Tibet last year, progress toward settling the border dispute has stalled, and the situation has taken a dangerous turn. The emergence of videos showing Tibetans beating up Han Chinese shopkeepers in Lhasa and other Tibetan cities created immense domestic pressure on Beijing to crack down. The Communist Party leadership worries that agitation by Tibetans will only encourage unrest by the country's other ethnic minorities, such as Uighurs in Xinjiang or ethnic Mongolians in Inner Mongolia, threatening China's integrity as a nation. Susan Shirk, a former Clinton-administration official and expert on China, says that "in the past, Taiwan was the 'core issue of sovereignty,' as they call it, and Tibet was not very salient to the public." Now, says Shirk, Tibet is considered a "core issue of national sovereignty" on par with Taiwan. The implications for India's security and the world'sare ominous. It turns what was once an obscure argument over lines on a 1914 map and some barren, rocky peaks hardly worth fighting over into a flash point that could spark a war between two nuclear-armed neighbors. And that makes the India-China border dispute into an issue of concern to far more than just the two
Gonzaga Debate Institute 80 Warming Core parties involved. The United States and Europe as well as the rest of Asia ought to take noticea conflict involving India and China could result in a nuclear exchange. And it could suck the West ineither as an ally in the defense of Asian democracy, as in the case of Taiwan, or as a mediator trying to separate the two sides.
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Gonzaga Debate Institute 82 Warming Core food, water and shelter. As Reid's comments indicate, no society, however affluent, will escape involvement in these forms of conflict.
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the movement is inexorably toward the poles and totals more than one hundred miles over the past several decades. If greenhouse gases continue to increase at business-as-usual rates, then the rate of isotherm movement will double in this century to at least seventy miles per decade. Species at the most immediate risk are those in polar climates and the biologically diverse slopes of alpine regions. Polar animals, in effect, will be pushed off the planet. Alpine species will be pushed toward higher altitudes, and toward
smaller, rockier areas with thinner air; thus, in effect, they will also be pushed off the planet. A few such species, such as polar bears, no doubt will be "rescued" by human beings, but survival in zoos or managed animal reserves will be small consolation to bears or nature lovers. Earth's history provides an invaluable perspective about what is possible. Fossils
in the
geologic record reveal that there have been five mass extinctions during the past five hundred million years geologically brief periods in which about half or more of the species on Earth disappeared forever. In each case, life survived and new species developed over hundreds of thousands and millions of years. All these mass extinctions were associated with large and relatively rapid changes of atmospheric composition and climate. In the most extreme extinction, the "end-Permian" event, dividing the Permian Triassic periods 251 million years ago, nearly all life on Earth more than 90 percent of terrestrial and marine specieswas exterminated. None of the extinction events is understood in full. Research is active, as increasingly powerful methods of "reading the rocks" are being developed. Yet enough is now known to provide an invaluable perspective for what is already being called the sixth mass extinction, the human-caused destruction of species. Knowledge of past extinction events can inform us about potential paths for the future and perhaps help guide our actions, as our single powerful species threatens all others, and our own. We do not know how many animal, plant, insect, and microbe species exist today. Nor do we know the rate
we are driving species to extinction. About two million species half of them being insects, including butterflieshave been cataloged, but more are discovered every day. The order of magnitude for the total is perhaps ten million. Some biologists estimate that when all the microbes, fungi, and parasites are counted, there may be one hundred million species. Bird species are documented better than most. Everybody has heard of the dodo, the passenger pigeon, the ivory-billed woodpeckerall are goneand the whooping crane, which, so far, we have just barely "saved." We are still losing one or two bird species per year. In total about 1 percent of bird species have disappeared over the past several centuries. If the
loss of birds is representative of other species, several thousand species are becoming extinct each year. The current extinction rate is at least one hundred times greater than the average natural rate. So the concern that humans may have initiated the sixth mass extinction is easy to understand. However, the outcome is still very much up in the air, and human-made climate change is likely to be the determining factor. I will argue that if we continue on a business-as-usual path, with a global warming of several degrees Celsius, then we will drive a large fraction of species, conceivably all species, to extinction. On the other hand, just as in the case of ice sheet stability, if we bring
atmospheric composition under control in the near future, it is still possible to keep human-caus ed extinctions to a moderate level.
Biodiversity loss causes extinction Young, PhD coastal marine ecology 2010 - (Ruth, Biodiversity: what it is and why its important, February 9th, http://www.talkingnature.com/2010/02/biodiversity/biodiversity-what-and-why/ PB) Different species within ecosystems fill particular roles, they all have a function, they all have a niche. They interact with each other and the physical environment to provide ecosystem services that are vital for our survival. For example plant species convert carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and energy from the sun into useful things such as food, medicines and timber. Pollination carried out by insects such as bees enables the production of of our food crops. Diverse mangrove and coral reef ecosystems provide a wide variety of habitats that are essential for many fishery species. To make it simpler for economists to comprehend the magnitude of services offered by biodiversity, a team of researchers estimated their value it amounted to $US33 trillion per year. By protecting biodiversity we maintain ecosystem services Certain species play a keystone role in maintaining ecosystem services. Similar to the removal of a keystone from an arch, the removal of these species can result in the collapse of an ecosystem and the subsequent removal of ecosystem services. The most well known example of this occurred during the 19th century when sea otters were almost hunted to
extinction by fur traders along the west coast of the USA. This led to a population explosion in the sea otters main source of prey, sea urchins. Because the urchins graze on kelp their booming population decimated the underwater kelp forests. This loss of habitat led to declines in local fish populations. Sea otters are a keystone species once hunted for their fur (Image: Mike Baird) Eventually a treaty protecting sea otters allowed the numbers of otters to increase which inturn controlled the urchin population, leading to the recovery of the kelp forests and fish stocks. In other cases, ecosystem services are maintained by entire functional groups, such as apex predators (See Jeremy Hances post at Mongabay). During the last 35 years, over fishing of large shark species along the US Atlantic coast has led to a population explosion of skates and rays. These skates and rays eat bay scallops and their out of control population has led to the closure of a century long scallop fishery. These are just two examples demonstrating how biodiversity can maintain the services that ecosystems provide for us, such as fisheries.
One could argue that to maintain ecosystem services we dont need to protect biodiversity but rather, we only need to
Gonzaga Debate Institute 84 Warming Core protect the species and functional groups that fill the keystone roles. However, there are a couple of problems with this idea. First of all, for most ecosystems we dont know which species are the keystones! Ecosystems are so complex that we are still discovering which species play vital roles in maintaining them. In some cases its groups of species not just one species that are vital for the ecosystem. Second, even if we did complete the enormous task of identifying and protecting all keystone species, what back-up plan would we have if an unforseen event (e.g. pollution or disease) led to the demise of these keystone species? Would there be another species to save the day and take over this role? Classifying some species as keystone implies
that the others are not important. This may lead to the non-keystone species being considered ecologically worthless and subsequently over-exploited. Sometimes we may not even know which species are likely to fill the keystone roles. An example of this was discovered on Australias Great Barrier Reef. This research examined what would happen to a coral reef if it were over-fished. The over-fishing was simulated by fencing off coral bommies thereby excluding and removing fish from them for three years. By the end of the experiment, the reefs had changed from a coral to an algae dominated ecosystem the coral became overgrown with algae. When the time came to remove the fences the researchers expected herbivorous species of fish like the parrot fish (Scarus spp.) to eat the algae and enable the reef to switch back to a coral dominated ecosystem. But, surprisingly, the shift back to coral was driven by a supposed unimportant species the bat fish (Platax pinnatus). The bat fish was previously thought to feed on invertebrates small crabs and shrimp, but when offered a big patch of algae it turned into a hungry herbivore a cow of the sea grazing the algae in no time. So a fish previously thought to be unimportant is actually a keystone species in the recovery of coral reefs overgrown by algae! Who knows how many other species are out there with unknown ecosystem roles! In some cases its easy to see who the keystone species are but in many ecosystems seemingly unimportant or redundant specie s are also capable of changing niches and maintaining ecosystems. The
more biodiverse an ecosystem is, the more likely these species will be present and the more resilient an ecosystem is to future impacts. Presently were only scratching the surface of understanding the full importance of biodiversity and how it helps maintain ecosystem function. The scope of this task is immense. In the meantime, a wise insurance policy for maintaining ecosystem services would be to conserve biodiversity. In doing so, we increase the chance of maintaining our ecosystem services in the event of future impacts such as disease, invasive species and of course, climate change. This is the international year of biodiversity a time to recognize that biodiversity makes our survival on this planet possible and that our protection of biodiversity maintains this service.
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Warming kills the navy stretches capabilities and destroys crucial basing
Broder Reporter at the NYT 11 *John, 3/10/2011, New York Times, Study Says Navy Must Adapt to Climate Change, http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/study-says-navy-must-adapt-to-climate-change/, 7-12-13 KB A report commissioned by the United States Navy concludes that climate change will pose profound challenges for the sea service in coming decades, including a need to secure Arctic shipping lanes, prepare for more frequent humanitarian missions and protect coastal installations from rising seas. The 15-month study, conducted by the National Research Council, accepts the scientific consensus that the climate is changing and that the effects are being felt now. Of particular consequence to American naval forces the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard are the melting polar ice cap, rising seas and increasingly frequent severe storms and droughts that could lead to famine, mass migration and political instability. The report from research council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, builds on previous work by the Pentagon, State Department, the intelligence community and independent research groups that have concluded that climate change is a threat multiplier that adds new and unpredictable dangers to global physical and political stability. The primary authors are Frank L. Bowman, a retired Navy admiral who led the services nuclear propulsion unit, and Antonio J. Busalacchi, Jr., a climatologist and director of the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center at the University of Maryland, College Park. They were assisted by a large number of climate and oceanography experts as well as corporate planners and active-duty military officers. The group found that the precise impacts of climate change are impossible to predict, but that actions should be undertaken now to prepare for a range of outcomes. It also found that some impacts are already observable, including melting sea ice in the Arctic and rising
Gonzaga Debate Institute 86 Warming Core sea levels, and require planning and action by naval forces. Even the most moderate predicted trends in climate change will present new national security challenges for the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, Mr. Bowman said. Naval forces need to monitor more closely and start preparing now for projected challenges climate change will present in the future. Summer sea ice is retreating at an estimated rate of 10 percent a decade, and Arctic Ocean sea lanes could be open as early as the summer of 2030, the report found. Shipping, oil and gas operations and other activities in the region will require an increased naval presence in the region, new equipment such as icebreakers and increased cold-weather training, the authors write. The report also concludes that the military should also be prepared for large-scale and frequent missions to help people displaced by major storms or drought. The Navy should consider beefing up its small complement of hospital ships, perhaps by contracting with private companies to provide extra capability in emergencies, it said. What is more, major naval installations along the coasts are vulnerable to rising seas and storm surges, and plans should be made to relocate some critical facilities inland, the report contends, estimating that $100 billion of Navy installations would be at risk of sea level rise of one meter or more. Although the future degree and magnitude of climate change on regional scales is uncertain, its clear that the potential for environmental disasters is on the rise due to the changing nature of the hydrologic cycle and sea level , Mr. Busalacchi said. Naval forces must be prepared to provide more aid and disaster relief in the decades ahead.
Warming destroys the US Navys ability to win the artic conflict facilitates belligerence MSNBC 11
Navy's got new challenges with warming, experts say Report: Arctic role will grow; bases will be vulnerable to storms, rising seas,http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41990999/ns/us_news-environment/t/navys-got-new-challenges-warming-experts-say/, 7-12-13, KB
The U.S. Navy should plan for climate change impacts from costly base repairs, to mobilizing for humanitarian aid and geopolitical conflicts in the Arctic the National Research Council said in a report Thursday. "Even the most moderate predicted trends in climate change will present new national security challenges ," retired Adm.
Frank Bowman, co-chair of the committee that wrote the report at the Navy's request, said in a statement. "Naval forces need to monitor more closely and start preparing now for projected challenges climate change will present in the future," he added. As rising temperatures continue to melt sea ice, Arctic sea lanes could be regularly open across the Arctic by 2030, the report noted. The region is already seeing ships testing the waters, as well as nations lining up to seek energy and mineral deposits. Russia has been among the most aggressive in seeking energy riches, while Canada has beefed up its patrols. "The geopolitical situation in the Arctic region has become complex and nuanced, despite the area being essentially ignored since the end of the Cold War," the experts wrote. In order to protect U.S. interests, they added, "the Navy should begin Arctic training and the Marine
Corps should also reestablish a cold-weather training program. Rising sea levels and more extreme storm surges tied to warming could also become costly for the Navy. A rise of three feet, the experts said, would place at risk 56 Navy installations worth $100 billion. The Navy should expect a rise by 2100 anywhere between a foot and six feet , they
added. The report also urged the Navy to increase its capacity for helping climate refugees via hospital ships. "Naval forces must be prepared to provide more aid and disaster relief in the decades ahead," said panel co-chair Antonio Busalacchi, director of the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center at the University of Maryland.
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Gonzaga Debate Institute 88 Warming Core you see is snow and jagged rock, resembling the bleak landscape of the moon. Although barren and forbidding, the terrain makes the Arctic an ideal place to analyze the climate of the earth hundreds of thousands of years ago. When I visited their laboratory, which is kept at freezing temperatures, I had to pass through thick refrigerator doors. Once inside, I could see racks and racks containing long metal tubes, each about an inch and a half in diameter and about ten feet long. Each hollow tube had been drilled deep into the ice of a glacier. As the tube penetrated the ice, it captured samples from snows that had fallen thousands of years ago. When the tubes were removed, I could carefully examine the icy contents of each. At first, all I could see was a long column of white ice. But upon closer examination, I could see that the ice had stripes made of tiny bands of different colors. Scientists have to use a variety of techniques to date them. Some of the ice layers contain markers indicating important events, such as the soot emitted from a volcanic eruption. Since the dates of these eruptions are known to great accuracy, one can use them to determine how old that layer is. These ice cores were then cut in various slices so they could be examined. When I peered into one slice under a microscope, I saw tiny, microscopic bubbles. I shuddered to realize that I was seeing air bubbles that were deposited tens of thousands of years ago, even before the rise of human civilization. The carbon dioxide content within each air bubble is easily measured. But calculating the temperature of the air when the ice was first deposited is more difficult. (To do this, scientists analyze the water in the bubble. Water molecules can contain different isotopes. As the temperature falls, heavier water isotopes condense faster than ordinary water molecules. Hence, by measuring the amount of the heavier isotopes, one can calculate the temperature at which the water molecule condensed.) Finally, after painfully analyzing the contents of thousands of ice cores, these scientists have come to some important conclusions. They found that temperature and carbon dioxide levels have oscillated in parallel, like two roller coasters moving together, in synchronization over many thousands of years. When one curve rises or falls, so does the other. Most important, they found a sudden spike in temperature and carbon dioxide content happening just within the last century. This is highly unusual, since most fluctuations occur slowly over millennia. This unusual spike is not part of this natural heating process, scientists claim, but is a direct indicator of human activity . There are other ways to show that this sudden spike is caused by human activity, and not natural cycles. Computer simulations are now so advanced that we can simulate the temperature of the earth with and without the presence of human activity. Without civilization producing carbon dioxide, we find a relatively flat temperature curve. But with the addition of human activity, we can show that there should be a sudden spike in both temperature and carbon dioxide. The predicted spike fits the actual spike perfectly. Lastly, one can measure the amount of sunlight that lands on every square foot of the earths surface. Scientists can also calculate the amount of heat that is reflected into outer space from the earth. Normally, we expect these two amounts to be equal, with input equaling output. But in reality, we find the net amount of energy that is currently heating the earth. Then if we calculate the amount of energy being produced by human activity, we find a perfect match. Hence, human activity is causing the current heating of the earth. Unfortunately, even if we were to suddenly stop producing any carbon dioxide, the gas that has already been released into the atmosphere is enough to continue global warming for decades to come. As a result, by midcentury, the situation could be dire. Scientists have created pictures of what our coastal cities will look like at midcentury and beyond if sea levels continue to rise. Coastal cities may disappear. Large parts of Manhattan may have to be evacuated, with Wall Street underwater. Governments will have to decide which of their great cities and capitals are worth saving and which are beyond hope. Some cities may be saved via a combination of sophisticated dikes and water gates. Other cities may be deemed hopeless and allowed to vanish under the ocean, creating mass migrations of people. Since most of the commercial and population centers of the world are next to the ocean, this could have a disastrous effect on the world economy. Even if some cities can be salvaged, there is still the danger that large storms can send surges of water into a city, paralyzing its infrastructure. For example, in 1992 a huge storm surge flooded Manhattan, paralyzing the subway system and trains to New Jersey. With transportation flooded, the economy grinds to a halt. FLOODING BANGLADESH AND VIETNAM A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change isolated three hot spots for potential disaster: Bangladesh, the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, and the Nile Delta in Egypt. The worst situation is that of Bangladesh, a country regularly flooded by storms even without global warming. Most of the country is flat and at sea level. Although it has made significant gains in the last few decades, it is still one of the poorest nations on earth, with one of the highest population densities. (It has a population of 161 million, comparable to that of Russia, but with 1/120 of the land area.) About 50 percent of the land area will be permanently flooded if sea levels rise by three feet. Natural calamities occur there almost every year, but in September 1998, the world witnessed in horror a preview of what may become commonplace. Massive flooding submerged two-thirds of the nation, leaving 30 million people homeless almost
Gonzaga Debate Institute 89 Warming Core overnight; 1,000 were killed, and 6,000 miles of roads were destroyed. This was one of the worst natural disasters in modern history. Another country that would be devastated by a rise in sea level is Vietnam, where the Mekong Delta is particularly vulnerable. By midcentury, this country of 87 million people could face a collapse of its main food-growing area. Half the rice in Vietnam is grown in the Mekong Delta, home to 17 million people, and much of it will be flooded permanently by rising sea levels. According to the World Bank, 11 percent of the entire population would be displaced if sea levels rise by three feet by midcentury. The Mekong Delta will also be flooded with salt water, permanently destroying the fertile soil of the area. If millions are flooded out of their homes in Vietnam, many will flock to Ho Chi Minh City seeking refuge. But one-fourth of the city will also be underwater. In 2003 the Pentagon commissioned a study, done by the Global Business Network, that showed that, in a worst-case scenario, chaos could spread around the world due to global warming. As millions of refugees cross national borders, governments could lose all authority and collapse, so countries could descend into the nightmare of looting, rioting, and chaos. In this desperate situation, nations, when faced with the prospect of the influx of millions of desperate people, may resort to nuclear weapons. Envision Pakistan, India, and Chinaall armed with nuclear weaponsskirmishing at their borders over refugees, access to shared rivers, and arable land, the report said. Peter Schwartz, founder of the Global Business Network and a principal author of the Pentagon study, confided to me the details of this scenario. He told me that the biggest hot spot would be the border between India and Bangladesh. In a major crisis in Bangladesh, up to 160 million people could be driven out of their homes, sparking one of the greatest migrations in human history. Tensions could rapidly rise as borders collapse, local governments are paralyzed, and mass rioting breaks out. Schwartz sees that nations may use nuclear weapons as a last resort. In a worst-case scenario, we could have a greenhouse effect that feeds on itself. For example, the melting of the tundra in the Arctic regions may release millions of tons of methane gas from rotting vegetation. Tundra covers nearly 9 million square miles of land in the Northern Hemisphere, containing vegetation frozen since the last Ice Age tens of thousands of years ago. This tundra contains more carbon dioxide and methane than the atmosphere, and this poses an enormous threat to the worlds weather. Methane gas, moreover, is a much deadlier greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. It does not stay in the atmosphere as long, but it causes much more damage than carbon dioxide. The release of so much methane gas from the melting tundra could cause temperatures to rapidly rise, which will cause even more methane gas to be released, causing a runaway cycle of global warming.
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Water wars will go nuclear Weiner 90 (Jonathan, Visiting Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, The Next One Hundred Years:
Shaping Fate of Our Living Earth, p214) If we do not destroy ourselves with the A-bomb and the H-bomb, then we may destroy ourselves with the C-bomb, the Change Bomb. And in a world as interlinked as ours, one explosion may lead to the other. Already in the Middle East, from North Africa to the Persian Gulf and from the Nile to the Euphrates, tensions over dwindling water supplies and rising populations are reaching what many experts describe as a flashpoint. A climate shift in the single battlescarred nexus might trigger international tensions that will unleash some of the 60,000 nuclear warheads the world has stockpiled since Trinity.
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Water shortages will lead to conflict and nuclear war between India and Pakistan Lynas, Environmental Journalist, 2008 (Mark National Geographic Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet
National 336p.) With India particularly dependent on hydroelectric power generation, dwindling summer flows may lead to blackouts and energy shortages during the hottest months of the year. Two of the Indus River's major tributaries-the Chenab and the Sutlej-arise in India and flow into Pakistan. Both will also be suffering the effects of deglaciation in their upper reaches. Conflicts may well break out between these two nuclear-armed countries as water supplies dwindle and political leaders quarrel over how much can be stored behind dams in upstream reservoirs.
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Their quals argument dont apply here Wilson 12 (GLOBAL WARMING: THE SATELLITES DON'T LIE March 3, 2012 7:48 AM | 7 Comments James A. Wilson
Over the summer Forbes Magazine published NASA satellite data indicating the alarmist predictions - even the UN computer models on which they were based - are dead wrong. The study, reported in the peer reviewed journal, Remote Sensing, correlates data from 2000 through 2011. It shows two phenomena surprising to the apostles of doom in the scientific and political community. There is much less heat being trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases - or any other cause - than the models portend, and a lot more of it is being released naturally into space. This is especially true over the oceans. James M. Taylor, a senior fellow for environmental policy at The Heartland Institute and managing editor of Environment and Climate News authored the Forbes article. Credentials don't get any more impeccable.
Consensus of NASA and NOAA satellite data shows no warming Wilson 12 (GLOBAL WARMING: THE SATELLITES DON'T LIE March 3, 2012 7:48 AM | 7 Comments James A. Wilson
The latest satellite gathered information is consistent with NOAA and NASA data showing humidity and the formation of cirrus clouds has lagged far behind alarmist predictions as well. These findings, and those of NASA's ERBS satellite show similar patterns of heat exhange for the years 1985 to 1999. In other words, we are simply not going to hell in a climate change hand basket.
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different IPCC models have widely varying strengths of mixing, and so ocean mixing is a huge wild card in the global warming debate, as is aerosol cooling. I believe much of past climate change on time scales of decades to many centuries might be due to such variations in ocean mixing, along with their likely influence on global cloud cover changing the amount of solar input into the climate system. The 4th possibility (the climate system is relatively insensitive to forcing) is the top contender in the opinion of myself, Dick Lindzen, and a few other climate researchers who work in this field. The 5th possibility (increasing GHGs dont really cause warming) is total anathema to the IPCC. Without
GHG warming, the whole AGW movement collapses. This kind of scientific finding would normally be Nobel Prize territoryexcept that the Nobel Prize has become
humans might not be destroying the Earth. The longer we go without significant warming, the more obvious it will become that there is something seriously wrong with current AGW theory. I dont think there is a certain number of years 5, 10, 20, etc. which will disprove the
more of a socio-political award in recent years, with only politically correct recipients. The self-flagellating elites dont like the idea science of AGW.unless the climate system cools for the next 10 years. Eek! But I personally doubt that will happen.
Warming not anthropogenic based on Earths natural cycles De Blij 9 (Harm, John A. Hannah Professor of Geography at Michigan State University, is author of The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny, and Globalization (Oxford University Press, 2009).
So might
the greenhouse-effect-enhancing gases we are pouring into the atmosphere counter a cooling trend rather than exacerbate a warming swing? No doubt about it: the numerous cycles axial, solar, orbital, oceanic, atmospheric that generate natures environmental seesaws continue even as humanity has become a major factor in the process through massive modification of the planetary atmosphere. But supercomputer models and IPCC projections notwithstanding, no one knows the proportional contribution to the current phase of climate change from natural and human sources. Contrary to what some scientists are asserting, we do not know with any satisfactory level of confidence what form climate change would be taking today in the absence of human interference. What is clear is that humans have become an additional factor driving climate change, and that reducing the rate of pollution of the atmosphere should have priority as a public health as well as environmental matter. But dont expect a
Gonzaga Debate Institute 97 Warming Core reward in the form of stopping climate change. Ice ages will continue to come and go. Glaciers will wax and wane. Sea levels will fall and rise. Species, cultures, and civilizations will flourish and fail. Natures power will prevail .
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Gonzaga Debate Institute 99 Warming Core department at Stockholm University , in the Journal Energy and Environment. The Earths rate of rotation records a mean acceleration from 1972 to 2012, contradicting all claims of a rapid global sea level rise, and instead suggests stable, to slightly falling, sea levels. But in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, U.S. coastal states have been more concerned about the possible effects of global warming on rising sea levels. A report by 21 U.S. scientists, commissioned by Maryland Democratic Gov. Martin OMalley, found that the sea levels are rising faster than they predicted five years ago. Florida Keys residents are also concerned about sea levels by the island that have risen 9 inches in the past decade, according to a tidal gauge that has operated since pre-Civil War days. It doesnt need a lot of rocket science, said Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Weve got tide gauges that show us sea level is increasing. This is a real phenomenon. We should take it seriously and have to plan for it. The Maryland report found that ocean waters and the Chesapeake Bay might only rise about one foot by 2050, but the studys authors said that it would be prudent to plan for a two-foot rise in sea levels to account for the risks of flooding caused by storms. The state has already seen sea levels rise by about a foot in the past century half coming from the natural sinking of the land and the other half coming from rising seas from a warming ocean. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has also announced a $20 billion plan to adapt to global warming to prepare the city for rising sea levels and hotter summers. A report commissioned by New York City found that the number of sweltering summer days could double, maybe even triple, and that waters surrounding the city could rise by 2 feet or more New York City can do nothing and expose ourselves to an increasing frequency of Sandy-like storms that do more and more damage, Bloomberg remarked. Or we can make the investments necessary to build a stronger, more resilient New York investments that will pay for themselves many times over in the years go to come.
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Tech and adaptive advances prevent all climate impacts---warming wont cause war Singer et al 11, Dr. S. Fred Research Fellow at The Independent Institute, Professor Emeritus of Environmental
Sciences at the University of Virginia, President of the Science and Environmental Policy Project, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Member of the International Academy of Astronautics; Robert M. Carter, Research Professor at James Cook University (Queensland) and the University of Adelaide (South Australia), palaeontologist, stratigrapher, marine geologist and environmental scientist with more than thirty years professional experience; and Craig D. Idso, founder and chairman of the board of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Geophysical Union, American Meteorological Society, Arizona-Nevada Academy of Sciences, and Association of American Geographers, et al, 2011, Climate Change Reconsidered: 2011 Interim Report, online: http://www.nipccreport.org/reports/2011/pdf/FrontMatter.pdf Decades-long empirical trends of climate-sensitive measures of human well-being, including the percent of developing world population suffering from chronic hunger, poverty rates, and deaths due to extreme weather events, reveal dramatic improvement during the twentieth century, notwithstanding the historic increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The magnitude of the impacts of climate change on human well-being depends on societys adaptability (adaptive capacity), which is determined by, among other things, the wealth and human resources society can access in order to obtain, install, operate, and maintain technologies necessary to cope with or take advantage of climate change impacts. The IPCC systematically underestimates adaptive capacity by failing to take into account the greater wealth and technological advances that will be present at the time for which impacts are to be estimated. Even accepting the IPCCs and Stern Reviews worst-case scenarios, and assuming a compounded annual growth rate of per-capita GDP of only 0.7 percent, reveals that net GDP per capita in developing countries in 2100 would be double the 2006 level of the U.S. and triple that level in 2200. Thus, even developing countries future ability to cope with climate change would be much better than that of the U.S. today. The IPCCs embrace of biofuels as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was premature, as many researchers have found even the best biofuels have the potential to damage the poor, the climate, and biodiversity (Delucchi, 2010). Biofuel production consumes nearly as much energy as it generates, competes with food crops and wildlife for land, and is unlikely to ever meet more than a small fraction of the worlds demand for fuels. The notion that global warming might cause war and social unrest is not only wrong, but even backwards that is, global cooling has led to wars and social unrest in the past, whereas global warming has coincided with periods of peace, prosperity, and social stability.
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XT No Warming
Their quals argument dont apply here Wilson 12 (GLOBAL WARMING: THE SATELLITES DON'T LIE March 3, 2012 7:48 AM | 7 Comments James A. Wilson
Over the summer Forbes Magazine published NASA satellite data indicating the alarmist predictions - even the UN computer models on which they were based - are dead wrong. The study, reported in the peer reviewed journal, Remote Sensing, correlates data from 2000 through 2011. It shows two phenomena surprising to the apostles of doom in the scientific and political community. There is much less heat being trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases - or any other cause - than the models portend, and a lot more of it is being released naturally into space. This is especially true over the oceans. James M. Taylor, a senior fellow for environmental policy at The Heartland Institute and managing editor of Environment and Climate News authored the Forbes article. Credentials don't get any more impeccable.
Consensus of NASA and NOAA satellite data shows no warming Wilson 12 (GLOBAL WARMING: THE SATELLITES DON'T LIE March 3, 2012 7:48 AM | 7 Comments James A. Wilson
The latest satellite gathered information is consistent with NOAA and NASA data showing humidity and the formation of cirrus clouds has lagged far behind alarmist predictions as well. These findings, and those of NASA's ERBS satellite show similar patterns of heat exhange for the years 1985 to 1999. In other words, we are simply not going to hell in a climate change hand basket.
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Impact Defense
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Gonzaga Debate Institute 105 Warming Core the factors that control the climate response to a given decay. The removal processes of other anthropogenic gases including methane and nitrous oxide are much more simply described by exponential decay constants of about 10 and 114 y, respectively (1), due mainly to known chemical reactions in the atmosphere. In this illustrative study, we do not include the feedback of changes in methane upon its own lifetime (20). We also do not account for potential interactions between CO2 and other gases, such as the production of carbon dioxide from methane oxidation (21), or changes to the carbon cycle through, e.g., methane/ozone chemistry (22). Fig. 1 shows the computed future global warming contributions for carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide for a midrange scenario (23) of projected future anthropogenic emissions of these gases to 2050. Radiative forcings for all three of these gases, and their spectral overlaps, are represented in this work using the expressions assessed in ref. 24. In 2050, the anthropogenic emissions are stopped entirely for illustration purposes. The figure shows nearly irreversible warming for at least 1,000 y due to the imposed carbon dioxide increases, as in previous work. All published studies to date, which use multiple EMICs and one AOGCM, show largely irreversible warming due to future carbon dioxide increases (to within about 0.5 C) on a timescale of at least 1,000 y (35, 25, 26). Fig. 1 shows that the calculated future warmings due to anthropogenic CH4 and N2O also persist notably longer than the lifetimes of these gases. The figure illustrates that emissions of key nonCO2 greenhouse gases such as CH4 or N2O could lead to warming that both temporarily exceeds a given stabilization target (e.g., 2 C as proposed by the G8 group of nations and in the Copenhagen goals) and remains present longer than the gas lifetimes even if emissions were to cease. A number of recent studies have underscored the important point that reductions of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions are an approach that can indeed reverse some past climate changes (e.g., ref. 27). Understanding how quickly such reversal could happen and why is an important policy and science question. Fig. 1 implies that the use of policy measures to reduce emissions of short-lived gases will be less effective as a rapid climate mitigation strategy than would be thought if based only upon the gas lifetime. Fig. 2 illustrates the factors influencing the warming contributions of each gas for the test case in Fig. 1 in more detail, by showing normalized values (relative to one at their peaks) of the warming along with the radiative forcings and concentrations of CO2 , N2O, and CH4 . For example, about two-thirds of the calculated warming due to N2O is still present 114 y (one atmospheric lifetime) after emissions are halted, despite the fact that its excess concentration and associated radiative forcing at that time has dropped to about one-third of the peak value.
Gonzaga Debate Institute 106 Warming Core Though the study finds signs that the temperature rise will level off some 100 years after the greenhouse gases stabilize, it also finds that ocean waters will continue to warm and expand beyond then, causing global sea level to rise unabated.
Mass Reduction of Green House Gases Wont Cease Warming Idso, Founder of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, 2011
[Craig, Keith, and Sherwood, 12-11, Recent Reflection of Sea Level Rise Reflect Poorly On IPCC, http://co2science.org/articles/V14/N50/EDIT.php] It has long been the practice of the world's climate alarmists to promote fear about the future in terms of anthropogenic-CO2-induced increases in various types of climatic extremes. As noted by Lee (2011), for example, "in 1990 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggested that, for a 'business-as-usual' greenhouse gas forcing scenario, global sea level could rise by 8-29 cm by 2030 and 31-110 cm by 2100," as reported by Houghton et al. (1990), which report also stated that "even with substantial decreases in the emissions of greenhouse gases, future rises in sea level were unavoidable owing to 'lags in the climate system'." And he also noted that "the Second World Climate Conference (Jager and Ferguson, 1991) reached similar conclusions, which in the case of the British Isles was that there could be a [sea level] rise of between 50 and 70 cm over the next 100 years." Noting that "the IPCC projections set the framework for the coastal policy response to sea-level rise in England and Wales," which was developed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF, 1991), Lee says it was widely predicted that the expected relative sea-level rise (RSLR) would result in an increase in wave energy at the base of coastal cliffs that would lead to accelerated cliff recession that "inevitably would lead to increased risk to properties behind actively retreating cliff-lines," adding that Bray and Hooke (1997) suggested that "significant increases in recession rate could be expected to occur," as their analysis pointed towards "a 22-133% increase in cliff recession rates on the south coast of England by 2050." As a result of these projections, Lee decided to analyze the most recent 50-year recession records of the United Kingdom's Holderness Cliffs, stating that "twenty years on from the IPCC First Assessment Report seems an appropriate moment to reflect on what has actually happened." So what did he find? As Lee describes it, "relative sea level has risen over the second half of the 20th century," and "so have Holderness cliff recession rates, from around 1.2 m/year in the early 1950s to around 1.5 m/year by 2000." However, as he continues, "there has been no significant acceleration in the rate of global sea-level rise since 1990 and no rapid increase in the recession rate." Thus, he states that "predictions of 20-year recession distances made in the early 1990s that took account of the RSLR advice from MAFF (1991) are likely to have overestimated the risk to cliff-top property and the benefits of coast protection." In a candid expression of his feelings after conducting his analysis, Lee writes that "as someone who was heavily involved in providing technical support to policymakers through the research and development of methods for predicting cliff recession that took account of RSLR (see Lee et al., 2001; Hall et al., 2000; Lee and Clark, 2002; Lee, 2005), I feel somewhat awkward about the absence of accelerated cliff recession over the last two decades," acknowledging that "perhaps we were all too keen to accept the unquestioned authority of the IPCC and their projections." Thus, he ends by stating "I am left with the feeling that a healthy skepticism of the climate change industry might not be such a bad thing," suggesting that people see, in this regard, the report of the Nongovernmental Panel on Climate Change that was edited by Idso and Singer (2009).
Green House Gases Are Too Abundant, Leading To Warming Roach, 2005
[John, 3-17-2005, National Geographic News, Global Warming Unstoppable For 100 Years, Study Says, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/03/0317_050317_warming.html Even if humans stop burning oil and coal tomorrownot likelywe've already spewed enough greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to cause temperatures to warm and sea levels to rise for at least another century. That's the message from two studies appearing in tomorrow's issue of the journalScience. Researchers used computer models of the global climate system to put numbers to the concept of thermal inertiathe idea that global climate changes are delayed because it water takes longer to heat up and cool off than air does. The oceans are the primary drivers of the global climate. "Even if you stabilize the concentration of greenhouse gases, you are still committed to a certain
Gonzaga Debate Institute 107 Warming Core amount of climate change no matter what you do because of the lag in the ocean," said Gerald Meehl, a climate scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide collect in the atmosphere and are believed to act as a blanket, trapping heat and causing the Earth to warm. To stop this warming, many scientists say humans must reduce the amount of greenhouse gases they emit. Human activities that make the largest contributions to greenhouse gases include exhaust fumes from automobiles and commercial jets and emissions from power stations and factories. "The longer you wait to do something, the more climate change you are committed to in the future," Meehl said.
More evidence- theres too much CO2 in the air even if we stop Hansen, Head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City and adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at Columbia University, 8
(James E. Hanson.. Al Gores science advisor. Introductory chapter for the book State of the Wild. Tipping point: Perspective of a Scientist. April. http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/2008/StateOfWild_20080428.pdf) The upshot of the combination of inertia and feedbacks is that additional climate change is already in the pipeline: even if we stop increasing greenhouse gases today, more warming will occur . This is sobering when one considers the present status of
Earths climate. Human civilization developed during the Holocene (the past 12,000 years). It has been warm enough to keep ice sheets off North America and Europe, but cool enough for ice sheets to remain on Greenland and Antarctica. With rapid warming of 0.6C in the past 30 years, global temperature is at its warmest level in the Holocene.3 The
warming that has already occurred, the positive feedbacks that have been set in motion, and the additional brought us to the precipice of a planetary tipping point. We are at the tipping point because the climate state includes large, ready positive feedbacks provided by the Arctic sea ice, the West Antarctic ice sheet, and much of Greenlands ice. Little additional forcing is needed to trigger these feedbacks and magnify global warming. If we go over the edge, we will transition to an environment far outside the range that has been experienced by humanity, and there will be no return within any foreseeable future generation. Casualties would include more than the loss of indigenous ways of life in
warming in the pipeline together have the Arctic and swamping of coastal cities. An intensified hydrologic cycle will produce both greater floods and greater droughts. In the US, the semiarid states from central Texas through Oklahoma and both Dakotas would become more drought-prone and ill suited for agriculture, people, and current wildlife. Africa would see a great expansion of dry areas, particularly southern Africa. Large populations in Asia and South America would lose their primary dry season freshwater source as glaciers disappear. A major casualty in all this will be wildlife.
thickness of the ice, which is much harder to measure, is estimated to have fallen by half since 1979, when satellite records began, and there is probably less ice floating on the Arctic Ocean now than at any time since a particularly warm period 8,000 years ago, soon after the last ice age. That Arctic sea ice is disappearing has been known for decades. The underlying cause is believed by all but a handful of climatologists to be global warming brought about by greenhouse-gas emissions. Yet the rate the ice is vanishing confounds these climatologists' models. These predict that if
Gonzaga Debate Institute 108 Warming Core the level of carbon dioxide, methane and so on in the atmosphere continues to rise, then the Arctic Ocean will be free of floating summer ice by the end of the century. At current rates of shrinkage, by contrast, this looks likely to happen some time between 2020 and 2050. The reason is that Arctic air is warming twice as fast as the atmosphere as a whole. Some of the causes of this are understood, but some are not. The darkness of land and water compared with the reflectiveness of snow and ice means that when the latter melt to reveal the former, the area exposed absorbs more heat from the sun and reflects less of it back into space. The result is a feedback loop that accelerates local warming. Such feedback, though, does not completely explain what is happening. Hence the search for other things that might assist the ice's rapid disappearance. Forcing the issue One is physical change in the ice itself. Formerly a solid mass that melted and refroze at its edges, it is now thinner, more fractured, and so more liable to melt. But that is (literally and figuratively) a marginal effect. Filling the gap between model and reality may need something besides this. The latest candidates are shortterm climate forcings. These are pollutants, particularly ozone and soot, that do not hang around in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide does, but have to be renewed continually if they are to have a lasting effect. If they are so renewed, though, their impact may be as big as CO2's. At the moment, most eyes are on soot (or black carbon, as jargon-loving researchers refer to it). In the Arctic, soot is a double whammy. First, when released into the air as a result of incomplete combustion (from sources as varied as badly serviced diesel engines and forest fires), soot particles absorb sunlight, and so warm up the atmosphere. Then, when snow or rain wash them onto an ice floe, they darken its surface and thus cause it to melt faster. Reducing soot (and also ozone, an industrial pollutant that acts as a greenhouse gas) would not stop the summer sea ice disappearing, but it might delay the process by a decade or two. According to a recent report
by the United Nations Environment Programme, reducing black carbon and ozone in the lower part of the atmosphere, especially in the Arctic countries of America, Canada, Russia and Scandinavia, could cut warming in the Arctic by two-thirds over the next three decades. Indeed, the report suggests, if such measures preventing crop burning and forest fires, cleaning up diesel engines and wood stoves, and so onwere adopted everywhere they could halve the wider rate of warming by 2050. Without corresponding measures to cut CO2 emissions, this would be but a temporary fix. Nonetheless, it is an attractive idea because it would have other benefits (soot is bad for people's lungs) and would not require the wholesale rejigging of energy production which reducing CO2 emissions implies. Not everyone agrees it would work, though. Gunnar Myhre of the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo, for example, notes that the
amount of black carbon in the Arctic is small and has been falling in recent decades. He does not believe it is the missing factor in the models. Carbon dioxide, in his view, is the main culprit. Black carbon deposited on the Arctic snow and ice, he says, will have only a minimal effect on its reflectivity. The rapid melting of the Arctic sea ice, then, illuminates the difficulty of modelling the climate but not in a way that brings much comfort to those who hope that fears about the future climate might prove exaggerated. When reality is changing faster than theory suggests it should, a certain amount of nervousness is a reasonable response. It's an ill wind The direct
consequences of changes in the Arctic are mixed. They should not bring much rise in the sea level, since floating ice obeys Archimedes's principle and displaces its own mass of water. A
darkerand so more heat-absorbentArctic, though, will surely accelerate global warming and may thus encourage melting of the land-bound Greenland ice sheet. That certainly would raise sea levels (though not as quickly as News Corporation's
cartographers suggest in the latest edition of the best-selling Times Atlas, which claims that 15% of the Greenland sheet has melted in the past 12 years; the true figure is more like 0.05%). Wildlife hit.
will also suffer. Polar bears, which hunt for seals along the ice's edge, and walruses, which fish there, will both be hard-
Gonzaga Debate Institute 109 Warming Core played by the world's oceans. Currently the oceans are absorbing the CO2 and keeping the planet cool but in the future they will become saturated.
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Tech Solves
Tech and adaptive advances prevent all climate impacts---warming wont cause war Singer et al 11, Dr. S. Fred Research Fellow at The Independent Institute, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia, President of the Science and Environmental Policy Project, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Member of the International Academy of Astronautics; Robert M. Carter, Research Professor at James Cook University (Queensland) and the University of Adelaide (South Australia), palaeontologist, stratigrapher, marine geologist and environmental scientist with more than thirty years professional experience; and Craig D. Idso, founder and chairman of the board of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Geophysical Union, American Meteorological Society, Arizona-Nevada Academy of Sciences, and Association of American Geographers, et al, 2011, Climate Change Reconsidered: 2011 Interim Report, online: http://www.nipccreport.org/reports/2011/pdf/FrontMatter.pdf
Decades-long empirical trends of climate-sensitive measures of human well-being, including the percent of developing world population suffering from chronic hunger, poverty rates, and deaths due to extreme weather events, reveal dramatic improvement during the twentieth century, notwithstanding the historic increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The magnitude of the impacts of climate change on human well-being depends on societys adaptability (adaptive capacity), which is determined by, among other things, the wealth and human resources society can access in order to obtain, install, operate, and maintain technologies necessary to cope with or take advantage of climate change impacts. The IPCC systematically underestimates adaptive capacity by failing to take into account the greater wealth and technological advances that will be present at the time for which impacts are to be estimated. Even accepting the IPCCs and Stern Reviews worst-case scenarios, and assuming a compounded annual growth rate of per-capita GDP of only 0.7 percent, reveals that net GDP per capita in developing countries in 2100 would be double the 2006 level of the U.S. and triple that level in 2200. Thus, even developing countries future ability to cope with climate change would be much better than that of the U.S. today. The IPCCs embrace of biofuels as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was premature, as many researchers have found even the best biofuels have the potential to damage the poor, the climate, and biodiversity (Delucchi, 2010). Biofuel production consumes nearly as much energy as it generates, competes with food crops and wildlife for land, and is unlikely to ever meet more than a small fraction of the worlds demand for fuels. The notion that global warming might cause war and social unrest is not only wrong, but even backwards that is, global cooling has led to wars and social unrest in the past, whereas global warming has coincided with periods of peace, prosperity, and social stability.
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Asia pollution offsets any US action global warming is inevitable Knappenberger, assistant director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute, 12
(Chip, Asian Air Pollution Warms U.S More than Our GHG Emissions 7/12/06, http://www.masterresource.org/2012/, 06/asian-air-pollution-warming/) The whims of foreign nations, not to mention Mother Nature, can completely offset any climate changes induced by U.S. greenhouse gas emissions reductions. So, whats the point of forcing Americans into different energy choices? A new study provides evidence that air pollution emanating from Asia will warm the U.S. as much or more than warming from U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The implication? Efforts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (and otherwise) to mitigate anthropogenic climate change is moot. If the future temperature rise in the U.S. is subject to the whims of Asian environmental and energy policy, then what sense does it make for Americans to have their energy choices regulated by efforts aimed at mitigating future temperature increases across the countryefforts which will have less of an impact on temperatures than the policies enacted across Asia?
Maybe the EPA should reconsider the perceived effectiveness of its greenhouse gas emission regulationsat least when it comes to impacting temperatures across the U.S. New Study A new study just published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters is authored by a team led by Haiyan Teng from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Boulder, Colorado. The paper is titled Potential Impacts of Asian Carbon Aerosols on Future US Warming. Skipping the details of this climate modeling study and cutting to the chase, here is the abstract of the paper: This study uses an atmosphere-ocean fully coupled climate model to investigate possible remote impacts of Asian carbonaceous aerosols on US climate change. We took a 21st century mitigation scenario as a reference, and carried out three sets of sensitivity experiments in which the prescribed carbonaceous aerosol concentrations over a selected Asian domain are increased by a factor of two, six, and ten respectively during the period of 20052024. The resulting enhancement of atmospheric solar absorption (only the direct effect of aerosols is included) over Asia induces tropospheric heating anomalies that force large-scale circulation changes which, averaged over the twenty-year period, add as much as an additional 0.4C warming over the eastern US during winter and over most of the US during summer. Such remote impacts are confirmed by an atmosphere stand-alone experiment with specified heating anomalies over Asia that represent the direct effect of the carbon aerosols. Usually, when
considering the climate impact from carbon aerosol emissions (primarily in the form of black carbon, or soot), the effect is thought to be largely contained to the local or regional scale because the atmospheric lifetime of these particulates is only on the order of a week (before they are
rained out). Since Asia lies on the far side of the Pacific Oceana distance which requires about a week for air masses to navigatewe usually arent overly concerned about the quality of Asian air or the quantity of junk that they emit into it. By the time it gets here, it has largely been naturally scrubbed clean. But
in the Teng et al. study, the authors find that, according to their climate model, the local heating of the atmosphere by the Asian carbon aerosols (which are quite good at absorbing sunlight) can impart changes to the character of the larger-scale atmospheric circulation patterns. And these changes to the broader atmospheric flow produce an effect on the weather patterns in the U.S. and
thus induce a change in the climate here characterized by 0.4C *surface air temperature+ warming on average over the eastern US during winter and over almost the entire US during summer averaged over the 20052024 period. While most of the summer warming doesnt start to kick in until Asian carbonaceous aerosol emissions are upped in the model to 10 times what they are today, the winter warming over the eastern half of the country is large (several tenths of a C) even at twice the current rate of Asian emissions. Now lets revisit just how much global warming that stringent U.S. greenhouse gas emissions reductions may avoid averaged across the country. In my Master Resource post Climate Impacts of Waxman-Markey (the IPCC-based arithmetic of no gain) I calculated that a more than 80% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. by the year 2050 would result in a reduction of global temperatures (from where they otherwise would be) of about 0.05C. Since the U.S. is projected to warm slightly more than the global average (land warms faster than the oceans), a 0.05C of global temperature reduction probably amounts to about 0.075C of temperature savings averaged across the U.S., by the year 2050. Comparing
the amount of warming in the U.S. saved by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by some 80% to the amount of warming added in the U.S. by increases in Asian black carbon (soot) aerosol emissions (at least according to Teng et al.) and there is no clear winner. Which points out the anemic effect that U.S. greenhouse gas reductions will have on the climate of the U.S. and just how easily the whims of foreign nations, not to mention Mother Nature, can completely offset any climate changes induced by our greenhouse gas emissions reductions. And even if the traditional form of air pollution (e.g., soot) does not increase across Asia (a slim chance of that), greenhouse gases emitted there certainly will. For example, at the current growth rate, new greenhouse gas emissions from China will completely subsume an 80% reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas emission in just over a decade. Once again, pointing out that a reduction in domestic greenhouse gases is for naught, at least when it comes to
mitigating climate change. So, whats the point, really, of forcing Americans into different energy choices? As I have repeatedly pointed out, nothing we do here (when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions) will make any difference either domestically, or globally, when it comes to influences on the climate. What
the powers-that-be behind emissions reduction schemes in the U.S. are hoping for is that 1) it doesnt hurt us too much, and 2) that China and other large developing nations will follow our lead. Both outcomes seem dubious at time scales that
make a difference.
China is a greater cause of warming- destroys all solvency Wortzel, Former Director of Asian Studies at the Heritage Foundation, 08
(Larry, Report to Congress of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Nov, p. google, js)
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China argues that developed countries are the primary cause of climate change and therefore places primary responsibility for reducing emissions on those countries rather than on China and other developing countries, a concept identified as "common but differentiated responsibilities." 190 The United States is the largest
the past two years China has overtaken the United States in total production of greenhouse gas emissions. All projections indicate that, in the absence of major energy consumption changes in China, both China's aggregate emissions and its share of global emissions will continue to increase dramatically for the foreseeable future. The consequent reality is that it will be impossible for the international community to resolve the climate change problem by sufficiently reducing emissions unless China contributes to the effort. The solution also is unachievable unless
the United Statesas currently the world's second largest emitter and the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases makes a substantial contribution. Any efforts to address this problem will require global participation by developed and developing nations.
No modeling or momentum Mead, senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, '10
(Walter Russell, The Death of Global Warming, http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2010/02/01/the-death-ofglobal-warming/, February 1, 2010, js) The global warming movement as we have known it is dead. Its health had been in steady decline during the last year as the once robust hopes for a strong and legally binding treaty to be agreed upon at the Copenhagen Summit faded away. By the time that summit opened, campaigners were reduced to hoping for a politically binding agreement to be agreed that would set the stage for the rapid adoption of the legally binding treaty. After the failure of the summit to agree to even that much, the movement went into a rapid decline. The movement died from two causes: bad science and bad politics. After years in which global warming activists had lectured everyone about the overwhelming nature of the scientific evidence, it turned out that the most prestigious agencies in the global warming movement were breaking laws, hiding data, and making inflated, bogus claims resting on , in some cases, no scientific basis at all. This latest story in the London Times is yet another shocker; the IPCCs claims that the rainforests were going to disappear as a result of global warming are as bogus and fraudulent as its claims that the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035. It seems as if a scare story could grab a headline, the IPCC simply didnt care about whether it was reality-based.Gore_Pachauri With this in mind, climategate the scandal over hacked emails by prominent climate scientists looks sinister rather than just
unsavory. The British government has concluded that University of East Anglia, home of the research institute that provides the global warming with much of its key data, had violated Britains Freedom of Information Act when scientists refused to hand over data so that critics could check their calculations and methods.
Breaking the law to hide key pieces of data isnt just science as usual, as the global warming movements embattled defenders gamely tried to argue. A cover-up like that suggests that you indeed have something to conceal. The urge to make the data better than it was didnt just come out of nowhere. The global warmists were trapped into the necessity of hyping the threat by their realization that the actual evidence they had which, let me emphasize, all hype aside, is serious, troubling and establishes in my mind the
need for intensive additional research and investigation, as well as some prudential steps that would reduce CO2 emissions by enhancing fuel use efficiency and promoting alternative energy sources was not
sufficient to get the worlds governments to do what they thought needed to be done. Hyping the threat increasingly doesnt look like an accident: it looks like it was a conscious political strategy. Now it has failed. Not everything that has come out of the IPCC and the East Anglia Climate Unit is false, but enough of their product is sufficiently tainted that these institutions can best serve the cause of fighting climate change by stepping out of the picture . New leadership might help, but everything these two agencies have done will now have to be re-checked by independent and objective sources. The global warming campaigners got into this mess because they had a deeply flawed political strategy. They were never able to develop a pragmatic approach that could reach its goals in the context of the existing international system. The global warming movement proposed a complex set of international agreements involving vast transfers of funds, intrusive regulations in national economies, and substantial changes to the domestic political economies of most countries on the planet. As it happened,
the movement never got to the first step it never got the worlds countries to agree to the necessary set of treaties, transfers and policies that would constitute, at least on paper, a program for achieving its key goals. Even if that first step had been reached, the second and third would almost surely not have been. The United States Congress
is unlikely to pass the kind of legislation these agreements would require before the midterm elections, much less ratify a treaty. (It takes 67 senate votes to ratify a treaty and only 60 to overcome a filibuster.) After the midterms, with the Democrats expected to lose
seats in both houses, the chance of passage would be even more remote especially as polls show that global warming ranks at or near the bottom of most voters priorities. American public opinion supports doing something about global warming, but not very much; support
for specific measures and sacrifices will erode rapidly as commentators from Fox News and other conservative outlets endlessly hammer away. Without
a commitment from the United States to pay its share of the $100 billion plus per year that poor countries wanted as their price for compliance, and without US participation in other aspects of the proposed global approach, the intricate global deals fall apart. From Gallup Since
the United States was never very likely to accept these agreements and ratify these treaties, and is even less prepared to do so in a recession with the Democrats in retreat, even success in Copenhagen would not have brought the global warming movement the kind of victory it sought although it would have created a very sticky and painful political problem for the United States. But even if somehow, miraculously, the United States and all the other
Gonzaga Debate Institute 113 Warming Core countries involved not only accepted the agreements but ratified them and wrote domestic legislation to incorporate them into law, it is extremely unlikely that all this activity would achieve the desired result. Countries would cheat, either because they chose to do so or because their domestic systems are so weak, so corrupt or so both that they simply wouldnt be able to comply. Governments in countries like China and India arent going to stop pushing for all the economic growth they can get by any means that will work and even if central governments decided to move on global warming, state and local authorities have agendas of their own. The examples of blatant cheating would inevitably affect compliance in other countries; it would also very likely erode what would in any case be an extremely fragile consensus in rich countries to keep forking over hundreds of billions of dollars to poor countries many of whom would not be in anything like full compliance with their commitments. For better or worse, the global political system isnt capable of producing the kind of result the global warming activists want. Its like asking a jellyfish to climb a flight of stairs; you can
poke and prod all you want, you can cajole and you can threaten. But you are asking for something that you just cant get and at the end of the day, you wont get it. The grieving friends and relatives arent ready to pull the plug; in a typical, whistling-past-the-graveyard comment, the BBC first acknowledges that even if the current promises are kept, temperatures will rise above the target level of two degrees Celsius but lets not despair! The BBC quotes one of its own reporters: BBC environment reporter Matt McGrath says the accord lacks teeth and does not include any clear targets on cutting emissions. But if most countries at least signal what they intend to do to cut their emissions, it will mark the first time that the UN has a comprehensive written collection of promised actions, he says.
Tech strategies insufficient Revkin 12 (Andrew C., Environment and energy blogger NYT, Can China Follow U.S. Shift from Coal to Gas?, July 4,
2012) Fourth, there is growing interest in so-called technology strategies to address climate change. The gas revolution is a good poster child
for the importance of technological innovation. Most of the key advances that make todays gas revolution possiblenot just fracking but across the production and transmission of gas as well as in the ultra-efficient turbines that are todays best way to make electricity from gastrace their origins back to publicly funded R&D in tandem with lots of private sector investment. Some innovating nations
people have unwisely taken that logic to the extreme and suggested that if the US and other just pushed hard on technology that there wouldnt be much need for emission limits, cap and trade or carbon taxes. Thats too simplistic. Theres no question that we need a big push on technology and that all nations, collectively, massively under-invest in energy R&D. But a technology push with no pull from the markets a recipe for waste. I like the carbon tax like the one Australia introduced this week to create an incentive not just to invent new low-carbon technologies but also to deploy them. One implication for technology R&D policy is that in a world of cheap gas theres probably a lot of value in looking carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies for use on gas-fired power plants. To date, most CCS investment has focused on coal on the assumption that coal is cheap and that the technologies needed for CCS on gas are too expensive. That conventional view
could change in a world where the full cost of burning coal is high and gas is cheap. Some of the technologies for CCS are genericthey work whether the original fuel is coal or gasbut others (including the costliest parts of CCS systems) must be tailored to the fuel. Ive always thought that CCS was an inelegant way to lick the carbon problembecause it involves burning fuels and then corralling a huge mass of pollution rather than avoiding the pollution in the first placebut if gas is to be a real bridge to a low emission future rather than a nice-looking dead end then we must seriously explore ways to further cut emissions from gas plants. [Here's a link to an article by Jesse Ausubel on one such technology.+ Fifth, all these surprises are a reminder of how much we dont know about how technology and markets will unfold. Earlier this year the Energy Information Administration published a rather brave study: a retrospective on how well its forecasters have done predicting things like demand for energy, the cost of oil and such. One lesson from that study is that a lot of forecasting is done by looking in the rear view mirrorforecasts typically start with current conditions, and as facts on the ground change radically so do the forecasts. Another lesson from that study is that the record of forecasting energy pricesgas in particular but also oilis pretty abysmal. Since so much, even CO2, depends on relative energy prices we should be sober about what we can realistically predict for the future. Sixth, I
see the gas revolution as just one of a large class of strategies for getting serious about climate change in ways that are politically expedient. In a few countries and jurisdictionssuch as Europe, California, and Vermontpeople will invest lots of their own money to control emissions in an effort to slow global warming. But most of the world isnt so keen, yet, to spend handsomely on this global goal. Ive always thought that the way to make progress on climate change, especially in reluctant countries like China and even the U.S., is to
start by focusing on places where climate goals overlap with other national prioritieslike clearing the air or making energy supplies more reliable. (For another example, focused on the tremendous potential for slowing climate change through action on soot, see the last issue of foreign affairs for an article co-authored with two colleagues here in La Jolla, V. Ramanathan and C. Kennel.) We probably cant lick global warming with self-interested actions alone, but at least we can point countries in the right direction and build political support for the deeper and more expensive cuts that will be essential. As Victor notes, simply
moving from coal to gas is hardly a climate solution on its own, and others challenge the idea that natural gas can serve as a bridge along the road to a post-fossil energy future. And certainly if Chinas gas push comes with the same wasteful, leaky practices that American oil and gas companies have only slowly abandoned (and that still abound in Russia and elsewhere), thats not a reasonable bridge at all.
Nothing I, or anyone else writes, will change the reality that the gas age is here for many years to come. But my hope is that progress in avoiding environmental regrets can come through constructive discussion of ways to cut risks and waste and to sustain a long-term energy quest that extends beyond fossil fuels even while they remain abundant and cheap. Thats no easy task.
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XT Irreversible
More evidence- theres too much CO2 in the air even if we stop Hansen, Head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City and adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at Columbia University, 8
(James E. Hanson.. Al Gores science advisor. Introductory chapter for the book State of the Wild. Tipping point: Perspective of a Scientist. April. http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/2008/StateOfWild_20080428.pdf) The upshot of the combination of inertia and feedbacks is that additional climate change is already in the pipeline: even if we stop increasing greenhouse gases today, more warming will occur . This is sobering when one considers the present status of
Earths climate. Human civilization developed during the Holocene (the past 12,000 years). It has been warm enough to keep ice sheets off North America and Europe, but cool enough for ice sheets to remain on Greenland and Antarctica. With rapid warming of 0.6C in the past 30 years, global temperature is at its warmest level in the Holocene.3 The
warming that has already occurred, the positive feedbacks that have been set in motion, and the additional brought us to the precipice of a planetary tipping point. We are at the tipping point because the climate state includes large, ready positive feedbacks provided by the Arctic sea ice, the West Antarctic ice sheet, and much of Greenlands ice. Little additional forcing is needed to trigger these feedbacks and magnify global warming . If we go over the edge, we will transition to an environment far outside the range that has been experienced by humanity, and there will be no return within any foreseeable future generation. Casualties would include more than the loss of indigenous ways of life in
warming in the pipeline together have the Arctic and swamping of coastal cities. An intensified hydrologic cycle will produce both greater floods and greater droughts. In the US, the semiarid states from central Texas through Oklahoma and both Dakotas would become more drought-prone and ill suited for agriculture, people, and current wildlife. Africa would see a great expansion of dry areas, particularly southern Africa. Large populations in Asia and South America would lose their primary dry season freshwater source as glaciers disappear. A major casualty in all this will be wildlife.
thickness of the ice, which is much harder to measure, is estimated to have fallen by half since 1979, when satellite records began, and there is probably less ice floating on the Arctic Ocean now than at any time since a particularly warm period 8,000 years ago, soon after the last ice age. That Arctic sea ice is disappearing has been known for decades. The underlying cause is believed by all but a handful of climatologists to be global warming brought about by greenhouse-gas emissions. Yet the rate the ice is vanishing confounds these climatologists' models. These predict that if the level of carbon dioxide, methane and so on in the atmosphere continues to rise, then the Arctic Ocean will be free of floating summer ice by the end of the century. At current rates of shrinkage, by contrast, this looks likely to happen some time between 2020 and 2050. The reason is that Arctic air is warming twice as fast as the atmosphere as a whole. Some of the causes of this are understood, but some are not. The darkness of land and water compared with the reflectiveness of snow and ice means that when the latter melt to reveal the former, the area exposed absorbs more heat from the sun and reflects less of
Gonzaga Debate Institute 115 Warming Core it back into space. The result is a feedback loop that accelerates local warming . Such feedback, though, does not completely explain what is happening. Hence the search for other things that might assist the ice's rapid disappearance. Forcing the issue One is physical change in the ice itself. Formerly a solid mass that melted and refroze at its edges, it is now thinner, more fractured, and so more liable to melt. But that is (literally and figuratively) a marginal effect. Filling the gap between model and reality may need something besides this. The latest candidates are shortterm climate forcings. These are pollutants, particularly ozone and soot, that do not hang around in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide does, but have to be renewed continually if they are to have a lasting effect. If they are so renewed, though, their impact may be as big as CO2's. At the moment, most eyes are on soot (or black carbon, as jargon-loving researchers refer to it). In the Arctic, soot is a double whammy. First, when released into the air as a result of incomplete combustion (from sources as varied as badly serviced diesel engines and forest fires), soot particles absorb sunlight, and so warm up the atmosphere. Then, when snow or rain wash them onto an ice floe, they darken its surface and thus cause it to melt faster. Reducing soot (and also ozone, an industrial pollutant that acts as a greenhouse gas) would not stop the summer sea ice disappearing, but it might delay the process by a decade or two. According to a recent report
by the United Nations Environment Programme, reducing black carbon and ozone in the lower part of the atmosphere, especially in the Arctic countries of America, Canada, Russia and Scandinavia, could cut warming in the Arctic by two-thirds over the next three decades. Indeed, the report suggests, if such measures preventing crop burning and forest fires, cleaning up diesel engines and wood stoves, and so onwere adopted everywhere they could halve the wider rate of warming by 2050. Without corresponding measures to cut CO2 emissions, this would be but a temporary fix. Nonetheless, it is an attractive idea because it would have other benefits (soot is bad for people's lungs) and would not require the wholesale rejigging of energy production which reducing CO2 emissions implies. Not everyone agrees it would work, though. Gunnar Myhre of the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo, for example, notes that the
amount of black carbon in the Arctic is small and has been falling in recent decades. He does not believe it is the missing factor in the models. Carbon dioxide, in his view, is the main culprit. Black carbon deposited on the Arctic snow and ice, he says, will have only a minimal effect on its reflectivity. The rapid melting of the Arctic sea ice, then, illuminates the difficulty of modelling the climate but not in a way that brings much comfort to those who hope that fears about the future climate might prove exaggerated. When reality is changing faster than theory suggests it should, a certain amount of nervousness is a reasonable response. It's an ill wind The direct
consequences of changes in the Arctic are mixed. They should not bring much rise in the sea level, since floating ice obeys Archimedes's principle and displaces its own mass of water. A
darkerand so more heat-absorbentArctic, though, will surely accelerate global warming and may thus encourage melting of the land-bound Greenland ice sheet. That certainly would raise sea levels (though not as quickly as News Corporation's
cartographers suggest in the latest edition of the best-selling Times Atlas, which claims that 15% of the Greenland sheet has melted in the past 12 years; the true figure is more like 0.05%). Wildlife hit.
will also suffer. Polar bears, which hunt for seals along the ice's edge, and walruses, which fish there, will both be hard-
CO2 is allowed to peak at 450-600 parts per million, said the report, the result will be less dry-season rainfall that will be reminiscent of the 1930s Dust Bowl era in the US. There will be decreases in drinking water supplies, increased fire frequency and an end to dry-season farming of wheat and maize. Regions that will be affected are southern Europe, northern and southern Africa, southwestern US, and western Australia. Also, if CO2 peaks at 600ppm, global water levels will rise by as much as one metre. If it peaks at 1,000ppm, the rise will double. Rising sea levels would cause "irreversible commitments to future changes in the geography of the Earth, since many coastal and island features would ultimately become submerged," the report said. Those grim predictions of rising sea levels also did not take into account the melting of ice at both poles, as the result of that was unpredictable. "People have imagined that if we stopped emitting carbon dioxide, the climate would go back to normal in 100 years, 200 years; that is not true," the head of the research team, Susan Solomon, said in a teleconference. This is because of the role played by the world's oceans. Currently the oceans are absorbing the CO2 and keeping the planet cool but in the future they will become saturated.
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XT No Impact
Consensus of experts agree that there is no impact to warming Hsu 10
(Jeremy, Live Science Staff, July 19, pg. http://www.livescience.com/culture/can-humans-survive-extinction-doomsday100719.html) His views deviate sharply from those of most experts, who don't view climate change as the end for humans. Even the worst-case scenarios discussed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change don't foresee human extinction. "The scenarios that
the mainstream climate community are advancing are not end-of-humanity, catastrophic scenarios," said Roger Pielke Jr., a climate policy analyst at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Humans
have the technological tools to begin tackling climate change, if not quite enough yet to solve the problem, Pielke said. He added that doom-mongering did little to encourage people to take action. "My view of politics is that the long-term, high-risk scenarios are really difficult to use to motivate short-term, incremental action," Pielke explained. "The rhetoric of fear and alarm that some people tend toward is counterproductive." Searching for solutions One technological solution to climate change already exists through carbon capture and storage, according to Wallace Broecker, a geochemist and renowned climate
scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York City. But Broecker remained skeptical that governments or industry would commit the resources needed to slow the rise of carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, and predicted that more drastic geoengineering might become necessary to stabilize the planet. "The rise in CO2 isn't going to kill people, and it's not going to kill humanity," Broecker said. "But it's going to change the entire wild ecology of the planet, melt a lot of ice, acidify the ocean, change the availability of water and change crop yields, so we're essentially doing an experiment whose result remains uncertain."
No impact to warming history and scientific study prove Jaworowski, Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in Warsaw and former chair of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, 08 (Professor Zbigniew,
Fear Propaganda,http://www.ourcivilisation.com/aginatur/cycles/chap3.htm, js) Doomsayers preaching the horrors of warming are not troubled by the fact that in the Middle Ages, when for a few hundred years it was warmer than it is now, neither the Maldive atolls nor the Pacific archipelagos were flooded. Global oceanic levels have been rising for some hundreds or thousands of years (the causes of this phenomenon are not clear). In the last 100 years, this increase amounted to 10 cm to 20 cm, (24) but it does not seem to be accelerated by the 20th Century warming. It turns out that in warmer climates, there is more water that evaporates from the ocean (and subsequently falls as snow on the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps) than there is water that flows to the seas from melting glaciers . (17) Since the 1970s, the glaciers of the Arctic, Greenland, and the Antarctic have ceased to retreat, and have started to grow. On January 18, 2002, the journal Science published the results of satellite-borne radar
and ice core studies performed by scientists from CalTech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of California at Santa Cruz. These results indicate that the Antarctic ice flow has been slowed, and sometimes even stopped, and that this has resulted in the thickening of the continental glacier at a rate of 26.8 billion tons a year. (25) In 1999, a
Polish Academy of Sciences paper was prepared as a source material for a report titled "Forecast of the Defense Conditions for the implied that the increase of atmospheric precipitation by 23% in Poland, which was presumed to be caused by global warming, would be detrimental. (Imagine stating this in a country where 38% of the area suffers from permanent surface water deficit!) The same paper also deemed an extension of the vegetation period by 60 to 120 days as a disaster. Truly, a possibility of doubling the crop rotation, or even prolonging by four months the harvest of radishes, makes for a horrific vision in the minds of the authors of this paper. Newspapers continuously write about the increasing frequency and power of the storms. The facts, however, speak otherwise. I cite here only some few data from Poland, but there are plenty of data from all over the world. In Cracow, in 1896-1995, the number of storms with hail and precipitation exceeding 20 millimeters has decreased continuously, and after 1930, the number of all storms decreased. (26) In 1813 to 1994, the frequency and magnitude of floods of Vistula River in Cracow not only did not increase but, since 1940, have
Republic of Poland in 2001-2020." The paper significantly decreased. (27) Also, measurements in the Kolobrzeg Baltic Sea harbor indicate that the number of gales has not increased between 1901 a
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Russia Will Cooperate With The U.S. In The Arctic Shuster, Time Reporter, 10
[Simon, 9-27- 2010, The Race for Arctic Oil: Is Russia Ready to Share? www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2021644,00.html#ixzz1x4fGS8Fk], Russia's leaders have never been coy about their designs on the Arctic. In recent years, their message has been clear: We want a a big, fat slice of it, including the seas of oil and gas underneath, and we are ready to defend our claim. The country expressed its intentions blatantly in August 2007, when a Russian lawmaker planted a flag on the seabed at the top of the world, and a year later, when President Dmitri Medvedev told his top generals at a meeting that defending Russia's interests in the Arctic was nothing less than "their direct duty to posterity." Which is why so many of the world's Arctic decisionmakers were amazed last week when they were called to a forum in Moscow to hear a very different message. Russia wants the Arctic to be "a zone of peace and cooperation," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told them. But could he possibly be serious? Many observers, including a large portion of the guests at the Sept. 23 forum, say the rhetoric is welcome, but the world will have to wait and see. For now, no one is rushing to dismantle the huge military capacities all of the Arctic countries the U.S., Canada, Denmark, Norway (all members of NATO) and Russia have been building north of the Arctic Circle. Ebbing and swelling over the past half-century, the intensity of this militarization has largely depended on Russia's assertiveness over the years. (See pictures of the Arctic.) It began, of course, at the height of the Cold War, when the Arctic was studded with more nuclear weapons than virtually any other part of the world. Then, in the late 1980s, as the Soviet Empire approached its collapse, the military build-up tapered off and began to decline after Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made his famous Murmansk speech in October 1987 in which he said the Arctic should become "a zone of peace and fruitful cooperation." When Gorbachev used that phrase, it meant something very different from how Putin used it last week. By the end of the 1980s, Russia was financially incapable of waging an arms race in the polar regions. With no more threat from the Russians, the four other Arctic powers began to let their northern militaries lapse. Attitudes changed after 2001, when soaring oil prices put jets beneath the Russian economy and Putin's government began allocating billions to its Arctic infrastructure. Canada and other Arctic states responded with a greater focus on military spending in the north. At the same time, it became obvious to everyone that
Gonzaga Debate Institute 119 Warming Core the polar ice caps were melting fast and the potential for drilling for and shipping oil and gas in the Arctic would soon be considerable. The northern powers were suddenly facing the last great energy frontier, with a quarter of the world's untapped reserves in the Arctic more than 400 billion bbl. of oil and oil-equivalent natural gas and the scramble to claim it began. (See pictures of the rise and fall of Gorbachev.) By the end of 2014, the U.N. will receive competing claims for parts of the Arctic from Canada, Denmark and Russia, which are using seabed samples to try to prove that the oil-rich regions are extensions of their continental shelves and therefore belong to them. But even though the U.N. will rule on whether the science behind these claims is accurate (it already rejected a Russian claim in 2001 based on poor evidence), it is not the job of the U.N. to delineate borders. That will be up to the countries themselves, and that is where things might get sticky. A hopeful sign on this front came on Sept. 15, when Russia and Norway settled an Arctic border dispute that had been festering for four decades. The agreement came in the lead-up to last week's forum in Moscow, "The Arctic Territory of Dialogue," and was seen as part of Russia's push to shed its image as the Arctic aggressor. "We're at a transition," says Paul Berkman, professor of Arctic Ocean geopolitics at the University of Cambridge. "Russia, from the perspective of the West, had been the difficult entity and is now inviting the international community to participate." The reasoning behind Russia's change of tune is both pragmatic and political. A gentler approach to Arctic policy is in line with Medvedev's broader effort to win over the West, as symbolized by his budding friendship with President Obama. (Remember the french fries they shared at Ray's Hell Burger in June?) And as Russia realizes, exploiting the energy wealth of the Arctic will be much harder if the region gets mired in conflict . "In the absence of stability, none of the energy opportunities are possible," says Berkman.
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AT: Biodiversity
Extinction Is Not Cause By Climate Change Idso, Founder of and current chairman of the board of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, 2011
[Craig, Sherwood, and Keith, 11-23-11, CO2 Science, Thoughts on Species' Abilities to Survive Rapid Climate Change, http://co2science.org/articles/V14/N47/EDIT.php] In an Opinion article published in Global Change Biology, Hof et al. (2011) note that recent and projected climate change is assumed to be exceptional because of its supposedly unprecedented velocity; and they say that this view has fuelled the prediction that CO2-induced global warming "will have unprecedented effects on earth's biodiversity," primarily by driving many species to extinction, because of the widespread belief that earth's plants and animals are unable to migrate poleward in latitude or upward in altitude fast enough to avoid that deadly consequence, as well as the assumption that current climate change simply outpaces evolutionary adaptation. But are these assumptions correct? The four biological researchers address this important question in stages. First, they present evidence demonstrating that "recent geophysical studies challenge the view that the speed of current and projected climate change is unprecedented." In one such study, for example, they report that Steffensen et al. (2008) showed that temperatures in Greenland warmed by up to 4C/year near the end of the last glacial period. And they state that this change and other rapid climate changes during the Quaternary (the last 2.5 million years) did not cause a noticeable level of broad-scale, continent-wide extinctions of species. Instead, they state that these rapid changes appeared to "primarily affect a few specific groups, mainly large mammals (Koch and Barnosky, 2006) and European trees (Svenning, 2003)," with the result that "few taxa became extinct during the Quaternary (Botkin et al., 2007)." So how were the bulk of earth's species able to survive what many today believe to be unsurvivable? Hof et al. speculate that "species may have used strategies other than shifting their geographical distributions or changing their genetic make-up." They note, for example, that "intraspecific variation in physiological, phenological, behavioral or morphological traits may have allowed species to cope with rapid climatic changes within their ranges (Davis and Shaw, 2001; Nussey et al., 2005; Skelly et al., 2007)," based on "preexisting genetic variation within and among different populations, which is an important prerequisite for adaptive responses," noting that "both intraspecific phenotypic variability and individual phenotypic plasticity may allow for rapid adaptation without actual microevolutionary changes." So do these observations imply that all is well with the planet's many and varied life forms? Not necessarily, because, as Hof et al. continue, "habitat destruction and fragmentation, not climate change per se, are usually identified as the most severe threat to biodiversity (Pimm and Raven, 2000; Stuart et al., 2004; Schipper et al., 2008)." And since Hof et al. conclude that "species are probably more resilient to climatic changes than anticipated in most model assessments of the effect of contemporary climate change on biodiversity," these several observations suggest to us that addressing habitat destruction and fragmentation, rather than climate change, should take center stage when it comes to striving to protect earth's biosphere, since the former more direct and obvious effects of mankind are more destructive, more imminent and more easily addressed than are the less direct, less obvious, less destructive, less imminent, and less easily addressed effects of the burning of fossil fuels.
Adaption Forces Warming To Increase Biodiversity Singer, Research Professor at George Mason and Dennis, Director Of The Center For Global Food Issues at the Hudson Institute, 2006
[Fred, 28-10-06, Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years,] We know that species can adapt to abrupt global warming because the climate shifts in the 1,500-year cycle have often been abrupt. Moreover, the world's species have already survived at least six hundred such warmings and coolings in the past million years. The major effect of global warming will be more biodiversity in our forests, as most trees, plants, birds, and animals extend their ranges. This is already happening. Some biologists claim that a further warming
Gonzaga Debate Institute 121 Warming Core of 0.8 degrees Celsius will destroy thousands of species. However, the Earth warmed much more than that during the Holocene Climate Optimum, which occurred 8,000 to 5,000 years ago, and no known species were driven extinct by the temperature increase.
122
AT: Disease
Warming doesnt cause diseases scientists admit
Donnelly 7 (John, 12-5, Staff, http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2007/12/05/a_tussle_over_link_of_warming_disease/)
Donald S. Burke,
dean of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health, noted that the 2001 study found that weather fluctuation and seasonal variability may influence the spread of infectious disease. But he also noted that such conclusions should be interpreted with caution. "There are no apocalyptic pronouncements," Burke said. "There's an awful lot we don't know." Burke said he is not convinced that climate change can be proven to cause the spread of many diseases, specifically naming
dengue fever, influenza, and West Nile virus.
Warming definitively does not cause disease their authors distort science and ignore bigger alt causes
Reiter 98 (Paul, prof of entomology @ the Pasteur Inst., fellow of Royal Entomological Society, The Lancet, Vol. 351, Issue 9105,
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(05)78979-0/fulltext) In your news item on the Kyoto Summit (Dec 20/27, p 1825) Justin McCurry reports on warnings that man-made climate change may unleash a public-health disaster. Specifically he mentions adamant claims by Paul Epstein and Andrew Haines that
global warming has already caused malaria, dengue, and yellow fever to invade higher latitudes in the temperate regions and higher altitudes in the tropics. Such claims, oft repeated, plainly ignore the past. Until the 20th century, malaria was a common disease throughout much of the USA, and it remained endemic until the 1950s. Yellow fever played a major part in US history. Widespread epidemics of dengue were also common, and continued until the 1940s. In Europe, malaria was probably present in neolithic times. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates clearly distinguished between the symptoms of vivax and falciparum malaria. Throughout history, nearly all countries of that continent were affected. Even in the present century, devastating epidemics occurred as far north as Archangel on the Arctic Circle, and the disease remained endemic in such un-tropical countries as Holland, Poland, and Finland until after World War II. Yellow fever also killed tens of thousands in many European countries until the end of the 19th century, and a devastating epidemic of dengue, with an estimated 1 million cases and 1000 deaths, occurred in Greece in 192728. Claims that malaria and dengue have recently climbed to higher altitudes are equally uninformed. Highland malaria was widespread throughout the world until the era of DDT and cheap malaria
prophylaxis. The figure shows the maximum altitude of autochthonous cases in 11 countries in the early half of this century. Transmission occurred to 2600 m in Kenya, and 2450 m in Ethopia. In
the Himalayas, the disease was present to 2500 m in India and 1830 m in China. In the Andes, epidemics were recorded to 2180 m in Argentina and 2600 m in Bolivia. In the latter country, cases actually occurred to 2773 m, transmitted by mosquitoes breeding at 35C in thermal springs. Recent epidemics of malaria in the highlands of Madagascar have been attributed to global warming, although they occurred well below the maximum altitude for transmission (figure) and were clearly a sequel to a breakdown of control infrastructure. Moreover, similar epidemics had taken place in the same areas in 1878 and 1895, and local records show no great change in temperature. Similarly, recent dengue transmission at 1250 m in Costa Rica followed the reappearance of the vector Aedes aegypti (Linn) after a successful period of control, and there is no evidence to support the suggestion that transmission was due to putative climate change. Lastly, repeated claims that the disease has ascended to new altitudes in Colombia consistently cite a publication by Nelson et al but ignore its content, for although the vector was present to 2200 m, the investigators clearly stated there were no cases at high altitude, and none have been reported since that study. The distortion of science to make predictions of unlikely public-health disasters diverts attention from the true reasons for the recrudescence of vector-borne diseases. These include the large-scale resettlement of people (often associated with major ecological change), rampant urbanisation without adequate infrastructure, high mobility through air travel, resistance to antimalarial drugs, insecticide resistance, and the deterioration of vector-control operations and other public-health practices.
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Climate Change Didnt Bring Upon Droughts Bastasch, 2013
[Michael, 4-12-2013, Government report: Historic drought not caused by global warming, The DC, http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/12/government-report-historic-drought-not-caused-by-global-warming/] Despite claims made by environmentalists and the Obama administration, a study released Thursday suggests the record-high drought that ravaged agricultural production across the Great Plains region last year was not caused by manmade global warming. The Central Great Plains drought during May-August of 2012 resulted mostly from natural variations in weather, read a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations drought unit. Neither ocean states nor human-induced climate change, factors that can provide long-lead predictability, appeared to play significant roles in causing severe rainfall deficits over the major corn producing regions of central Great Plains. According to the report, the jet stream, that typically pushes moist air from the Gulf region northward, was stuck too far north in Canada and did not bring spring rains. The lack of thunderstorms and rainfall in July and August made last summer the driest and hottest on record, creating drought conditions across two-thirds of the U.S. which were even hotter and drier than the infamous dust bowl of the Great Depression era. The report stated that a sequence of unfortunate events occurred suddenly, making the drought unpredictable. This is one of those events that comes along once every couple hundreds of years, Martin Hoerling, a NOAA research meteorologist and lead author of the report, told the Associated Press. Climate change was not a significant part, if any, of the event. Hoerling factored climate change into computer simulations of the the drought, but found it was not a factor in this particular drought. Hoerling previously used the same method to determine that climate change had been a factor in a 2011 drought in Texas. Environmentalists and the Obama administration have held up extreme weather events, including the severe drought, to highlight the need to immediately address climate change. Yes, its true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is, the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15, Obama said in his State of the Union address. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods all are now more frequent and more intense. We can choose to believe that superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science and act before its too late. Other scientists have challenged the NOAA study. Climate scientists Kevin Trenberth with the National Centre for Atmospheric Research said the study failed to take into account the lack of snowpack in the Rockies or how climate change could have kept the jet stream away.
Warming Wont Cause Massive and Severe Droughts Idso, PH.D and Founder of and Current Chairman of the Board of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, 2011
[Sherwood, Keith, and Craig, 10-12-2011, Droughts of Southwestern North America: Past and Present, CO2 Science, http://co2science.org/articles/V14/N41/EDIT.php] The world's climate alarmists claim that rising temperatures will bring ever worse droughts to precipitation-deficient regions of the earth. One such region is Southwest North America, for which Woodhouse et al. (2010) developed a 1200-year history of drought that allowed them to compare recent droughts with those of prior centuries; and in spite of the fact that the warmth of the last few decades is said by alarmists to have been unprecedented over the past millennium or more, the review and analysis presented by the five U.S. researchers demonstrates that major 20th century droughts "pale in comparison to droughts documented in paleoclimatic records over the past two millennia (Cook et al., 2009)," which suggests that recent temperatures have not been unprecedented. Presenting a little more detail, Woodhouse et al. report that "the medieval period, ~AD 900-1300," was "a period of extensive and persistent aridity over western North America," with paleoclimatic evidence suggesting that drought in the mid-12th century (AD 1146-1155) "far exceeded the severity, duration, and extent of subsequent droughts," including the 21st century drought of 2000-2009; and they also state that the AD 1146-1155 period was "anomalously warm," which would seem to confirm the climate-alarmist contention that greater warmth leads to greater droughts. However, the five scientists
Gonzaga Debate Institute 124 Warming Core contend that temperature was "almost certainly higher during the 21st century drought," which again contradicts the climate-alarmist claim that greater warmth translates into greater drought in precipitation-deficient regions of the earth. These observations do little to advance the climate-alarmist cause; for in order for their claim that rising temperatures promote more severe and expansive droughts to be correct, the peak warmth of the Medieval Warm Period would have had to have been greater than the Current Warm Period has been to date; but that situation is in conflict with their even more basic claim that recent temperatures have been unprecedented compared to those of the prior millennium or two.
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AT: Extinction
Consensus of experts agree that there is no impact to warming Hsu 10
(Jeremy, Live Science Staff, July 19, pg. http://www.livescience.com/culture/can-humans-survive-extinction-doomsday100719.html) His views deviate sharply from those of most experts, who don't view climate change as the end for humans. Even the worst-case scenarios discussed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change don't foresee human extinction. "The scenarios that
the mainstream climate community are advancing are not end-of-humanity, catastrophic scenarios," said Roger Pielke Jr., a climate policy analyst at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Humans
have the technological tools to begin tackling climate change, if not quite enough yet to solve the problem, did little to encourage people to take action. "My view of politics is that the long-term, high-risk scenarios are really difficult to use to motivate short-term, incremental action," Pielke explained. "The rhetoric of fear and alarm that some people tend toward is counterproductive." Searching for solutions One technological solution to climate change already exists through carbon capture and storage, according to Wallace Broecker, a geochemist and renowned climate
Pielke said. He added that doom-mongering scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York City. But Broecker remained skeptical that governments or industry would commit the resources needed to slow the rise of carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, and predicted that more drastic geoengineering might become necessary to stabilize the planet. "The rise in CO2 isn't going to kill people, and it's not going to kill humanity," Broecker said. "But it's going to change the entire wild ecology of the planet, melt a lot of ice, acidify the ocean, change the availability of water and change crop yields, so we're essentially doing an experiment whose result remains uncertain."
No impact to warming history and scientific study prove Jaworowski, Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in Warsaw and former chair of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, 08 (Professor Zbigniew,
Fear Propaganda,http://www.ourcivilisation.com/aginatur/cycles/chap3.htm, js) Doomsayers preaching the horrors of warming are not troubled by the fact that in the Middle Ages, when for a few hundred years it was warmer than it is now, neither the Maldive atolls nor the Pacific archipelagos were flooded. Global oceanic levels have been rising for some hundreds or thousands of years (the causes of this phenomenon are not clear). In the last 100 years, this increase amounted to 10 cm to 20 cm, (24) but it does not seem to be accelerated by the 20th Century warming. It turns out that in warmer climates, there is more water that evaporates from the ocean (and subsequently falls as snow on the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps) than there is water that flows to the seas from melting glaciers . (17) Since the 1970s, the glaciers of the Arctic, Greenland, and the Antarctic have ceased to retreat, and have started to grow. On January 18, 2002, the journal Science published the results of satellite-borne radar
and ice core studies performed by scientists from CalTech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of California at Santa Cruz. These results indicate that the Antarctic ice flow has been slowed, and sometimes even stopped, and that this has resulted in the thickening of the continental glacier at a rate of 26.8 billion tons a year. (25) In 1999, a
Polish Academy of Sciences paper was prepared as a source material for a report titled "Forecast of the Defense Conditions for the Republic of Poland in 2001-2020." The paper implied that the increase of atmospheric precipitation by 23% in Poland, which was presumed to be caused by global warming, would be detrimental. (Imagine stating this in a country where 38% of the area suffers from permanent surface water deficit!) The same paper also deemed an extension of the vegetation period by 60 to 120 days as a disaster. Truly, a possibility of doubling the crop rotation, or even prolonging by four months the harvest of radishes, makes for a horrific vision in the minds of the authors of this paper. Newspapers continuously write about the increasing frequency and power of the storms. The facts, however, speak otherwise. I cite here only some few data from Poland, but there are plenty of data from all over the world. In Cracow, in 1896-1995, the number of storms with hail and precipitation exceeding 20 millimeters has decreased continuously, and after 1930, the number of all storms decreased. (26) In 1813 to 1994, the frequency and magnitude of floods of Vistula River in Cracow not only did not increase but, since 1940, have
significantly decreased. (27) Also, measurements in the Kolobrzeg Baltic Sea harbor indicate that the number of gales has not increased between 1901 a
Extinction Isnt Caused By Warming- Empirically Proven Idso, Founder and current chairman of The Board of the Center for The Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, 2012
Gonzaga Debate Institute 126 Warming Core [Craig, Sherwood, Keith, 6-12-2012, Plant Response to Significant and Rapid Global Warming., CO2 Science, http://co2science.org/articles/V15/N24/EDIT.php] In an impressive and enlightening review of the subject, Willis and MacDonald (2011) begin by noting that key research efforts have focused on extinction scenarios derived from "a suite of predictive species distribution models (e.g., Guisan and Thuiller, 2005)" - which are most often referred to as bioclimatic envelope models - that "predict current and future range shifts and estimate the distances and rates of movement required for species to track the changes in climate and move into suitable new climate space." And they write that one of the most-cited studies of this type - that of Thomas et al. (2004) - "predicts that, on the basis of mid-range climatic warming scenarios for 2050, up to 37% of plant species globally will be committed to extinction owing to lack of suitable climate space." In contrast, the two researchers say that "biotic adaptation to climate change has been considered much less frequently." This phenomenon - which is sometimes referred to as evolutionary resilience - they describe as "the ability of populations to persist in their current location and to undergo evolutionary adaptation in response to changing environmental conditions (Sgro et al., 2010)." And they note that this approach to the subject "recognizes that ongoing change is the norm in nature and one of the dynamic processes that generates and maintains biodiversity patterns and processes," citing MacDonald et al. (2008) and Willis et al. (2009). The aim of Willis and MacDonald's review, therefore, was to examine the effects of significant and rapid warming on earth's plants during several previous intervals of the planet's climatic history that were as warm as, or even warmer than, what climate alarmists typically predict for the next century. These intervals included the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, the Eocene climatic optimum, the mid-Pliocene warm interval, the Eemian interglacial, and the Holocene. And it is important to note that this approach, in contrast to the approach typically used by climate alarmists, relies on empirical (as opposed to theoretical) data-based (as opposed to modelbased), reconstructions (as opposed to projections) of the past (as opposed to the future). And what were the primary findings of the two researchers? As they describe them, in their own words, "persistence and range shifts (migrations) seem to have been the predominant terrestrial biotic response (mainly of plants) to warmer intervals in Earth's history," while "the same responses also appear to have occurred during intervals of rapid climate change." In addition, they make a strong point of noting that "evidence for global extinctions or extinctions resulting from reduction of population sizes on the scale predicted for the next century owing to loss of suitable climate space (Thomas et al., 2004) is not apparent." In fact, they state that sometimes an actual increase in local biodiversity is observed, the case for which we lay out in Section II (Physiological Reasons for Rejecting the CO2-Induced Global Warming Extinction Hypothesis) of our Major Report
Global Warming Doesnt Kill, It Saves Lomborg, former director of the Environmental Assessment Institute, 2009
[Bjorn, 3-12-2009, The Telegraph, Global Warming Will Save Millions of Lives, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/4981028/Global-warming-will-save-millions-of-lives.html] But low temperatures also kill. The old, infirm, homeless and very young are at the highest risk of hypothermia, heart attacks, strokes and illnesses caused or exacerbated by the cold. Winter regularly takes many more lives than any heatwave: 25,000 to 50,000 people each year die in Britain from excess cold. Across Europe, there are six times more cold-related deaths than heat-related deaths. We know this from the world's biggest cross-national, peer-reviewed studies under the aegis of Professor William Keatinge of the University of London. Global warming will mean more frequent heatwaves, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change by 2100, every three years instead of every 20 years. But bitterly cold spells will decrease as quickly, coming once every two decades, rather than every three years. For the UK, the Keatinge studies show heat-related deaths caused by global warming will increase by 2,000. But cold-related deaths will decrease by 20,000. The only global study suggests that this is true internationally: by 2050, there will be almost 400,000 more heat-related deaths a year, and almost 1.8 million fewer cold-related deaths. Warmer temperatures will save 1.4 million lives each year . The number of saved lives will outweigh the increase in heat-related deaths until at least 2200. This is not an argument to do nothing in the face of global warming. But focusing only on the negative lays the groundwork for extremely poor policies. Hunt's research was presented at a Copenhagen summit that had key speakers with views more negative than consensus expectations, in the hope of convincing politicians to commit to drastic carbon cuts. This is the wrong response: even if the Kyoto Protocol's promised carbon emission reductions had been fully implemented across this century, temperatures would only be
Gonzaga Debate Institute 127 Warming Core reduced by an insignificant 0.2C, at a cost of $180 billion a year. If we want to cut temperatures faster and identify new technology that can cool houses in summer and save lives we need cheap alternative energy technology within 20 to 40 years. If every country committed to spending 0.05 per cent of GDP on researching non-carbon-emitting energy technologies, that would cost $25 billion a year, and it would do a lot more than massive carbon cuts to fight warming and save lives. To prepare adequately for the challenge of global warming, we must acknowledge both the good and the bad that it will bring. If our starting point is to prove that Armageddon is on its way, we will not consider all of the evidence, and will not identify the smartest policy choices.
Warming doesn't cause extinction- their authors are hacks Lomborg 8 (Director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center and adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School,
Bjorn, Warming warnings get overheated, The Guardian, 8/15, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/15/carbonemissions.climatechange)
These alarmist predictions are becoming quite bizarre, and could be dismissed as sociological oddities, if it weren't for the fact that they get such big play in the media. Oliver Tickell, for instance, writes that a global warming causing a 4C temperature increase by the end of the century would be a "catastrophe" and the beginning of the "extinction" of the human race. This is simply silly. His evidence? That 4C would mean that all the ice on the planet would melt, bringing the long-term sea level rise to 70-80m, flooding everything we hold dear, seeing billions of people die. Clearly, Tickell has maxed out the campaigners' scare potential (because there is no more ice to melt, this is the scariest he could ever conjure). But he is wrong. Let us just remember that the UN climate panel, the IPCC, expects a temperature rise by the end of the century between 1.8 and 6.0C. Within this range, the IPCC predicts that, by the end of the century, sea levels will rise 18-59 centimetres Tickell is simply exaggerating by a factor of up to 400. Tickell will undoubtedly claim that he was talking about what could happen many, many millennia from now. But this is disingenuous. First, the 4C temperature rise is predicted on a century scale this is what we talk about and can plan for. Second, although sealevel rise will continue for many centuries to come, the models unanimously show that Greenland's ice shelf will be reduced, but Antarctic ice will increase even more (because of increased precipitation in Antarctica) for the next three centuries. What will happen beyond that clearly depends much more on emissions in future centuries. Given that CO2 stays in the atmosphere about a century, what happens with the temperature, say, six centuries from now mainly depends on emissions five centuries from now (where it seems unlikely non-carbon emitting technology such as solar panels will not have become economically competitive). Third, Tickell tells us how the 80m sea-level rise would wipe out all the world's coastal infrastructure and much of the world's farmland "undoubtedly" causing billions to die. But to cause billions to die, it would require the surge to occur within a single human lifespan. This sort of scare tactic is insidiously wrong and misleading, mimicking a firebrand preacher who claims the earth is coming to an end and we need to repent. While it is probably true that the sun will burn up the earth in 4-5bn years' time, it does give a slightly different perspective on the need for immediate repenting. Tickell's claim that 4C will be the beginning of our extinction is again many times beyond wrong and misleading, and, of course, made with no data to back it up. Let us just take a look at the realistic impact of such a 4C temperature rise. For the Copenhagen Consensus, one of the lead economists of the IPCC, Professor Gary Yohe, did a survey of all the problems and all the benefits accruing from a temperature rise over this century of about approximately 4C. And yes, there will, of course, also be benefits: as temperatures rise, more people will die from heat, but fewer from cold; agricultural yields will decline in the tropics, but increase in the temperate zones, etc. The model evaluates the impacts on agriculture, forestry, energy, water, unmanaged ecosystems, coastal zones, heat and cold deaths and disease. The bottom line is that benefits from global warming right now outweigh the costs (the benefit is about 0.25% of global GDP). Global warming will continue to be a net benefit until about 2070, when the damages will begin to outweigh the benefits, reaching a total damage cost equivalent to about 3.5% of GDP by 2300. This is simply not the end of humanity. If anything, global warming is a net benefit now; and even in three centuries, it will not be a challenge to our civilisation. Further, the IPCC expects the average person on earth to be 1,700% richer by the end of this century.
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Climate Change Doesnt Cause Flooding Idso, PH.D and Founder of and Current Chairman of the Board of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, 2011
[Craig, Keith, Sherwood, Climate Change Reconsidered Interlim Report, http://nipccreport.org/reports/2011/pdf/2011NIPCCinterimreport.pdf] The IPCC claims flooding has become more frequent and severe in response to twentieth century global warming. But it is important to establish whether floods are truly becoming more frequent or severe, and whether other factors might be behind such trends if they in fact exist. In this section we highlight studies addressing both questions. To test for long-term changes in flood magnitudes and frequencies in the Mississippi River system of the United States, Pinter et al. (2008) constructed a hydrologic database consisting of data from 26 rated stations (with both stage and discharge measurements) and 40 stage-only stations. Then, to help quantify changes in flood levels at each station in response to construction of wing dikes, bendway weirs, meander cutoffs, navigational dams, bridges, and other modifications, they put together a geospatial database consisting of the locations, emplacement dates, and physical characteristics of over 15,000 structural features constructed along the study rivers over the past 100150 years. As a result of these operations, Pinter et al. write, significant climate- and/or land use-driven increases in flow were detected, but they indicate the largest and most pervasive contributors to increased flooding on the Mississippi River system were wing dikes and related navigational structures, followed by progressive levee construction. In discussing the implications of their findings, Pinter et al. write, the navigable rivers of the Mississippi system have been intensively engineered, and some of these modifications are associated with large decreases in the rivers capacity to convey flood flows. Hence, it would appear man has indeed been responsible for the majority of the increased flooding of the rivers of the Mississippi system over the past century or so, but not in the way suggested by the IPCC. The question that needs addressing by the regions inhabitants has nothing to do with CO2 and everything to do with how to balance the local benefits of river engineering against the potential for large-scale flood magnification.In a study designed to determine the environmental origins of extreme flooding events throughout the southwestern United States, Ely (1997) wrote, paleoflood records from nineteen rivers in Arizona and southern Utah, including over 150 radiocarbon dates and evidence of over 250 flood deposits, were combined to identify regional variations in the frequency of extreme floods, and that information was then compared with paleoclimatic data to determine how the temporal and spatial patterns in the occurrence of floods reflect the prevailing climate. The results of this comparison indicated long-term variations in the frequency of extreme floods over the Holocene are related to changes in the climate and prevailing large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns that affect the conditions conducive to extreme flood-generating storms in each region. These changes, in Elys view, are very plausibly related to global-scale changes in the climate system. With respect to the Colorado River watershed, which integrates a large portion of the interior western United States, she writes, the largest floods tend to be from spring snowmelt after winters of heavy snow accumulation in the mountains of Utah, western Colorado, and northern New Mexico, such as occurred with the cluster of floods from 5 to 3.6 ka, which occurred in conjunction with glacial advances in mountain ranges throughout the western United States during the cool, wet period immediately following the warm mid-Holocene. The frequency of extreme floods also increased during the early and middle portions of the first millennium AD, many of which coincided with glacial advances and cool, moist conditions both in the western U.S. and globally. Then came a sharp drop in the frequency of large floods in the southwest from AD 1100-1300, which corresponded, in her words, to the widespread Medieval Warm Period, which was first noted in European historical records. With the advent of the Little Ice Age, however, there was another substantial jump in the number of floods in the southwestern U.S., which was associated with a switch to glacial advances, high lake levels, and cooler, wetter conditions. Distilling her findings down to a single succinct statement and speaking specifically of the southwestern United States, Ely writes, global warm periods, such as the Medieval Warm Period, are times of dramatic decreases in the number of high-magnitude floods in this region [emphasis added].
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Warmer Climates Reduces Floods Stewart, Institute of Geography and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, 2011
[Monique, 11-15-2011, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, SciVerse, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018211004597] Insight into the relationship between floods and climate, under a wide range of climate variability in Central Europe from ca. 1450 BC to AD 420, can be found in the sediments of Lake Silvaplana (Upper Engadine, Switzerland). The frequency of local paleofloods can be reconstructed from turbidite frequency. Long-term cool and/or wet and warm and/or dry climate phases can be reconstructed from anomalies in low-frequency Mass Accumulation Rates (MAR). This is because low-frequency MAR reflects glacier length changes in the Swiss Alps and glacier lengths are a response to longterm climate conditions. Transitions between cool and/or wet and warm and/or dry climate phases can be inferred from centennial trends in low-frequency MAR. Furthermore, quantitative absolute June-JulyAugust (JJA) temperatures reconstructed from Biogenic Silica (BSi) flux and chironomids in the sediments of Lake Silvaplana are available from ca. 570 BC to AD 120 (Stewart et al., 2011). Comparison of turbidite frequency to MAR-inferred climate phases (ca. 1450 BCAD 420) and JJA temperatures (ca. 570 BCAD 120) suggests an increase in the frequency of paleofloods during cool and/or wet climates and windows of cooler JJA temperatures. Specifically, the frequency of turbidites was reduced during warm and/or dry climates of ca. 1450 BC to AD 420. Following the transition to cool and/or wet climates, the frequency of turbidites increased. However, no discernable relationship between the rate of transition from warm and/or dry to cool and/or wet climate and turbidite could be found.
CO2 does not link to increased rainfall. Idso, Founder for Center for Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Carter, Marine Geologist, and Singer, Director of the Science and Environmental Policy Project, 2011 (Craig D., Robert, and S. Fred, 2011, NIPCC, Climate Change
Reconsidered, 2011 Interim Report, Chapter 7, http://nipccreport.org/reports/2011/2011report.html, accessed 7/5/13, AK) As noted in the previous chapter (see Section 4.3.1), Chu et al. (2010) found the precipitation predictions of the IPCC had not been realized throughout the part of the Pacific that is home to the Hawaiian Islands, and in fact just the opposite had occurred there: The three scientists determined, since the 1980s, there has been a change in the types of precipitation intensity, resulting in more frequent light precipitation and less frequent moderate and heavy precipitation Climate Change Reconsidered 2011 Interim Report 124 intensity, as well as a shorter annual number of days with intense precipitation and smaller consecutive 5-day precipitation amounts and smaller fraction of annual precipitation due to events exceeding the 19611990 95th percentile in the recent epoch [19802007] relative to the first epoch [1950 1979]. Similarly, in that chapter we noted Stankoviansky (2003) found extreme and destructive rainfall events were much more common throughout the Myjava Hill Land of Slovakia during the Little Ice Age than they have been subsequently, and this, in his words (and in harmony with the many references he cites), is often regarded as generally valid for Central Europe. This conclusion runs counter to that of the IPCC, which equates destructive precipitation events and the flooding they cause with global warming. In a model-based study of precipitation,Schliep et al. (2010) compared estimates of local extreme precipitation events using six regional climate models (RCMs), which run at a higher spatial resolution than global climate models (GCMs). The six RCMs were forced with a common set of reanalysis data, created by running a climate model that was fed real-world data for a 20-year simulation period. The area analyzed was North America, where winter precipitation was the response variable and the onehundred-yearextremum of daily winter precipitation was the test statistic, extreme values of which were estimated by fitting a tailed distribution to the data, taking into account their spatial aspects. The six RCMs showed similar general spatial patterns of extremes across North America, with the highest extremes in the Southeast and along the West Coast. However, when comparing absolute levels, which are most relevant to risk forecasts, the models exhibited strong disagreement. The lowest-predicting model was low almost everywhere in North America compared to the mean of the six models and, similarly, the highest-predicting model was above the mean almost everywhere. The difference between the two models was almost 60mm of daily precipitation (for the one-hundredyear extreme event) over much of the United States. The other four models showed greatly differing spatial patterns of extremes from each other, and those differences were found to be statistically significant by F test. The researchers
Gonzaga Debate Institute 133 Warming Core speculate that when driven by multiple GCMs rather than reanalysis data, the range of extreme outcomes would only increase. As a result, extreme rainfall event predictions may vary considerably among models and extend well beyond the realm of reality. The lesson we take from Schliep et al. is that model-based claims of a CO2-induced increase in extreme precipitation events should be treated with considerable skepticism.
Floods do not have an impact- plants continue to grow underwater due to more CO2. Idso, Founder for Center for Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Carter, Marine Geologist, and Singer, Director of the Science and Environmental Policy Project, 2011 (Craig D., Robert, and S. Fred,
2011, NIPCC, Climate Change Reconsidered, 2011 Interim Report, Chapter 7, http://nipccreport.org/reports/2011/2011report.html, accessed 7/5/13, AK) At the other end of the moisture spectrum, we confront the problem of an over-sufficiency of water, which we equate with complete submergence in water. This phenomenon was recently studied by Pedersen et al. (2010), who write, with respect to terrestrial plants in general, that complete submergence in water impedes exchange of O2 and CO2 with shoots (Voesenek et al., 2006), and that underwater photosynthesis is limited by CO2 availability owing to slow diffusion in water, and stomatal closure (Mommer and Visser, 2005). These submergence-induced phenomena if long sustainedtypically lead to plant death. To learn how the wetland plant Hordeum marinum Huds. would respond when fully submerged in water, Pedersen et al. grew several 28-dayold plants consisting of three Nordic Gene Bank accessions (H21, H90, and H546) for seven additional days while exposing them to four different treatments: aerated root zone controls with shoots in air; stagnant root zone with shoots in air; stagnant root zone with shoots also completely submerged with 18 M CO2 (air equilibrium); stagnant root zone with shoots also completely submerged with 200 M CO2 (simulating CO2 enrichment in many natural flood waters), while measuring numerous plant responses. This revealed, as they describe it, that plants submerged for 7 days in water at air equilibrium (18 M CO2) suffered loss of biomass, whereas those with 200 M CO2 continued to grow. In addition, higher underwater net photosynthesis at 200 M CO2 increased by 2.7- to 3.2-fold sugar concentrations in roots of submerged plants, compared with at air equilibrium CO2. They state this phenomenon is likely to have contributed to the greater root growth in submerged plants with the higher CO2 supply. Finally, they note the latter CO2-enriched plants tillered similarly to plants with shoots in air. Pedersen et al. further report that CO2 enrichment of submerging water to ~290 M enhanced by twofold the growth of two cultivars of rice, compared to plants submerged with water in equilibrium with normal ambient air (Setter et al., 1989), and they state such elevated CO2 concentrations have been reported at various field sites, citing Setter et al. (1987) and Ram et al. (1999). Thus, they indicate plants experiencing total submergence during floods typically lose mass and die under normal conditions, but when the water is supersaturated with CO2, they can not only survive, they actually continue to grow.
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Ocean Acidification Is Good, Beneficial to Organisms Idso, PH.D and Founder of and current chairman of the board of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, 2012
[Sherwood, Keith, Craig, 5-19-12, The Unsettled Science of Ocean Warming and Acidification , http://co2science.org/articles/V15/N19/EDIT.php] The world's climate alarmists would have us believe that they know all they need to know about earth's climate system and its biological ramifications to justify an unbelievably expensive and radical restructuring of the way the industrialized world both obtains and utilizes energy. But is this really so? In an eye-opening "perspective" article published a couple of years ago in the 9 December 2009 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, three researchers from the Marine Biogeochemistry Section of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany, describe their assessment of various possible responses of the global ocean's seawater carbonate system, plus its physical and biological carbon pumps, to ocean warming and associated changes in vertical mixing and overturning circulation, as well as the closely-allied phenomena of ocean acidification and carbonation. All of these phenomena, many of which are nonlinear and extremely complicated, are interlinked; and Riebesell and his colleagues thus conclude, from their objective review of the pertinent scientific literature, that the magnitude and even the sign of the global
Gonzaga Debate Institute 135 Warming Core ocean's carbon cycle feedback to climate change are, in their words, "yet unknown." They note, for example, that "our understanding of biological responses to ocean change is still in its infancy." With respect to ocean acidification, in particular, they write that the impact it will have on marine life "is still uncertain," and that the phenomenon itself is but "one side of the story," the other side being what they call "ocean carbonation," which, as they describe it, "will likely be beneficial to some groups of photosynthetic organisms." Thus, they write that "our present understanding of biologically driven feedback mechanisms is still rudimentary," and that with respect to many of their magnitudes, "our understanding is too immature to even make a guess." What is more, they imply that even what we do think we know could well be wrong, because, as they elucidate, "our present knowledge of pH/CO2 sensitivities of marine organisms is based almost entirely on short-term perturbation experiments, neglecting the possibility of evolutionary adaptation."
Ocean acidification will be slow and stable, proven by 1000 studies- it improves ocean resiliency Codling 11 [Jo, received a Bachelor of Science first class and won the FH Faulding and the Swan Brewery prizes at the
University of Western Australia. Her major was microbiology, molecular biology. Nova received a Graduate Certificate in Scientific Communication from the Australian National University in 1989,[4] and she did honours research in 1990, prize-winning science graduate, Jo has has done over 200 radio interviews, many on the Australian ABC. She was formerly an associate lecturer in Science Communication at the ANU and is based in Perth, Western Australia, , Ocean Acidification a little bit less alkalinity could be a good thing, Sept. 11, http://joannenova.com.au/2011/09/oceanacidification-a-little-bit-less-alkalinity-could-be-a-good-thing/] Studies of how marine life copes with less alkaline conditions include many experiments with water at pH values in a range beyond anything that is likely on planet Earth they go beyond the bounds of whats possible. There are estimates that the pH of the ocean has shifted about 0.1 pH unit in the last 200 years, yet some studies consider the effects of water that is shifted by 2 or even 4 entire pH units. Four pH units means 10,000 fold change in the concentration of hydrogen ions). Thats a shift so large, its not going to occur in the next few thousand years, even under the worst of the worst case scenarios by the most sadistic models. Indeed, its virtually impossible for CO2 levels to rise high enough to effect that kind of change, even if we burned every last fossil, every tree, plant microbe, and vaporized life on earth. (Yet still someone thought it was worth studying what would happen if, hypothetically, that happened. Hmm.) CO2 science has an extraordinary data base of 1103 studies of the effects of acidification on marine life. They reason that any change beyond 0.5 pH units is far far beyond the realms of reality even if you are concerned about coral reefs in the year 2300 (see Tans 2009). Even the IPCCs highest end scenario A2 estimate predicts a peak change in the range of 0.6 units by 2300. Many of the headlines forecasting Death to Reefs come from studies of ocean water at extreme pHs that will never occur globally, and that are beyond even what the IPCC is forecasting. Some headlines come from studies of hydrothermal vents where CO2 bubbles up from the ocean floor. Not surprisingly they find changes to marine life near the vents, but then, the pH of these areas ranges right down to 2.8. They are an extreme environment, nothing like what we might expect to convert the worlds oceans too. Studies of growth, calcification, metabolism, fertility and survival show that, actually, if things were a little less alkaline, on average, marine life would benefit. There will be winners and losers, but on the whole, using those five measures of health, the reefs are more likely to have more life on and around them, than they are to shrink. First, marine life evolved under conditions were most of the time the world was warmer and had more CO2 in the atmosphere than it does today. Second, like life above the water, life-below-water is based on carbon, and putting more carbon into the water is not necessarily a bad thing. That said, the dots in the graph above represent study results, and the ones below zero tell us there will be some losers, even though there will be more winners (above zer0). Thirdly, watch out for some of the more devastating headlines which also come from studies where researchers changed the pH by tossing hydrochloric acid into the tank. Chlorine, as they say, is not the same as the gas nature breathes CO2. (The strange thing about the studies with hydrochloric acid, is that it doesnt seem to be bad as we might have expected nonetheless, it seems like a dubious practice to use in studying the health of corals.) Yes, we should watch and monitor the oceans careful. No, there is no chance the Great Barrier Reef will be gone in the next 100 years: 1103 studies show that if the worlds oceans were slightly less basic then marine life as a whole will be slightly more likely to grow,
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Climate change proves Oceans and marine bioD are resilient alarmist predictions empirically denied Taylor 10 (James M. Taylor is a senior fellow of The Heartland Institute and managing editor of Environment &
Climate News., Ocean Acidification Scare Pushed at Copenhagen, Feb 10 http://www.heartland.org/publications/environment%20climate/article/26815/Ocean_Acidification_Scare_Pushed_at_ Copenhagen.html) With global temperatures continuing their decade-long decline and United Nations-sponsored global warming talks falling apart in Copenhagen, alarmists at the U.N. talks spent considerable time claiming carbon dioxide emissions will cause catastrophic ocean acidification, regardless of whether temperatures rise. The latest scientific data, however, show no such catastrophe is likely to occur. The United Kingdoms environment secretary, Hilary Benn, initiated the Copenhagen ocean scare with a high-profile speech and numerous media interviews claiming ocean acidification threatens the worlds food supply. The fact is our seas absorb CO2. They absorb about a quarter of the total that we produce, but it is making our seas more acidic, said Benn in his speech. If this continues as a problem, then it can affect the one billion people who depend on fish as their principle source of protein, and we have to feed another 2 to 3 billion people over the next 40 to 50 years. Benns claim of oceans becoming more acidic is misleading, however. Water with a pH of 7.0 is considered neutral. pH values lower than 7.0 are considered acidic, while those higher than 7.0 are considered alkaline. The worlds oceans have a pH of 8.1, making them alkaline, not acidic. Increasing carbon dioxide concentrations would make the oceans less alkaline but not acidic. Since human industrial activity first began emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere a little more than 200 years ago, the pH of the oceans has fallen merely 0.1, from 8.2 to 8.1. Following Benns December 14 speech and public relations efforts, most of the worlds major media outlets produced stories claiming ocean acidification is threatening the worlds marine life. An Associated Press headline, for example, went so far as to call ocean acidification the evil twin of climate change. Numerous recent scientific studies show higher carbon dioxide levels in the worlds oceans have the same beneficial effect on marine life as higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have on terrestrial plant life. In a 2005 study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, scientists examined trends in chlorophyll concentrations, critical building blocks in the oceanic food chain. The French and American scientists reported an overall increase of the world ocean average chlorophyll concentration by about 22 percent during the prior two decades of increasing carbon dioxide concentrations. In a 2006 study published in Global Change Biology, scientists observed higher CO2 levels are correlated with better growth conditions for oceanic life. The highest CO2 concentrations produced higher growth rates and biomass yields than the lower CO2 conditions. Higher CO2 levels may well fuel subsequent primary production, phytoplankton blooms, and sustaining oceanic food-webs, the study concluded. In a 2008 study published in Biogeosciences, scientists subjected marine organisms to varying concentrations of CO2, including abrupt changes of CO2 concentration. The ecosystems were surprisingly resilient to changes in atmospheric CO2, and the ecosystem composition, bacterial and phytoplankton abundances and productivity, grazing rates and total grazer abundance and reproduction were not significantly affected by CO2-induced effects. In a 2009 study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists reported, Sea star growth and feeding rates increased with water temperature from 5C to 21C. A doubling of current [CO2] also increased growth rates both with and without a concurrent temperature increase from 12C to 15C. Far too many predictions of CO2-induced catastrophes are treated by alarmists as sure to occur, when real-world observations show these doomsday scenarios to be highly unlikely or even virtual impossibilities, said Craig Idso, Ph.D., author of the 2009 book CO2, Global Warming and Coral Reefs. The phenomenon of CO2-induced ocean acidification appears to be no different.
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Tornadoes Arent Becoming More Frequent Because Of Climate Change Sheffield, President of Dialog New Media, 2013
[Matthew, 5-25-2013, News Busters, Scientist Corrects Gullible Reporter: Climate Change Not Causing More Tornadoes, http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-sheffield/2013/05/25/scientist-corrects-gullible-reporter-we-are-not-havingmore-extre] Occasionally, we hear from people who believe that liberal media bias isnt really that big of an issue because most people dont really trust reporters to tell the truth. While public trust in the media is at an all-time low, that hardly means they lack the power to shape opinion. A perfect case in point is the notion popularized by environmental alarmist Al Gore that the Earth is experiencing more severe weather events supposedly caused by climate change . Like his earlier debunked claims that global temperatures were increasing, this statement is also false. But many people are simply unaware of the facts.That is understandable given that most people are not interested in keeping tallies of the number of hurricanes and tornadoes. Being uninformed about the facts, they are easily susceptible to having their opinion influenced by the medias love of disaster coverage and also of extremists like Gore making false claims about severe weather phenomena. One such person who appears to have been influenced in this way is Los Angeles Times reporter Stacey Lessca. Fortunately for her, yesterday she received some much-needed education during an interview with a scientist working for the National Severe Storms Laboratory. After discussing some of the particulars of the recent tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma, Lessca shifted her questioning toward environmental orthodoxy (to watch, fastforward to the 11:20 mark), asking research scientist Robin Tanamachi if there really were more tornadoes happening thanks to climate change: It seems like theres been more severe weather, it seems, it just feels like hurricanes are getting worse. Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast. This tornado now has killed 24 people in the town of Moore. Do you think that more severe storms are becoming the norm, and do you think that they are directly related to climate change? Tanamachi answered that this was not the case whatsoever and that people who thought otherwise were
Gonzaga Debate Institute 138 Warming Core likely being influenced by the medias continual reporting on weather events: Well the statistics dont bear that assertion out. What were finding is that peoples perception is that severe weather has increased. That perception is largely based on media presentation and that an event like the Moore tornado is now broadcast worldwide within moments of its occurence. And so it can seem more local to people than it is. But as far as the number of tornadoes, we havent been able to discern an increasing trend. As far as the number of hurricanes, we havent been able to discern a really solid increasing trend with that. So its just a matter of people being aware of those events when they occur and being aware of them almost immediately after they happen. This is not the only issue where the media have influenced the public into believing something that is false. As Geoffrey Dickens noted earlier this month, a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center found that only 12 percent of Americans were aware that gun violence has decreased even though the drop has been quite significant. By contrast, a majority, 56 percent, believed incorrectly that gun violence had increased. This misperception was almost certainly created by the press which has been feverish in its coverage of mass shootings and in its advocacy for anti-gun laws. Side note: The idea that human wickedness has some sort of effect on climate has long been a staple of some religious thought and it is yet another way in which modern environmentalism is actually similar to a religion. Both Al Gore and your garden-variety End Times lunatic believe that humans are being punished for their sins with more extreme weather events like hurricanes and tornadoes. It is sad reflection on modern society that the former is on his way to becoming a billionaire while only the latter is dismissed as a crank.
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AT: Wars
Warming Is Empirically Proven To Not Cause Wars Schiemeier, Statistic and Geographer, 2010
[Quirin, 9-6-2010 Climate Change Not Link To African War , http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100906/full/news.2010.451.html] Halvard Buhaug, a political scientist with the Peace Research Institute Oslo in Norway. In research published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1, he finds virtually no correlation between climate-change indicators such as temperature and rainfall variability and the frequency of civil wars over the past 50 years in subSaharan Africa arguably the part of the world that is socially and environmentally most vulnerable to climate change. "The primary causes of civil war are political, not environmental," says Buhaug. The analysis challenges a study published last year that claimed to have found a causal connection between climate warming and civil violence in Africa. Marshall Burke, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues, reported a strong historical relationship between temperature and the incidence of civil war. They found that the likelihood of armed conflict across the continent rose by around 50% in unusually warm years during 1981-20022. Projected future warming threatens to offset the positive effects of democratization and eradicating poverty in Africa, they warned. Data-set discord The two rival groups are now disputing the validity of each other's findings. Buhaug says that Burke's study may have been skewed by the choice of climate data sets, and by their narrow definition of 'civil war' as any year that saw more than 1,000 fatalities from intra-national conflict. The definition is at odds with conventional measures of civil war in the academic literature, says Buhaug: "If a conflict lasts for 10 years, but in only 3 of them the death toll exceeds 1,000, [Burke et al] may code it as three different wars." "You'd really like to apply as many complementary definitions as possible before proclaiming a robust correlation with climate change," Buhaug adds. Burke maintains that his findings are robust, and counters that Buhaug has cherry-picked his data sets to support his hypothesis. "Although we have enjoyed discussing it with him, we definitely do not agree with Halvard on this," says Burke. "There are legitimate disagreements about which data to use, [but] basically we think he's made some serious econometric mistakes that undermine his results. He does not do a credible job of controlling for other things beyond climate that might be going on." Buhaug disagrees vigorously. "If they accuse me of highlighting data sets in favour of my hypothesis, then this applies tenfold more to their own paper." The debate has much wider implications for policy-makers. The link between climate and civil war has been mooted several times before for example, in a 2003 report for the Pentagon on the national-security implications of climate change; in the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, prepared for the UK government in 2006; and in the United Nations' post-conflict environmental assessment of Sudan in 2007, which suggested that climate change was an aggravating factor in the Darfur conflict. Given the many causes of unrest, it is not surprising that a meaningful correlation with climate is hard to pin down, says Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. "Even if the data and methods were up to the task which they aren't the 'causal noise' would be too loud to discern the currently still weak climate signals in civil wars." It is extremely difficult to identify simple, robust cause-and-effect relationships between changes in climate and societal outcomes, agrees Roger Pielke, a political scientist and climate policy expert at the University of Colorado in Boulder. "The climate signals are small in the context of the broader social factors," Pielke says. "This does not at all diminish the importance of responding to climate change, but it does offer a stark warning about trying to use overly simplistic notions of cause and effect to advocate for such actions.
Gonzaga Debate Institute 140 Warming Core academic circles. In this article we contribute in two ways to the existing literature on the climate changeconflict nexus. First, we conceptualize this nexus in terms of a two-stage process in which climatic variability affects the probability of violent intrastate conflict via climate effects on economic growth, and where these effects may be contingent on political system characteristics. Second, we employ a measure of climatic variability that has advantages over those used in the existing literature, primarily because it takes into account the adaptation of economic activity to persistent climatic changes. Our results suggest that climate variability, measured as deviations in temperature and precipitation from their past, long-run levels (a 30-year moving average), does not affect violent intrastate conflict through economic growth. This finding is important because the causal pathway leading from climate variability via (deteriorating) economic growth to conflict is a key part of most theoretical models of the climateconflict nexus. While our empirical results provide no support for the climate changeeconomic growthconflict pathway, further research is required before we can move towards closure of the debate. In particular, it would be very useful to improve on existing indicators of climatic variability, adaptation to climate variability, and relevant (from the viewpoint of violent conflict) economic performance. For instance, in the absence of appropriate indicators for adaptation it remains difficult to estimate the effect of climatic variability on economic performance and hence on the probability of violent conflict.
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Resource Scarcity Solves Relations and Conflict Dinar, Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University, 2011
[Shlomi, 8-21-2011, Beyond Resource Wars, http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/beyond-resource-wars] This volume asserts that while resource scarcity and environmental degradation may well constitute sources of conflict, political dispute, and mismanagement between states, they may also be the impetus for coop- eration, coordination, and negotiation between them. While the volume recognizes both sides of the resource scarcity and environmental degra- dation coin, the cooperative relationship is of particular interest and scrutiny. Indeed, conflict frequently motivates cooperation, and resource scarcity and environmental degradation are important elements of this relationship. Generally, the authors in this volume maintain that increasing scarcity and degradation induce cooperation across states. To that Solve Extent, we provide a different perspective than that of the resource wars argument made with regard to particular natural resources such as oil, freshwater, minerals, and fisheries. Yet beyond this claim, the volume systematically explores the intricacies and nuances of this scarcity and degradation contention across a set of additional resources and environmental prob- lems, which may merely motivate political conflicts such as climate change, ozone depletion, oceans pollution, transboundary air pollution, and biodiversity conservation. In particular, and in line with the collec- tive action school, the volume investigates the notion that as scarcity and degradation worsen, interstate cooperation becomes difficult to achieve since it may be too costly to manage the degradation or there is simply too little of the resource to share (Ostrom 2001). Similarly, low levels of scarcity may depress cooperation as there is less urgency to organize and coordinate. Scarcity and degradation levels, in other words, should matter in explaining the intensity of cooperation.
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***Ice Age***
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last (ice age) ended 10,000 years ago; the next one for there will be a next one could start tens of thousands of years from now. Or tens of years. Or it may have already started. The scare about global cooling was always the same: unprecedented low temperatures; the coldest weather recorded; unusual floods and storms; a rapid shift in the world's climate towards an icy apocalypse. But now, the scare is about global warming. To convert from the first scare to the second, all you have to do is substitute "the coldest weather
recorded" with "the warmest weather recorded". Replace the icicles hanging from oranges in California with melting glaciers on Mt Everest, and the shivering armadillos with sweltering polar bears. We were going to freeze but now we are going to fry. Even the White House is making cautionary sounds about warming. What facts have emerged to make this dramatic reversal? Well, none really. The most reliable measurements show no change whatsoever in global temperatures in the past 20 years. What has changed is the perception that global warming makes a better scare than the coming ice age. A good environmental scare needs two ingredients. The first is impending catastrophe. The second is a suitable culprit to blame. In the second case, the ice age fails and global warming is gloriously successful. It is not the destruction itself of Sodom and Gomorrah that makes the story so appealing but the fact that they were destroyed because they were so sinful. One of the real threats to mankind is the danger of collision with a large asteroid. It has happened in the past with catastrophic effect, and it will probably happen again. But there are no conferences, resolutions, gatherings, protests and newspaper headlines about asteroid impacts. The reason is that you cannot find anyone suitable to blame for them. If you could persuade people that President Bush or the oil companies were responsible for the asteroids, I guarantee there would be a billion-dollar campaign to "raise awareness" about the asteroid danger, with sonorous editorials in all the papers. Global warming has the perfect culprit: naughty, industrialised, advanced, consuming, Western society, which has made itself very rich by burning a lot of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas). This, so the scare goes, is releasing a lot of carbon dioxide, which is dangerously heating up the world. THERE are two facts in the scare. First, it is true that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas one which traps heat on Earth. (Without it, the Earth would be 'too cold for' life.) Second, it is true that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is rising. The rest is guesswork. The global warmers said the most accurate measure of climate change would be air temperatures. For the past 20 years or more, air temperatures have been measured with extreme accuracy. They show no warming whatsoever. Surface temperatures are much less reliable since the recording stations are often encroached on by expanding cities, which warm the local environment. The curve most often used by the global warmers is one showing surface temperatures rising by about half a degree in the past 100 years. (The curve, incidentally, is a bad match against rising carbon dioxide but a good one against solar activity, which suggests the sun might be the reason for the warming.) However, there are accurate methods of measuring sea temperatures going back much further. Past temperatures for the Atlantic Ocean have been found by looking at dead marine life. The isotope ratio of carbon-14 in their skeletons tells you when they lived. The ratio of other isotopes tells you the temperature then. Thus we are able to know temperatures in the Atlantic and northern Europe going back thousands of years. They make nonsense of the global warming scare. The last ice age ended about 10,000 years ago. Temperatures rose to the "Holocene Maximum" of about 5000 years ago when it was about l.5C higher than now, dropped in the time of Christ, and then rose to the "Medieval Climate Optimum" in the years 600 to 1100, when temperatures. were about 1C higher than now. This was a golden age for northern European agriculture and led to the rise of Viking civilisation. Greenland, now a frozen wasteland, was then a habitable Viking colony. There were vineyards in the south of England. Then temperatures dropped to "The Little Ice Age" in the 1600s, when the Thames froze over. And they have been rising slowly ever since, although they are still much lower than 1000 years ago. We are now in a rather cool period. What caused these ups and downs of temperature? We do not know. Temperature changes are a fact of nature, and we have no idea if the claimed 0.3C heating over the past 100 years is caused by man's activities or part of a natural cycle. What we can say, though, is that if Europe heats up by 1C it would do it a power of good. We can see this from records of 1000 years ago. Moreover, increased carbon dioxide makes plants grow more quickly, so improving crops and forests. The Earth's climate is immensely complicated, far beyond our present powers of understanding and the calculating powers of modern computers. Changes in phase from ice to water to vapour; cloud formation; convection; ocean currents; winds; changes in the sun: the complicated shapes of the land masses; the ability of the oceans to absorb carbon dioxide all of these and a thousand other factors operating with small differences over vast masses and distances make it practically impossible for us to make predictions about long-term climate patterns, and perhaps make such predictions inherently impossible. The computer models that the global warmers now use are ludicrously oversimplified, and it is no surprise they have made one wrong prediction after another. If the global warming scare has little foundation in fact, the ice-age scare is only too solidly founded. For the past two million years, but not before, the northern hemisphere has gone through a regular cycle of ice ages: 90,000 years with ice: 10,000 years without. The last ice age ended 10,000 years ago. Our time is up. The next ice age is due. We do not know what causes the ice ages. It is probably to do with the arrangement of northern land masses and the path of the Gulf Stream, but we do not know. However, a
new ice age, unlike global warming, would be a certain calamity. It may be that increased levels of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are actually warding off the ice age. In this case, we should give tax relief to coal power stations and factories for every tonne of carbon dioxide they release.
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An ice age is coming and will cause extinction- need to keep up emissions to survive Chapman, geophysicist and astronautical engineer, 8
(Phil, April 23th 2008, The Australian, Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23583376-7583,00.html, accessed 7/12/2013, JA)
THE scariest photo I have seen on the internet is www.spaceweather.com, where you will find a real-time image of the sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, located in deep space at the equilibrium point between solar and terrestrial gravity. What is scary about the picture is that there is only one tiny sunspot. Disconcerting
as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and now the global temperature is falling precipitously. All four agencies that track Earth's temperature (the Hadley Climate Research Unit in Britain, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, the Christy group at the University of Alabama, and Remote Sensing Systems Inc in California) report that it cooled by about 0.7C in 2007. This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record and it puts us back where we were in 1930. If the temperature does not soon recover, we will have to conclude that global warming is over. There is also plenty of anecdotal evidence that 2007 was exceptionally cold.
It snowed in Baghdad for the first time in centuries, the winter in China was simply terrible and the extent of Antarctic sea ice in the austral winter was the greatest on record since James Cook discovered the place in 1770. It is generally not possible to draw conclusions about climatic trends from events in a single year, so I would normally dismiss this cold snap as transient, pending what happens in the next few years. This is where SOHO comes in. The sunspot number follows a cycle of somewhat variable length, averaging 11 years. The most recent minimum was in March last year. The new cycle, No.24, was supposed to start soon after that, with a gradual build-up in sunspot numbers. It didn't happen. The
first sunspot appeared in January this year and lasted only two days . A tiny spot appeared last Monday but vanished within 24 hours. Another little spot appeared this Monday. Pray that there will be many more, and soon. The reason this matters is that there is a close correlation between variations in the sunspot cycle and Earth's climate. The previous time a cycle was delayed like this was in the Dalton Minimum, an especially cold period that lasted several decades from 1790. Northern winters became ferocious: in particular, the rout of Napoleon's Grand Army during the retreat from Moscow in 1812 was at least partly due to the lack of sunspots. That the rapid temperature decline in 2007 coincided with the failure of cycle No.24 to begin on schedule is not proof of a causal connection but it is cause for concern. It is time to put aside the global warming dogma, at least to begin contingency planning about what to do if we are moving into another little ice age, similar to the one that lasted from 1100 to 1850. There is no doubt that the next little ice age would be much worse than the previous one and much more harmful than anything warming may do . There are many more people now and we have become dependent on a few
temperate agricultural areas, especially in the US and Canada. Global warming would increase agricultural output, but global cooling will decrease it. Millions will starve if we do nothing to prepare for it (such as planning changes in agriculture to compensate), and millions more will die from cold-related diseases. There is also another possibility, remote but much more serious. The Greenland and Antarctic ice cores and other evidence show that for the past several million years, severe glaciation has almost always afflicted our planet. The bleak truth is that, under normal conditions, most of North America and Europe are buried under about 1.5km of ice. This bitterly frigid climate is interrupted occasionally by brief warm interglacials, typically lasting less than 10,000 years. The interglacial we have enjoyed throughout recorded human history, called the Holocene, began 11,000 years ago, so the ice is overdue. We also know that glaciation can occur quickly: the required decline in global temperature is about 12C and it can happen in 20 years. The another 1000 years. On the other hand, it must be noted that
next descent into an ice age is inevitable but may not happen for the cooling in 2007 was even faster than in typical glacial transitions. If it continued for 20 years, the temperature would be 14C cooler in 2027. By then, most of the advanced nations would have ceased to exist, vanishing under the ice, and the rest of the world would be faced with a catastrophe beyond imagining. Australia may escape total annihilation but would surely be overrun by millions of refugees. Once the glaciation starts, it will last 1000 centuries, an incomprehensible stretch of time.
The coming Ice Age outweighs any impacts of Warming Singer, distinguished research professor at George Mason and Avery, director of the Center for Global Food Issues at the Hudson Institute, 7
(Fred, Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years, Page 13, JA The climate event that deserves real concern is the next Big Ice Age. That is inevitably approaching, though it may still be thousands of years away. When it comes, temperatures may plummet 15 degrees Celsius, with the high latitudes getting up to 40 degrees colder. Humanity and food production will be forced closer to the equator, as huge ice sheets expand in
Canada. Scandinavia. Russia, and Argentina. Even Ohio and Indiana may gradually be encased in mile-thick ice, while California and the Great Plains
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both night and day . Getting enough food for eight or nine billion people from the relatively small amount of arable land left unfrozen will be a potentially desperate effort. The broad, fertile plains of Alberta and the Ukraine will become sub-Arctic wastes. Wildlife species will be extremely challenged, even though they've survived such cold before-because this time there will be more humans competing for the ice-free land. That's when human knowledge and high-tech farming will be truly needed. In contrast, none of the scary scenarios
posited by today's global warming advocates took place during the Earth's past warm periods
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An ice age is cooling due to lower sun activity- solar science proves Svensmark, PhD., director of the Center for Sun-Climate Research at DTU Space,9
(Henrik, 9/10/09, Whatsupwiththat.com, Svensmark: global warming stopped and a cooling is beginning enjoy global warming while it lasts, http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/09/10/svensmark-global-warming-stopped-and-acooling-is-beginning-enjoy-global-warming-while-it-lasts/, accessed 7/12/13, JA)
Gonzaga Debate Institute 148 Warming Core The star that keeps us alive has, over the last few years, been almost free of sunspots, which are the usual signs of the Suns magnetic activity. Last week *4 September 2009+ the scientific team behind the satellite SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) reported, It is likely that the current years number of blank days will be the longest in about 100 years. Everything indicates that the Sun is going into some kind of hibernation, and the obvious question is what significance that has for us on Earth. If you ask the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which represents the current consensus on climate change, the answer is a reassuring nothing. But history and recent research suggest that is probably completely wrong. Why? Lets take a closer look. Solar activity has always varied. Around the year 1000, we had a period of very high solar activity, which coincided with the Medieval Warm Period. It was a time when frosts in May were almost unknown a matter of great importance for a good harvest. Vikings settled in Greenland and explored the coast of North America. On the whole it was a good time. For example, Chinas population doubled in this period. But after about 1300 solar activity declined and the world began to get colder. It was the beginning of the episode we now call the Little Ice Age. In this cold time, all the Viking settlements in Greenland disappeared. Sweden surprised Denmark by marching across the ice, and in London the Thames froze repeatedly. But more serious were the long periods of crop failures, which resulted in poorly nourished populations, reduced in Europe by about 30 per cent because of disease and hunger. "The March across the Belts was a campaign between January 30 and February 8, 1658 during the Northern Wars where Swedish king Karl X Gustav led the Swedish army from Jutland across the ice of the Little Belt and the Great Belt to reach Zealand (Danish: Sjlland). The risky but vastly successful crossing was a crushing blow to Denmark, and led to the Treaty of Roskilde later that year...." - Click for larger image. Its important to realise that the Little Ice Age was a global event. It ended in the late 19th Century and was followed by increasing solar activity. Over the past 50 years solar activity has been at its highest since the medieval warmth of 1000 years ago. But now it appears that the Sun has changed again, and is returning towards what solar scientists call a grand minimum such as we saw in the Little Ice Age. The match between solar activity and climate through the ages is sometimes explained away as coincidence. Yet it turns out that, almost no matter when you look and not just in the last 1000 years, there is a link. Solar activity has repeatedly fluctuated between high and low during the past 10,000 years . In fact the Sun spent about 17 per cent of those 10,000 years in a sleeping mode, with a cooling Earth the result. You may wonder why the international climate panel IPCC does not believe that the Suns changing activity affects the climate. The reason is that it considers only changes in solar radiation. That would be the simplest way for the Sun to change the climate a bit like turning up and down the brightness of a light bulb. Satellite measurements have shown that the variations of solar radiation are too small to explain climate change. But the panel has closed its eyes to another, much more powerful way for the Sun to affect Earths climate. In 1996 we discovered a surprising influence of the Sun its impact on Earths cloud cover. High-energy accelerated particles coming from exploded stars, the cosmic rays, help to form clouds. When the Sun is active, its magnetic field is better at shielding us against the cosmic rays coming from outer space, before they reach our planet. By regulating the Earths cloud cover, the Sun can turn the temperature up and down. High solar activity means fewer clouds and and a warmer world. Low solar activity and poorer shielding against cosmic rays result in increased cloud cover and hence a cooling. As the Suns magnetism doubled in strength during the 20th century, this natural mechanism may be responsible for a large part of global warming seen then. That also explains why most climate scientists try to ignore this possibility. It does not favour their idea that the 20th century temperature rise was mainly due to human emissions of CO2. If the Sun provoked a significant part of warming in the 20th Century, then the contribution by CO2 must necessarily be smaller. Ever since we put forward our theory in 1996, it has been subjected to very sharp criticism, which is normal in science. First it was said that a link between clouds and solar activity could not be correct, because no physical mechanism was known. But in 2006, after many years of work, we completed experiments at DTU Space that demonstrated the existence of a physical mechanism. The cosmic rays help to form aerosols, which are the seeds for cloud formation. Then came the criticism that the mechanism we found in the laboratory could not work in the real atmosphere, and therefore had no practical significance. We have just rejected that criticism emphatically. It turns out that the Sun itself performs what might be called natural experiments. Giant solar eruptions can cause the cosmic ray intensity on earth to dive suddenly over a few days. In the days following an eruption, cloud cover can fall by about 4 per cent. And the amount of liquid water in cloud droplets is reduced by almost 7 per cent. Here is a very large effect indeed so great that in popular terms the Earths clouds originate in space. So we have watched the Suns magnetic activity with increasing concern, since it began to wane in the mid-1990s. That the Sun might now fall asleep in a deep minimum was suggested by solar scientists at a meeting in Kiruna in Sweden two years ago. So when Nigel Calder and I updated our book The Chilling Stars, we wrote a little provocatively that we are
Gonzaga Debate Institute 149 Warming Core advising our friends to enjoy global warming while it lasts. In fact global warming has stopped and a cooling is beginning. Mojib Latif from the University of Kiel argued at the recent UN World Climate Conference in Geneva that the cooling may continue through the next 10 to 20 years. His explanation was a natural change in the North Atlantic circulation, not in solar activity. But no matter how you interpret them, natural variations in climate are making a comeback.
Emissions can prevent an ice age we must continue to burn fossil fuels Science Daily, 7
(Aug. 30, 2007, ScienceDaily.com, Next Ice Age Delayed By Rising Carbon Dioxide Levels, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070829193436.htm, accessed 7/12/2013, JA) Future ice ages may be delayed by up to half a million years by our burning of fossil fuels. That is the implication of recent work by Dr Toby Tyrrell of the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. Arguably, this work demonstrates the most far-reaching disruption of long-term planetary processes yet suggested for human activity. Dr Tyrrell's team used a mathematical model to study what would happen to marine chemistry in a world with ever-increasing supplies of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. The world's oceans are absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere but in doing so they are becoming more acidic. This in turn is dissolving the calcium carbonate in the shells produced by surface-dwelling marine organisms, adding even more carbon to the oceans. The outcome is elevated carbon dioxide for far longer than previously assumed. Computer modelling in 2004 by a then oceanography undergraduate student at the University, Stephanie Castle, first interested Dr Tyrrell and colleague Professor John Shepherd in the problem. They subsequently developed a theoretical analysis to validate the plausibility of the phenomenon. The work, which is part-funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, confirms earlier ideas of David Archer of the University of Chicago, who first estimated the impact rising CO2 levels would have on the timing of the next ice age. Dr Tyrrell said: 'Our research shows why atmospheric CO2 will not return to preindustrial levels after we stop burning fossil fuels. It shows that it if we use up all known fossil fuels it doesn't matter at what rate we burn them. The result would be the same if we burned them at present rates or at more moderate rates; we would still get the same eventual ice-age-prevention result.' Ice ages occur around every 100,000 years as the pattern of Earth's orbit alters over time. Changes in the way the sun strikes the Earth allows for the growth of ice caps, plunging the Earth into an ice age. But it is not only variations in received sunlight that determine the descent into an ice age; levels of atmospheric CO2 are also important. Humanity has to date burnt about 300 Gt C of fossil fuels. This work suggests that even if only 1000 Gt C (gigatonnes of carbon) are eventually burnt (out of total reserves of about 4000 Gt C) then it is likely that the next ice age will be skipped. Burning all recoverable fossil fuels could lead to avoidance of the next five ice ages.
Warming cant trigger another Ice Age prefer our science over their unwarranted fear-mongering Gibbs, journalist for the New York Times, 2007
(Walter, May 15th 2007, The New York Times, Scientists Back Off Theory of a Colder Europe in a Warming World, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/science/earth/15cold.html?pagewanted=1&n=Top/News/Science/Topics/%20En vironment&_r=2%3E, accessed 7/12/13, JA) Mainstream climatologists who have feared that global warming could have the paradoxical effect of cooling northwestern Europe or even plunging it into a small ice age have stopped worrying about that particular disaster, although it retains a vivid hold on the public imagination. The idea, which held climate theorists in its icy grip for years, was that the North Atlantic Current, an extension of the Gulf Stream that cuts northeast across the Atlantic Ocean to bathe the high latitudes of Europe with warmish equatorial water, could shut down in a greenhouse world. Without that warm-water current, Americans on the Eastern Seaboard would most likely feel a chill, but the suffering would be greater in Europe, where major cities lie far to the north. Britain, northern France, the Low Countries, Denmark and Norway could in theory take on Arctic aspects that only a Greenlander could love, even as the rest of the world sweltered. All that has now been removed from the forecast. Not only is northern Europe warming, but every major
Gonzaga Debate Institute 150 Warming Core climate model produced by scientists worldwide in recent years has also shown that the warming will almost certainly continue. The concern had previously been that we were close to a threshold where the Atlantic circulation system would stop, said Susan Solomon, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We now believe we are much farther from that threshold, thanks to improved modeling and ocean measurements. The Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Current are more stable than previously thought. After consulting 23 climate models, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in February it was very unlikely that the crucial flow of warm water to Europe would stall in this century. The panel did say that the gradual melting of the Greenland ice sheet along with increased precipitation in the far north were likely to weaken the North Atlantic Current by 25 percent through 2100. But the panel added that any cooling effect in Europe would be overwhelmed by a general warming of the atmosphere, a warming that the panel said was under way as a result of rising concentrations of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. The bottom line is that the atmosphere is warming up so much that a slowdown of the North Atlantic Current will never be able to cool Europe, said Helge Drange, a professor at the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Bergen, Norway.
Sunspots prove- global cooling is coming Ferrara, Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy for the Heartland Institute, Senior Advisor for Entitlement Reform
and Budget Policy at the National Tax Limitation Foundation, General Counsel for the American Civil Rights Union, and Senior Fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis. I served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Reagan, and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States under President George H.W. Bush. I am a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and the author most recently of America's Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb, 5/26/13 (Peter, 7/12/13, Forbes.com, To the Horror of Global Warming Alarmists, Global Cooling Is Here, http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/05/26/to-the-horror-of-global-warming-alarmists-global-cooling-ishere/, accessed 7/12/13, JA) The 20 to 30 year ocean temperature cycles turned back to warm from the late 1970s until the late 1990s, which is the primary reason that global temperatures warmed during this period. But that warming ended 15 years ago, and global temperatures have stopped increasing since then, if not actually cooled, even though global CO2 emissions have soared over this period. As The Economist magazine reported in March, The world added roughly 100 billion tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2010. That is about a quarter of all the CO2 put there by humanity since 1750. Yet, still no warming during that time. That is because the CO2 greenhouse effect is weak and marginal compared to natural causes of global temperature changes. At first the current stall out of global warming was due to the ocean cycles turning back to cold. But something much more ominous has developed over this period. Sunspots run in 11 year short term cycles, with longer cyclical trends of 90 and even 200 years. The number of sunspots declined substantially in the last 11 year cycle, after flattening out over the previous 20 years. But in the current cycle, sunspot activity has collapsed. NASAs Science News report for January 8, 2013 states, Indeed, the sun could be on the threshold of a
Gonzaga Debate Institute 151 Warming Core mini-Maunder event right now. Ongoing Solar Cycle 24 [the current short term 11 year cycle] is the weakest in more than 50 years. Moreover, there is (controversial) evidence of a long-term weakening trend in the magnetic field strength of sunspots. Matt Penn and William Livingston of the National Solar Observatory predict that by the time Solar Cycle 25 arrives, magnetic fields on the sun will be so weak that few if any sunspots will be formed. Independent lines of research involving helioseismology and surface polar fields tend to support their conclusion. That is even more significant because NASAs climate science has been controlled for years by global warming hysteric James Hansen, who recently announced his retirement. But this same concern is increasingly being echoed worldwide. The Voice of Russia reported on April 22, 2013, Global warming which has been the subject of so many discussions in recent years, may give way to global cooling. According to scientists from the Pulkovo Observatory in St.Petersburg, solar activity is waning, so the average yearly temperature will begin to decline as well. Scientists from Britain and the US chime in saying that forecasts for global cooling are far from groundless. That report quoted Yuri Nagovitsyn of the Pulkovo Observatory saying, Evidently, solar activity is on the decrease. The 11-year cycle doesnt bring about considerable climate change only 1-2%. The impact of the 200-year cycle is greater up to 50%. In this respect, we could be in for a cooling period that lasts 200-250 years. In other words, another Little Ice Age.
An ice age is coming and will cause extinction- only maintaining emissions can solve
Kenny 2 (Andrew, 7/14/02, The Sunday Mail, The Ice Age Cometh, http://www.ourcivilisation.com/aginatur/iceage.htm, accessed 7/12/13, JA) A new ice age is due now , but you wont hear it from the green groups, who like to play on Western guilt about consumerism to make us believe in global warming. THE Earth's climate is changing in a dramatic way, with immense danger for mankind and the natural systems that sustain it. This was the frightening message broadcast to us by environmentalists in the recent past. Here are some of their prophecies. The facts have emerged, in recent years and months, from research into past ice ages. They imply that the threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind. (Nigel Calder, former editor of New Scientist, in International Wildlife, July 1975) The cooling has already killed thousands of people in poor nations... If it continues, and no strong measures are taken to deal with it, the cooling will cause world famine, world chaos, and probably world war, and this could all come about by the year 2000. (Lowe Ponte, The Cooling, 1976) As recently as January 1994, the supreme authority on matters environmental, Time magazine, wrote: The ice age cometh? Last week's big chill was a reminder that the Earth's climate can change at any time ... The last (ice age) ended 10,000 years ago; the next one for there will be a next one could start tens of thousands of years from now. Or tens of years. Or it may have already started. The scare about global cooling was always the same: unprecedented low temperatures; the coldest weather recorded; unusual floods and storms; a rapid shift in the world's climate towards an icy apocalypse. But now, the scare is about global warming. To convert from the first scare to the second, all you have to do is substitute "the coldest weather recorded" with "the warmest weather recorded". Replace the icicles hanging from oranges in California with melting glaciers on Mt Everest, and the shivering armadillos with sweltering polar bears. We were going to freeze but now we are going to fry. Even the White House is making cautionary sounds about warming. What facts have emerged to make this dramatic reversal? Well, none really. The most reliable measurements show no change whatsoever in global temperatures in the past 20 years. What has changed is the perception that global warming makes a better scare than the coming ice age. A good environmental scare needs two ingredients. The first is impending catastrophe. The second is a suitable culprit to blame. In the second case, the ice age fails and global warming is gloriously successful. It is not the destruction itself of Sodom and Gomorrah that makes the story so appealing but the fact that they were destroyed because they were so sinful. One of the real threats to mankind is the danger of collision with a large asteroid. It has happened in the past with catastrophic effect, and it will probably happen again. But there are no conferences, resolutions, gatherings, protests and newspaper headlines about asteroid impacts. The reason is that you cannot find anyone suitable to blame for them. If you could persuade people that President Bush or the oil companies were responsible for the asteroids, I guarantee there would be a billion-dollar campaign to "raise awareness" about the asteroid danger, with sonorous editorials in all the papers. Global warming has the perfect culprit: naughty, industrialised, advanced, consuming, Western society, which has made itself very rich by burning a lot of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas). This, so the scare goes, is releasing a lot of carbon dioxide, which is dangerously heating up the
Gonzaga Debate Institute 152 Warming Core world. THERE are two facts in the scare. First, it is true that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas one which traps heat on Earth. (Without it, the Earth would be 'too cold for' life.) Second, it is true that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is rising. The rest is guesswork. The global warmers said the most accurate measure of climate change would be air temperatures. For the past 20 years or more, air temperatures have been measured with extreme accuracy. They show no warming whatsoever. Surface temperatures are much less reliable since the recording stations are often encroached on by expanding cities, which warm the local environment. The curve most often used by the global warmers is one showing surface temperatures rising by about half a degree in the past 100 years. (The curve, incidentally, is a bad match against rising carbon dioxide but a good one against solar activity, which suggests the sun might be the reason for the warming.) However, there are accurate methods of measuring sea temperatures going back much further. Past temperatures for the Atlantic Ocean have been found by looking at dead marine life. The isotope ratio of carbon-14 in their skeletons tells you when they lived. The ratio of other isotopes tells you the temperature then. Thus we are able to know temperatures in the Atlantic and northern Europe going back thousands of years. They make nonsense of the global warming scare. The last ice age ended about 10,000 years ago. Temperatures rose to the "Holocene Maximum" of about 5000 years ago when it was about l.5C higher than now, dropped in the time of Christ, and then rose to the "Medieval Climate Optimum" in the years 600 to 1100, when temperatures. were about 1C higher than now. This was a golden age for northern European agriculture and led to the rise of Viking civilisation. Greenland, now a frozen wasteland, was then a habitable Viking colony. There were vineyards in the south of England. Then temperatures dropped to "The Little Ice Age" in the 1600s, when the Thames froze over. And they have been rising slowly ever since, although they are still much lower than 1000 years ago. We are now in a rather cool period. What caused these ups and downs of temperature? We do not know. Temperature changes are a fact of nature, and we have no idea if the claimed 0.3C heating over the past 100 years is caused by man's activities or part of a natural cycle. What we can say, though, is that if Europe heats up by 1C it would do it a power of good. We can see this from records of 1000 years ago. Moreover, increased carbon dioxide makes plants grow more quickly, so improving crops and forests. The Earth's climate is immensely complicated, far beyond our present powers of understanding and the calculating powers of modern computers. Changes in phase from ice to water to vapour; cloud formation; convection; ocean currents; winds; changes in the sun: the complicated shapes of the land masses; the ability of the oceans to absorb carbon dioxide all of these and a thousand other factors operating with small differences over vast masses and distances make it practically impossible for us to make predictions about long-term climate patterns, and perhaps make such predictions inherently impossible. The computer models that the global warmers now use are ludicrously oversimplified, and it is no surprise they have made one wrong prediction after another. If the global warming scare has little foundation in fact, the ice-age scare is only too solidly founded. For the past two million years, but not before, the northern hemisphere has gone through a regular cycle of ice ages: 90,000 years with ice: 10,000 years without. The last ice age ended 10,000 years ago. Our time is up. The next ice age is due. We do not know what causes the ice ages. It is probably to do with the arrangement of northern land masses and the path of the Gulf Stream, but we do not know. However, a new ice age, unlike global warming, would be a certain calamity. It may be that increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are actually warding off the ice age. In this case, we should give tax relief to coal power stations and factories for every tonne of carbon dioxide they release.
An ice age is coming and will cause extinction- need to keep up emissions to survive Chapman, geophysicist and astronautical engineer, 8
(Phil, April 23th 2008, The Australian, Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23583376-7583,00.html, accessed 7/12/2013, JA) THE scariest photo I have seen on the internet is www.spaceweather.com, where you will find a real-time image of the sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, located in deep space at the equilibrium point between solar and terrestrial gravity. What is scary about the picture is that there is only one tiny sunspot. Disconcerting as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and now the
Gonzaga Debate Institute 153 Warming Core global temperature is falling precipitously. All four agencies that track Earth's temperature (the Hadley Climate Research Unit in Britain, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, the Christy group at the University of Alabama, and Remote Sensing Systems Inc in California) report that it cooled by about 0.7C in 2007. This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record and it puts us back where we were in 1930. If the temperature does not soon recover, we will have to conclude that global warming is over. There is also plenty of anecdotal evidence that 2007 was exceptionally cold. It snowed in Baghdad for the first time in centuries, the winter in China was simply terrible and the extent of Antarctic sea ice in the austral winter was the greatest on record since James Cook discovered the place in 1770. It is generally not possible to draw conclusions about climatic trends from events in a single year, so I would normally dismiss this cold snap as transient, pending what happens in the next few years. This is where SOHO comes in. The sunspot number follows a cycle of somewhat variable length, averaging 11 years. The most recent minimum was in March last year. The new cycle, No.24, was supposed to start soon after that, with a gradual build-up in sunspot numbers. It didn't happen. The first sunspot appeared in January this year and lasted only two days . A tiny spot appeared last Monday but vanished within 24 hours. Another little spot appeared this Monday. Pray that there will be many more, and soon. The reason this matters is that there is a close correlation between variations in the sunspot cycle and Earth's climate. The previous time a cycle was delayed like this was in the Dalton Minimum, an especially cold period that lasted several decades from 1790. Northern winters became ferocious: in particular, the rout of Napoleon's Grand Army during the retreat from Moscow in 1812 was at least partly due to the lack of sunspots. That the rapid temperature decline in 2007 coincided with the failure of cycle No.24 to begin on schedule is not proof of a causal connection but it is cause for concern. It is time to put aside the global warming dogma, at least to begin contingency planning about what to do if we are moving into another little ice age, similar to the one that lasted from 1100 to 1850. There is no doubt that the next little ice age would be much worse than the previous one and much more harmful than anything warming may do . There are many more people now and we have become dependent on a few temperate agricultural areas, especially in the US and Canada. Global warming would increase agricultural output, but global cooling will decrease it. Millions will starve if we do nothing to prepare for it (such as planning changes in agriculture to compensate), and millions more will die from cold-related diseases. There is also another possibility, remote but much more serious. The Greenland and Antarctic ice cores and other evidence show that for the past several million years, severe glaciation has almost always afflicted our planet. The bleak truth is that, under normal conditions, most of North America and Europe are buried under about 1.5km of ice. This bitterly frigid climate is interrupted occasionally by brief warm interglacials, typically lasting less than 10,000 years. The interglacial we have enjoyed throughout recorded human history, called the Holocene, began 11,000 years ago, so the ice is overdue. We also know that glaciation can occur quickly: the required decline in global temperature is about 12C and it can happen in 20 years. The next descent into an ice age is inevitable but may not happen for another 1000 years. On the other hand, it must be noted that the cooling in 2007 was even faster than in typical glacial transitions. If it continued for 20 years, the temperature would be 14C cooler in 2027. By then, most of the advanced nations would have ceased to exist, vanishing under the ice, and the rest of the world would be faced with a catastrophe beyond imagining. Australia may escape total annihilation but would surely be overrun by millions of refugees. Once the glaciation starts, it will last 1000 centuries, an incomprehensible stretch of time.
The coming Ice Age outweighs any impacts of Warming Singer, distinguished research professor at George Mason and Avery, director of the Center for Global Food Issues at the Hudson Institute, 7
(Fred, Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years, Page 13, JA The climate event that deserves real concern is the next Big Ice Age. That is inevitably approaching, though it may still be thousands of years away. When it comes, temperatures may plummet 15 degrees Celsius, with the high latitudes getting up to 40 degrees colder. Humanity and food production will be forced closer to the equator, as huge ice sheets expand in
Canada. Scandinavia. Russia, and Argentina. Even Ohio and Indiana may gradually be encased in mile-thick ice, while California and the Great Plains could suffer century-long drought. Keeping warm will become the critical issue,
Gonzaga Debate Institute 154 Warming Core eight or nine billion people from the relatively small amount of arable land left unfrozen will be a potentially desperate effort. The broad, fertile plains of Alberta and the Ukraine will become sub-Arctic wastes. Wildlife species will be extremely challenged, even though they've survived such cold before-because this time there will be more humans competing for the ice-free land. That's when human knowledge and high-tech farming will be truly needed. In contrast, none of the scary scenarios
posited by today's global warming advocates took place during the Earth's past warm periods
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world added roughly 100 billion tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2010. That is about a quarter of all the CO2 put there by humanity since 1750. Yet, still no
warming during that time. That is because the CO2 greenhouse effect is weak and marginal compared to natural causes of global temperature changes. At first the current stall out of global warming was due to the ocean cycles turning back to cold. But something much more ominous has developed over this period. Sunspots
run in 11 year short term cycles, with longer cyclical trends of 90 and even 200 years. The number of sunspots declined substantially in the last 11 year cycle, after flattening out over the previous 20 years. But in the current cycle, sunspot activity has collapsed. NASAs Science News report for January 8, 2013 states, Indeed, the sun could be on the threshold of a mini-Maunder event right now. Ongoing Solar Cycle 24 [the current short term 11 year cycle] is the weakest in more than 50 years. Moreover, there is (controversial) evidence of a long-term weakening trend in the magnetic field strength of sunspots. Matt Penn and William Livingston of the National Solar Observatory predict that by the time Solar Cycle 25 arrives, magnetic fields on the sun will be so weak that few if any sunspots will be formed. Independent lines of research involving helioseismology and surface polar fields tend to support their conclusion.
That is even more significant because NASAs climate science has been controlled for years by global warming hysteric James H ansen, who recently announced his retirement. But this same concern is increasingly being echoed worldwide. The Voice of Russia reported on April 22, 2013, Global
warming which has been the subject of so many discussions in recent years, may give way to global cooling. According to scientists from the Pulkovo
Observatory in St.Petersburg, solar activity is waning, so the average yearly temperature will begin to decline as well. Scientists from Britain and the US chime in saying that forecasts for global cooling are far from groundless. That report quoted Yuri Nagovitsyn of the Pulkovo Observatory saying, Evidently, solar
activity is on the decrease. The 11-year cycle doesnt bring about considerable climate change only 1-2%. The impact of the 200-year cycle is greater up to 50%. In this respect, we could be in for a cooling period that lasts 200-250 years. In other words, another Little Ice Age.
An ice age is coming National Post 8 (February 25th 2008, the National Post, Forget global warming: Welcome to the new Ice Age.
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=d7c7fcce-d248-4e97-ab72-1adbdbb1d0d0, accessed 7/12/13, JA) Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966. The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January "was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average." China is surviving its most brutal winter in a century. Temperatures in the normally balmy south were so low for so long that some middle-sized cities went days and even
weeks without electricity because once power lines had toppled it was too cold or too icy to repair them. There have been so many snow and ice storms in Ontario and Quebec in the past two months that the real estate market has felt the pinch as home buyers have stayed home rather than venturing out looking for new houses. In just the first two weeks of February, Toronto received 70 cm of snow, smashing the record of 66.6 cm for the entire month set back in the pre-SUV, pre-Kyoto, pre-carbon footprint days of 1950. And remember the Arctic Sea ice? The ice we were told so hysterically last fall had melted to its "lowest levels on record? Never mind that those records only date back as far as 1972 and that there is anthropological and geological evidence of much greater melts in the past. The
ice is back. Gilles Langis, a senior forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa, says the Arctic winter has been so severe the ice has not only recovered, it is actually 10 to 20 cm thicker in many places than at this time last year. OK, so one winter does not a
climate make. It would be premature to claim an Ice Age is looming just because we have had one of our most brutal winters in decades. But if environmentalists and environment reporters can run around shrieking about the manmade destruction of the natural order every time a robin shows up on Georgian Bay two weeks
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early, then it is at least fair game to use this winter's weather stories to wonder whether the alarmist are being a tad premature. And it's not just anecdotal evidence that is piling up against the climate-change dogma. According to Robert Toggweiler of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton University and Joellen Russell, assistant professor of biogeochemical dynamics at the University of Arizona -- two prominent climate modellers -- the computer models that show polar icemelt cooling the oceans, stopping the circulation of warm equatorial water to northern latitudes and triggering another Ice Age (a la the movie The Day After Tomorrow) are all wrong. "We missed what was right in front of our eyes," says Prof. Russell. It's not ice melt but rather wind circulation that drives ocean currents northward from the tropics. Climate models until now have not properly accounted for the wind's effects on ocean circulation, so researchers have compensated by over-emphasizing the role of manmade warming on polar ice melt. But when Profs. Toggweiler and Russell rejigged their model to include the 40-year cycle of winds away from the equator (then back towards it again), the role of ocean currents bringing warm southern waters to the north was obvious in the current Arctic warming. Last month, Oleg Sorokhtin, a fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, shrugged off manmade climate change as "a drop in the bucket." Showing that solar activity has entered an inactive phase, Prof. Sorokhtin advised people to "stock up on fur coats." He is not alone. Kenneth Tapping of our own National Research Council, who oversees a giant radio telescope focused on the sun, is convinced we are in for a long period of severely cold weather if sunspot activity does not pick up soon. The
last time the sun was this inactive, Earth suffered the Little Ice Age that lasted about five centuries and ended in 1850. Crops failed through killer frosts and drought. Famine, plague and war were widespread. Harbours froze, so did rivers, and trade ceased. It's way too early to claim the same is about to happen again, but then it's way too early for the
hysteria of the global warmers, too.
An ice age is cooling due to lower sun activity- solar science proves Svensmark, PhD., director of the Center for Sun-Climate Research at DTU Space,9
(Henrik, 9/10/09, Whatsupwiththat.com, Svensmark: global warming stopped and a cooling is beginning enjoy global warming while it lasts, http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/09/10/svensmark-global-warming-stopped-and-acooling-is-beginning-enjoy-global-warming-while-it-lasts/, accessed 7/12/13, JA) The star that keeps us alive has, over the last few years, been almost free of sunspots, which are the usual signs of the Suns magnetic
activity. Last week [4 September 2009] the scientific team behind the satellite SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) reported, It is likely that the current years number of blank days will be the longest in about 100 years. Everything
indicates that the Sun is going into some kind of hibernation, and the obvious question is what significance that has for us on Earth. If you ask the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
which represents the current consensus on climate change, the answer is a reassuring nothing. But history and recent research suggest that is probably completely wrong. Why? Lets take a closer look. Solar activity has always varied. Around the year 1000, we had a period of very high solar activity, which coincided with the Medieval Warm Period. It was a time when frosts in May were almost unknown a matter of great importance for a good harvest. Vikings settled in Greenland and explored the coast of North America. On the whole it was a good time. For example, Chinas population doubled in this period. But after about 1300 solar activity declined and the world began to get colder. It was the beginning of the episode we now call the Little Ice Age. In this cold time, all the Viking settlements in Greenland disappeared. Sweden surprised Denmark by marching across the ice, and in London the Thames froze repeatedly. But more serious were the long periods of crop failures, which resulted in poorly nourished populations, reduced in Europe by about 30 per cent because of disease and hunger. "The March across the Belts was a campaign between January 30 and February 8, 1658 during the Northern Wars where Swedish king Karl X Gustav led the Swedish army from Jutland across the ice of the Little Belt and the Great Belt to reach Zealand (Danish: Sjlland). The risky but vastly successful crossing was a crushing blow to Denmark, and led to the Treaty of Roskilde later that year...." - Click for larger image. Its important to realise that the Little Ice Age was a global event. It ended in the late 19th Century and was followed by increasing solar activity. Over the past 50 years solar activity has been at its highest since the medieval warmth of 1000 years ago. But now it appears that the
Sun has changed again, and is returning towards what solar scientists call a grand minimum such as we saw in the Little Ice Age. The match between solar activity and climate through the ages is sometimes explained away as coincidence. Yet it turns out that, almost no matter when you look and not just in the last 1000 years, there is a link. Solar activity has repeatedly fluctuated between high and low during the past 10,000 years . In fact
the Sun spent about 17 per cent of those 10,000 years in a sleeping mode, with a cooling Earth the result. You may wonder why the international climate panel IPCC does not believe that the Suns changing activity affects the climate. The reason is that it considers only changes in solar radiation. That would be the simplest way for the Sun to change the climate a bit like turning up and down the brightness of a light bulb. Satellite
measurements have shown that the variations of solar radiation are too small to explain climate change. But the panel has closed its eyes to another, much more powerful way for the Sun to affect Earths climate. In 1996 we discovered a surprising influence of the Sun its impact on Earths
cloud cover. High-energy accelerated particles coming from exploded stars, the cosmic rays, help to form clouds. When the Sun is active, its magnetic field is better at shielding us against the cosmic rays coming from outer space, before they reach our planet. By regulating the Earths cloud cover, the Sun can turn the temperature up and down. High solar activity means fewer clouds and and a warmer world. Low solar activity and poorer shielding against cosmic rays result in increased cloud cover and hence a cooling. As the Suns magnetism doubled in strength during the 20th century, this natural mechanism may be responsible for a large part of global warming seen then. That also explains why most climate scientists try to ignore this possibility. It does not favour their idea that the 20th century temperature rise was mainly due to human emissions of CO2. If the Sun provoked a significant part of warming in the 20th Century, then the contribution by CO2 must necessarily be smaller. Ever since we put forward our theory in 1996, it has been subjected to very sharp criticism, which is normal in science. First it was said that a link between clouds and solar activity could not be correct, because no physical mechanism was known. But in 2006, after many years of work, we completed experiments at DTU Space that demonstrated the existence of a physical mechanism. The cosmic rays help to form aerosols, which are the seeds for cloud formation. Then came the criticism that the mechanism we found in the laboratory could not work in the real atmosphere, and therefore had no practical significance. We have just rejected that criticism emphatically. It turns out that the Sun itself performs what might be called natural experiments. Giant solar eruptions can cause the cosmic ray intensity on earth to dive suddenly over a few days. In the days following an eruption, cloud cover can fall by about 4 per cent. And the amount of liquid water in cloud droplets is reduced by almost 7 per cent. Here is a very large effect indeed so great that in popular terms the Earths clouds originate in space. So we have watched the Suns magnetic activity with increasing concern, since it began to wane in the mid-1990s. That the Sun might now fall asleep in a deep minimum was suggested by solar scientists at a meeting in Kiruna in Sweden two years ago. So when Nigel Calder and I updated our book The
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cooling is beginning. Mojib Latif from the University of Kiel argued at the recent UN World Climate Conference in Geneva that the cooling may continue through the next 10 to 20 years. His explanation was a natural change in the North Atlantic circulation, not in solar activity. But no matter
how you interpret them, natural variations in climate are making a comeback.
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work, which is part-funded by the Natural Environment earlier ideas of David Archer of the University of Chicago, who first estimated the impact rising CO2 levels would have on the timing of the next ice age. Dr Tyrrell said: 'Our research shows why atmospheric CO2 will not return to pre-industrial levels after we stop burning fossil fuels. It shows that it if we use up all known fossil fuels it doesn't matter at what rate we burn them. The result would be the same if we burned them at present rates or at more moderate rates; we would still get the same eventual ice-age-prevention result.' Ice ages occur around every 100,000 years
as the pattern of Earth's orbit alters over time. Changes in the way the sun strikes the Earth allows for the growth of ice caps, plunging the Earth into an ice age. But it is not only variations in received sunlight that determine the descent into an ice age; levels of atmospheric CO2 are also important. Humanity has to date burnt about 300 Gt C of fossil fuels. This work suggests that even if only 1000 Gt C (gigatonnes of carbon) are eventually burnt (out of total reserves of about 4000 Gt C) then it is likely that the next ice age will be skipped. Burning all recoverable fossil fuels could lead to avoidance of the next five ice ages.
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who have feared that global warming could have the paradoxical effect of cooling northwestern Europe or even plunging it into a small ice age have stopped worrying about that particular disaster , although it retains a vivid hold on the public imagination. The idea, which held climate theorists in its icy grip for years, was that the North Atlantic Current, an extension of the Gulf Stream that cuts northeast across the Atlantic Ocean to bathe the high latitudes of Europe with warmish equatorial water, could shut down in a greenhouse world. Without that warm-water current, Americans on the Eastern Seaboard
would most likely feel a chill, but the suffering would be greater in Europe, where major cities lie far to the north. Britain, northern France, the Low Countries, Denmark and Norway could in theory take on Arctic aspects that only a Greenlander could love, even as the rest of the world sweltered. All that has now been removed from the forecast. Not only is northern Europe warming, but every major climate model produced by scientists worldwide in recent years has also shown that the warming will almost certainly continue. The concern had previously been that we were close to a threshold where the Atlantic circulation system would stop, said Susan Solomon, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We now believe we are much farther from that threshold, thanks to improved modeling and ocean measurements. The Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Current are more stable than previously thought. After consulting 23 climate models, the
United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in February it was very unlikely that the crucial flow of warm water to Europe would stall in this century. The panel did say that the gradual melting of the Greenland ice sheet along with increased precipitation in the far north were likely to weaken the North Atlantic Current by 25 percent through 2100. But the panel added that any cooling effect in Europe would be overwhelmed by a general warming of the atmosphere, a warming that the panel said was under way as a result of rising concentrations of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. The bottom line is that the atmosphere is warming up so much that a slowdown of the North Atlantic Current will never be able to cool Europe, said Helge Drange, a professor at the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Bergen, Norway.
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Warming melts arctic sea ice that leads to an ice age The Telegraph 2/27/12
(The Telegraph, news agency, 27 Feb 2012, Freezing winters ahead due to melting Arctic Sea ice, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/9109106/Freezing-winters-ahead-due-to-melting-Arctic-Sea-ice.html) Climate change means autumn levels of sea ice have dropped by almost 30 percent since 1979 - but this is likely to trigger more frequent cold snaps such as those that brought blizzards to the UK earlier this month. And Arctic sea ice could be to blame. Dr Jiping Liu and colleagues studied the extensive retreat of the ice in the summer and its slow recovery focusing on the impacts of this phenomenon on weather in the Northern Hemisphere. Information about snow cover, sea level pressure, surface air temperature and humidity was used to generate model simulations for the years 1979-2010. The researchers say dramatic loss of ice may alter atmospheric circulation patterns and weaken the westerly winds that blow across the North Atlantic Ocean from Canada to Europe. This will encourage regular incursions of cold air from the Arctic into Northern continents - increasing heavy snowfall in the UK. Dr Liu said: "The results of this study add to an increasing body of both observational and modeling evidence that indicates diminishing Arctic sea ice plays a critical role in driving recent cold and snowy winters over large parts of North America, Europe and east Asia." While the Arctic region has been warming strongly in recent decades there has been abnormally large
Gonzaga Debate Institute 162 Warming Core snowfall in these areas. Dr Liu, of Georgia Institute if Technology in Atlanta, said: "Here we demonstrate the decrease in autumn Arctic sea ice area is linked to changes in the winter Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation. "This circulation change results in more frequent episodes of blocking patterns that lead to increased cold surges over large parts of northern continents. "Moreover, the increase in atmospheric water vapor content in the Arctic region during late autumn and winter driven locally by the reduction of sea ice provides enhanced moisture sources, supporting increased heavy snowfall in Europe during early winter and the northeastern and midwestern United States during winter. "We conclude the recent decline of Arctic sea ice has played a critical role in recent cold and snowy winters." In November research showed there is less Arctic sea ice now than there has been at any time in the last 1,450 years.
Gonzaga Debate Institute Warming Core mechanisms they have deciphered into various computer models of climate, and see whether they do forecast a growing winter chill.
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The most recent scientific consensus is that an ice age will not occur for at least 70,000 years Berger, professor at Universite Catholique de Louvain and MF Loutre, 2002 (Andre, Aug. 23, Science, An exceptionally long interglacial ahead?, EBSCO, Vol. 297, accessed 7/12/13, CBC)
When paleoclimatologists gathred in 1972 to discuss how and when the present warm period would end ( 1), a slide into the next glacial seemed imminent. But more recent studies point toward a different future: a long interglacial that may last another 50,000 years. An interglacial is an uninterrupted warm interval during which global climate reaches at least the preindustrial level of warmth. Based on geological records available in 1972, the last two interglacials including the Eemian, 125,000 years ago) were believed to have lasted about 10,000 years. This is about the length of the current warm intervalthe Holoceneto date. Assuming a similar duration for all interglacials, the scientists concluded that it is likely that the present-day warm epoch will terminate relatively soon if man does not intervene ( 1,p. 267). Some assumptions made 30 years ago have since been questioned. Past interglacials may have been longer than originally assumed ( 2). Some, including marine isotope stage 11 (MIS-11, 400,000 years ago), may have been warmer than at present ( 3). We are also increasingly aware of the intensification of the greenhouse effect by human activities ( 4). But even without human perturbation, future climate may not develop as in past interglacials ( 5) because the forcings and mechanisms that produced these earlier warm periods may have been quite different from today's. Most early attempts to predict future climate at the geological time scale ( 6, 7) prolonged the cooling that started at the peak of the Holocene some 6000 years ago, predicting a cold interval in about 25,000 years and a glaciation in about 55,000 years. These projections were based on statistical rules or simple models that did not include any CO2 forcing. They thus implicitly assumed a value equal to the average of the last glacial-interglacial cycles [225 parts per million by volume (ppmv) ( 8)]. But some studies disagreed with these projections. With a simple ice-sheet model, Oerlemans and Van der Veen ( 9) predicted a long interglacial lasting another 50,000 years, followed by a first glacial maximum in about 65,000 years. Ledley also stated that an ice age is unlikely to begin in the next 70,000 years ( 10), based on the relation between the observed rate of change of ice volume and the summer solstice radiation.
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Their predictions about cooling are based on short term logicdefault to long term trends which show warming is coming Revkin, weather and climate writer for the NY Times, 2008
(Andrew, March 2, The New York Times, Skeptics on Human Climate Impact seize on cold spell, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/science/02cold.html, accessed 7/12/13, CBC)
The world has seen some extraordinary winter conditions in both hemispheres over the past year: snow in Johannesburg last June and in Baghdad in January, Arctic sea ice returning with a vengeance after a record retreat last summer, paralyzing blizzards in China, and a sharp drop in the globes average temperature. It is no wonder that some scientists, opinion writers, political operatives and other people who challenge warnings about dangerous human-caused global warming have jumped on this as a teachable moment. Earths Fever Breaks: Global COOLING Currently Under Way, read a blog post and news release on Wednesday from Marc Morano, the communications director for the Republican minority on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. So what is happening? According to a host of climate experts, including some who question the extent and risks of global warming, it is mostly good old-fashioned weather, along with a cold kick from the tropical Pacific Ocean, which is in its La Nia phase for a few more months, a year after it was in the opposite warm El Nio pattern. If anything else is afoot like some cooling related to sunspot cycles or slow shifts in ocean and atmospheric patterns that can influence temperatures an array of scientists who have staked out differing positions on the overall threat from global warming agree that there is no way to pinpoint whether such a new force is at work. Many scientists also say that the cool spell in no way undermines the enormous body of evidence pointing to a warming world with disrupted weather patterns, less ice and rising seas should heat-trapping greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels and forests continue to accumulate in the air. The current downturn is not very unusual, said Carl Mears, a scientist at Remote Sensing Systems, a private research group in Santa Rosa, Calif., that has been using satellite data to track global temperature and whose findings have been held out as reliable by a variety of climate experts. He pointed to similar drops in 1988, 1991-92, and 1998, but with a long-term warming trend clear nonetheless. Temperatures are very likely to recover after the La Nia event is over, he said. Mr. Morano, in an e-mail message, was undaunted, saying turnabout is fair play: Fair is fair. Noting (not hyping) an unusually harsh global winter is merely pointing out the obvious. Dissenters of a man-made climate crisis are using the reality of this record-breaking winter to expose the silly warming alarmism that the news media and some scientists have been ceaselessly promoting for decades. More clucking about the cold is likely over the next several days. The Heartland Institute, a public policy research group in Chicago opposed to regulatory approaches to environmental problems, is holding a conference in Times Square on Monday and Tuesday aimed at exploring questions about the cause and dangers of climate change. The event will convene an array of scientists, economists, statisticians and libertarian commentators holding a dizzying range of views on the changing climate from those who see a human influence but think it is not dangerous, to others who say global warming is a hoax, the suns fault or beneficial. Many attendees say it is the dawn of a new paradigm. But many climate scientists and environmental campaigners say it is the skeptics last stand. Michael E. Schlesinger, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, said that any focus on the last few months or years as evidence undermining the established theory that accumulating greenhouse gases are making the world warmer was, at best, a waste of time and, at worst, a harmful distraction. Discerning a human influence on climate, he said, involves finding a signal in a noisy background. He added, The only way to do this within our noisy climate system is to average over a sufficient number of years that the noise is greatly diminished, thereby revealing the signal. This means that one cannot look at any single year and know whether what one is seeing is the signal or the noise or both the signal and the noise. The shifts in the extent and thickness of sea ice in the Arctic (where ice has retreated significantly in recent summers) and Antarctic (where the area of floating sea ice has grown lately) are similarly hard to attribute to particular influences. Interviews and e-mail exchanges with half a dozen polar climate and ice experts last week produced a rough consensus: Even with the extensive refreezing of Arctic waters in the deep chill of the sunless boreal winter, the fresh-formed ice remains far thinner than the yards-thick, years-old ice that dominated the region until the 1990s. That means the odds of having vast stretches of open water next summer remain high, many Arctic experts said. Climate skeptics typically take a few small pieces of the puzzle to debunk global warming, and ignore the whole picture that the larger science community s ees by looking at all the pieces,
Gonzaga Debate Institute 165 Warming Core said Ignatius G. Rigor, a climate scientist at the Polar Science Center of the University of Washington in Seattle. He said the argument for a growing human influence on climate laid out in last years reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or I.P.C.C., was supported by evidence from many fields. I will admit that we do not have all the pieces, Dr. Rigor said, but as the I.P.C.C. reports, the preponderance of evidence suggests that global warming is real. As for the Arctic, he said, Yes, this years winter ice extent is higher than last years, but it is still lower than the long-term mean. Dr. Rigor said next summers ice retreat, despite the regrowth of thin fresh-formed ice now, could still surpass last years, when nearly all of the Arctic Ocean between Alaska and Siberia was open water. Some scientists who strongly disagree with each other on the extent of warming coming in this century, and on what to do about it, agreed that it was important not to be tempted to overinterpret short-term swings in climate, either hot or cold. Patrick J. Michaels, a climatologist and commentator with the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, has long chided environmentalists and the media for overstating connections between extreme weather and human-caused warming. (He is on the program at the skeptics conference.) But Dr. Michaels said that those now trumpeting global cooling should beware of doing the same thing, saying that the predictable distortion of extreme weather goes in both directions. Gavin A. Schmidt, a climatologist at NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan who has spoken out about the need to reduce greenhouse gases, disagrees with Dr. Michaels on many issues, but concurred on this point. When I get called by CNN to comment on a big summer storm or a drought or something, I give the same answer I give a guy who asks about a blizzard, Dr. Schmidt said. Its all in the long-term trends. Weather isnt going to go away because of climate change. There is this desire to explain everything that we see in terms of something you think you understand, whether thats the next ice age coming or global warming.
The plan doesnt cause an ice ageand even if it does, its 50,000 years away Stager, an ecologist, paleoclimatologist, and science journalist with a Ph.D. in biology and geology from Duke University, 11. (Curt, Deep Future, p 17-19, CBC)
But maybe there's a middle route. If we do manage to follow a moderate-emissions path, then we'll probably be leaving most of our coal reserves where they lie and running our future civilizations on other energy sources. Environmental damage during the next several centuries will be held to a minimum, some societies might benefit from a partial and temporary opening of the Arctic Ocean, and the next ice age of 50,000 ad will be held at bay. This could also produce a longer-term benefit, as well, by leaving lots of coal already sequestered in the ground for later. By saving most of our fossil carbon in a safe, solid, reasonably accessible form, we would bequeath it to later generations for possible use, not necessarily as a fuel but rather as a simple, cost-effective tool for climate control.
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High-risk of short-term food shortages CO2 emissions is key to prevent extinction Sherwood and Idso 10 (Keith and Craig, "The World's Looming Food and Water Shortage," CO2 Science Magazine, Volume 13, Number 49:8, December, http://www.co2science.org/articles/V13/N49/EDIT.php) Every now and then, various astute observers of man's precarious position on planet earth call our attention to a developing global crisis that seems destined to wreak havoc on the human race a mere forty years from now: a lack of sufficient land and freshwater resources to produce the food that will be required to sustain our growing population. The most recent of this community of researchers to address the approaching problem are Hanjra and Qureshi (2010), who begin their treatment of the subject by quoting Benjamin Franklin's well-known homily: "when the well is dry, we know the worth of water." "Food policy," as the two Australian researchers write, "must not lose sight of surging water scarcity." Stating that "population and income growth will increase the demand for food and water," they indicate that "irrigation will be the first sector to lose water, as water competition by non-agricultural uses increases and water scarcity intensifies." And noting that "increasing water scarcity will have implications for food security, hunger, poverty, and ecosystem health and services," they report that "feeding the 2050 population will require some 12,400 km3 of water, up from 6800 km3 used today." This huge increase, in their words, "will leave a water gap of about 3300 km3 even after improving efficiency in irrigated agriculture, improving water management, and upgrading of rainfed agriculture," as per the findings of de Fraiture et al. (2007), Molden (2007) and Molden et al. (2010). This water deficiency, according to Hanjra and Qureshi, "will lead to a food gap unless concerted actions are taken today." Some of the things they propose, in this regard, are to conserve water and energy resources, develop and adopt climateresilient crop varieties, modernize irrigation, shore up domestic food supplies, reengage in agriculture for further development, and reform the global food and trade market. And to achieve these goals, they say that "unprecedented global cooperation is required," which by the looks of today's world is an even more remote possibility than that implied by the proverbial wishful thinking. So, on top of everything else they suggest (a goodly portion of which will not be achieved), what can we do to defuse the ticking time-bomb that is the looming food and water crisis? We suggest doing nothing. But not just any "nothing." The nothing we suggest is to not mess with the normal, unforced evolution of civilization's means of acquiring energy. We suggest this, because on top of everything else we may try to do to conserve both land and freshwater resources, we will still fall short of what is needed to be achieved unless the air's CO2 content rises significantly and thereby boosts the water use efficiency of earth's crop plants, as well as that of the plants that provide food and habitat for what could be called "wild nature," enabling both sets of plants to produce more biomass per unit of water used in the process. And to ensure that this happens, we will need all of the CO2 that will be produced by the burning of fossil fuels, until other forms of energy truly become more cost-efficient than coal, gas and oil. In fact, these other energy sources will have to become much more cost-efficient before fossil fuels are phased out; because the positive externality of the CO2-induced increase in plant water use efficiency provided by the steady rise in the atmosphere's CO2 concentration due to the burning of fossil fuels will be providing a most important service in helping us feed and sustain our own species without totally decimating what yet remains of wild nature.
CO2 solves food shortages no habitat destruction Sherwood and Idso 10 (Keith and Craig, "Surviving the Perfect Storm," CO2 Science Magazine, Volume 13, Number
44:3 November, http://www.co2science.org/articles/V13/N44/EDIT.php) In introducing their review of food security publications pertinent to the challenge of feeding nine billion people just four decades from now, Godfray et al. (2010) note that "more than one in seven people today still do not have access to sufficient protein and energy from their diet and even more suffer some form of micronutrient malnourishment ," citing the FAO (2009); and they write that although "increases in production will have an important part to play" in correcting this problem and keeping it from worsening in the future, they state that mankind "will be constrained by the finite resources provided by the earth's lands, oceans and atmosphere," which set of difficulties they describe at the end of their review as comprising a "perfect storm." The first question they ask in regard to how we might
Gonzaga Debate Institute 168 Warming Core successfully navigate this highly restricted terrain is: "How can more food be produced sustainably?" They say that the primary solution to food shortages of the past was "to bring more land into agriculture and to exploit new fish stocks," but they note that there is precious little remaining of either of these pristine resources. Thus, they conclude that "the most likely scenario is that more food will need to be produced from the same or less land," because, as they suggest, "we must avoid the temptation to sacrifice further the earth's already hugely depleted biodiversity for easy gains in food production, not only because biodiversity provides many of the public goods upon which mankind relies, but also because we do not have the right to deprive future generations of its economic and cultural benefits." And, we might add, because we should be enlightened enough to realize that we have a moral responsibility to drive no more species to extinction than we have already sent to that sorry state. So how can these diverse requirements all be met? ... and at one and the same time? A clue comes from Godfray et al.'s statement that "greater water and nutrient use efficiency, as well as tolerance of abiotic stress, are likely to become of increasing importance." And what is there that can bring about all of these changes in mankind's crops? You guessed it: carbon dioxide. Yes, the colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that all of us release to the atmosphere with every breath we exhale fits the bill perfectly. Rising concentrations of atmospheric CO2 increase the photosynthetic prowess of essentially all of earth's plants, while generally reducing the rate at which they simultaneously transfer water from the soil to the air. In addition, more CO2 in the air tends to enhance the efficiency with which plants utilize nutrients in constructing their tissues and producing the edible portions that we and all of earth's animals depend upon for our very existence, as you can read about -- almost interminably -- on our website (check out our Subject Index for a host of related topics), and as you can readily convince yourself is true by perusing our vast Plant Growth Database, which lists the experimentally-derived photosynthetic and biomass production responses of a huge host of different plants to standardized increases in the air's CO2 concentration. Oh, and by the way, you can also spend a few months reading about all of the scientific studies which, taken in their entirety, pretty much demonstrate that the climatic catastrophes prophesied by the world's climate alarmists to result from anthropogenic CO2 emissions are largely devoid of significant real-world substantiation.
CO2 Ag Fertilization is key to solve the root cause of global war resource disparity Idso and idso 99 (Craig, president of CO2 Science, Keith, Vice president of CO2 Science, Give Peace a Chance by
Giving Plants a Chance, October 1, 1999 http://www.co2science.org/articles/V2/N19/EDIT.php) President Carter begins by stating that "when the Cold War ended 10 years ago, we expected an era of peace" but got instead "a decade of war." He then asks why peace has been so elusive, answering that most of today's wars are fueled by poverty, poverty in developing countries "whose economies depend on agriculture but which lack the means to make their farmland productive." This fact, he says, suggests an obvious, but often overlooked, path to peace: "raise the standard of living of the millions of rural people who live in poverty by increasing agricultural productivity," his argument being that thriving agriculture, in his words, "is the engine that fuels broader economic growth and development, thus paving the way for prosperity and peace." Can the case for atmospheric CO2 enrichment be made any clearer? Automatically, and without the investment of a single hard-earned dollar, ruble, or what have you, people everywhere promote the cause of peace by fertilizing the atmosphere with carbon dioxide; for CO2 - one of the major end-products of the combustion process that fuels the engines of industry and transportation - is the very elixir of life, being the primary building block of all plant tissues via the essential role it plays in the photosynthetic process that sustains nearly all of earth's vegetation, which in turn sustains nearly all of the planet's animal life. As with any production process, the insertion of more raw materials (in this case CO2) into the production line results in more manufactured goods coming out the other end, which, in the case of the production line of plant growth and development, is biosphere-sustaining food. And as President Carter rightly states, "leaders of developing nations must make food security a priority." Indeed, he ominously proclaims in his concluding paragraph that "there can be no peace until people have enough to eat." Within this context, we recently completed a project commissioned by the Greening Earth Society entitled "Forecasting World Food Supplies: The Impact of the Rising Atmospheric CO2 Concentration," which we presented at the Second Annual Dixy Lee Ray Memorial Symposium held in Washington, DC on 31 August - 2 September 1999. We found that continued increases in agricultural knowledge and expertise would likely boost world food production by 37% between now and the middle of the next century, but that world food needs, which we equated with world population, would likely rise by 51% over this period. Fortunately, we also calculated that the
Gonzaga Debate Institute 169 Warming Core shortfall in production could be overcome - but just barely - by the additional benefits anticipated to accrue from the many productivity-enhancing effects of the expected rise in the air's CO2 content over the same time period. Our findings suggest that the world food security envisioned by President Carter is precariously dependent upon the continued rising of the atmosphere's CO2 concentration. As Sylvan Wittwer, Director Emeritus of Michigan State University's Agricultural Experiment Station, stated in his 1995 book, Food, Climate, and Carbon Dioxide: The Global Environment and World Food Production, "The rising level of atmospheric CO2 could be the one global natural resource that is progressively increasing food production and total biological output, in a world of otherwise diminishing natural resources of land, water, energy, minerals, and fertilizer. It is a means of inadvertently increasing the productivity of farming systems and other photosynthetically active ecosystems. The effects know no boundaries and both developing and developed countries are, and will be, sharing equally." So, let's give peace a chance. Let's give plants a chance. And, while we're at it, let's give all of the world's national economies a chance as well. Let's let the air's CO2 content rise unimpeded, and let's let the peoples of the world reap the multitudinous benefits that come from the God-given - and scientifically proven - aerial fertilization effect of atmospheric CO2 enrichment. Let's live and let live. And let's let CO2 do its wonderful work of promoting world peace via the planet-wide prosperity that comes from enhanced agricultural productivity.
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Gonzaga Debate Institute 171 Warming Core of scientific scrutiny of the subject have only served to make earth's climatic future more uncertain than it was five years ago. Kerr then proceeds to interview a number of outstanding climate scientists about this intriguing situation, noting that in some vital areas of the climate modeling enterprise, it is very true that "uncertainties have actually grown." Texas A & M's Gerald North, for example, says "it's extremely hard to tell whether the models have improved." Peter Stone of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers the opinion that "the major [climate prediction] uncertainties have not been reduced at all." Seattle's Robert Charlson, emeritus professor at the University of Washington, states that "to make it sound like we understand climate is not right." With respect to how today's climate models perform in comparison to those of five years ago, Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Tim Barnett says "I don't know that they reproduce climate any better." Jeffrey Kiehl of the National Center for Atmospheric Research allows that "the more we learn [about aerosols], the less we know." In fact, the progress on the aerosol front has been so "good" that the range of possible aerosol effects now extends from essentially no effect to a cooling large enough, in Kerr's words, "to almost compensate for the total warming from all current greenhouse gases," which includes a lot more than just CO2.
C. CO2 Solves Food Scarcity Solves the root cause of war resource scarcity creates precedent for global cooperation
CO2 Science 2 (Center for the study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Feeding Humanity to Help Save Natural Ecosystems: The Role of the Rising Atmospheric CO2 Concentration Volume 5, Number 36: 4 September, http://www.co2science.org/articles/V5/N36/EDIT.php How much land can ten billion people spare for nature? This provocative question was posed by Waggoner (1995) in the title of an essay designed to illuminate the dynamic tension that exists between the need for land to support the agricultural enterprises that sustain mankind and the need for land to support the natural ecosystems that sustain all other creatures. As noted by Huang et al. (2002), human populations "have encroached on almost all of the world's frontiers, leaving little new land that is cultivatable." And in consequence of humanity's ongoing usurpation of this most basic of natural resources, Raven (2002) notes that "species-area relationships, taken worldwide in relation to habitat destruction, lead to projections of the loss of fully two-thirds of all species on earth by the end of this century." If one were to pick the most significant problem currently facing the biosphere, this would probably be it: a single species of life, Homo sapiens, is on course to completely annihilate fully two-thirds of the ten million or so other species with which we share the planet within a mere hundred years, simply by taking their land. Global warming, by comparison, pales in significance. Its impact is nowhere near as severe, being possibly nil or even positive. In addition, its root cause is highly debated; and actions to thwart it are much more difficult, if not impossible, to both define and implement. Furthermore, what many people believe to be the cause of global warming, i.e., anthropogenic CO2 emissions, may actually be a powerful force for preserving land for nature. What parts of the world are likely to be hardest hit by this human land-eating machine? Tilman et al. (2001) note that developed countries are expected to actually withdraw large areas of land from farming over the next fifty years, leaving developing countries to shoulder essentially all of the growing burden of feeding our expanding species. In addition, they calculate that the loss of these countries' natural ecosystems to cropland and pasture will amount to about half of all potentially suitable remaining land, which "could lead to the loss of about a third of remaining tropical and temperate forests, savannas, and grasslands," along with the many unique species they support. What can be done to alleviate this bleak situation? In a new analysis of the problem, Tilman et al. (2002) introduce a few more facts before suggesting some solutions. They note, for example, that by 2050 the human population of the globe is projected to be 50% larger than it is today and that global grain demand could well double, due to expected increases in per capita real income and dietary shifts toward a higher proportion of meat. Hence, they but state the obvious when they conclude that "raising yields on existing farmland is essential for 'saving land for nature'." So how is it to be done? Tilman et al. (2002) suggest a strategy that is built around three essential tasks: (1) increasing crop yield per unit of land area, (2) increasing crop yield per unit of nutrients applied, and (3) increasing crop yield per unit of water used. With respect to the first of these requirements, Tilman et al. note that in many parts of the world the historical rate of increase in crop yields is declining, as the genetic ceiling for maximal yield potential is being approached. This observation, they say, "highlights the need for efforts to steadily increase the yield potential ceiling."
Gonzaga Debate Institute 172 Warming Core With respect to the second requirement, they note that "without the use of synthetic fertilizers, world food production could not have increased at the rate it did [in the past] and more natural ecosystems would have been converted to agriculture." Hence, they say the ultimate solution "will require significant increases in nutrient use efficiency, that is, in cereal production per unit of added nitrogen, phosphorus," and so forth. Finally, with respect to the third requirement, Tilman et al. note that "water is regionally scarce," and that "many countries in a band from China through India and Pakistan, and the Middle East to North Africa either currently or will soon fail to have adequate water to maintain per capita food production from irrigated land." Increasing crop water use efficiency, therefore, is also a must. Although the impending biological crisis and several important elements of its potential solution are thus well defined, Tilman et al. (2001) report that "even the best available technologies, fully deployed, cannot prevent many of the forecasted problems." This is also the conclusion of the study of Idso and Idso (2000), who - although acknowledging that "expected advances in agricultural technology and expertise will significantly increase the food production potential of many countries and regions" - note that these advances "will not increase production fast enough to meet the demands of the even faster-growing human population of the planet." Fortunately, we have a powerful ally in the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 content that can provide what we can't. Since atmospheric CO2 is the basic "food" of essentially all terrestrial plants, the more of it there is in the air, the bigger and better they grow. For a nominal doubling of the air's CO2 concentration, for example, the productivity of earth's herbaceous plants rises by 30 to 50% (Kimball, 1983; Idso and Idso, 1994), while the productivity of its woody plants rises by 50 to 80% or more (Saxe et al. 1998; Idso and Kimball, 2001). Hence, as the air's CO2 content continues to rise, so too will the land use efficiency of the planet rise right along with it (see also Plant Growth Data on our website). In addition, atmospheric CO2 enrichment typically increases plant nutrient use efficiency and plant water use efficiency (see Nitrogen Use Efficiency and Water Use Efficiency in our Subject Index). Thus, with respect to all three of the major needs noted by Tilman et al. (2002), increases in the air's CO2 content pay huge dividends, helping to increase agricultural output without the taking of new lands from nature. In conclusion, it would appear that the extinction of two-thirds of all species of plants and animals on the face of the earth is essentially assured within the next century, if world agricultural output is not dramatically increased. This unfathomable consequence will occur simply because we will need more land to produce what is required to sustain us and, in the absence of the needed productivity increase, because we will simply take that land from nature to keep ourselves alive. It is also the conclusion of scientists who have studied this problem in depth that the needed increase in agricultural productivity is not possible, even with anticipated improvements in technology and expertise. With the help of the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 content, however, Idso and Idso (2000) have shown that we should be able - but just barely - to meet our expanding food needs without bringing down the curtain on the world of nature. That certain forces continue to resist this reality is truly incredible. More CO2 means life for the planet; less CO2 means death ... and not just the death of individuals, but the death of species. And to allow, nay, cause the extinction of untold millions of unique and irreplaceable species has got to rank close to the top of all conceivable immoralities. We humans, as stewards of the earth, have got to get our priorities straight. We have got to do all that we can to preserve nature by helping to feed humanity; and to do so successfully, we have got to let the air's CO2 content rise. Any policies that stand in the way of that objective are truly obscene.
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B. This absorbs at least 50% of total emissions. Spencer 8 (Roy, More Carbon Dioxide, Please, National Review Online, May 1st 2008,
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/224319/more-carbon-dioxide-please/roy-spencer It is quite possible that the biosphere (vegetation, sea life, etc.) has been starved for atmospheric CO2. Before humans started burning fossil fuels, vegetation and ocean plankton had been gobbling up as much CO2 out of the atmosphere as they could, but it was like a vacuum cleaner trying to suck through a stopped-up hose. Now, no matter how much CO2 we pump into the atmosphere each year, the biosphere takes out an average of 50 percent of that extra amount. Even after we triple the amount of CO2 we produce, nature still takes out 50 percent of the extra amount.
2.Bio-AerosolsCO2 increases Biosols which block radiation and prevent warming. Idso and idso 1 (Craig, president of CO2 Science, Keith, Vice president of CO2 Science, Yet Another Biophysical
Feedback Mechanism that May Help to Protect the Planet Against Deleterious CO2-Induced Global Warming October 10, 2001, http://www.co2science.org/articles/V4/N41/EDIT.php The second of the linkages of the new feedback loop is the ability of plants to emit gases to the atmosphere that are ultimately converted into "biosols," i.e., aerosols that owe their existence to the biological activities of earth's vegetation (Duce et al., 1983; Mooney et al., 1987), many of which function as cloud condensation nuclei (Went, 1966; Meszaros, 1988; Kavouras et al., 1998; Hopke et al., 1999). It takes little imagination to realize that since the existence of these atmospheric particles is dependent upon the physiological activities of plants and their associated soil biota (Idso, 1990), the CO2-induced presence of more and more-highly-productive plants will lead to the production of more of these cloud-mediating particles, which can then act as described by Charlson et al. to cool the planet. But this two-linkage-long negative feedback effect, like the one-linkage-long dual cooling mechanism described in the previous paragraph, is still not the endpoint of the new feedback loop we are describing. The third linkage of the new
Gonzaga Debate Institute 174 Warming Core scenario is the observed propensity for increases in aerosols and cloud particles to enhance the amount of diffuse solar radiation reaching the earth's surface (Suraqui et al., 1974; Abakumova et al., 1996). The fourth linkage is the ability of enhanced diffuse lighting to reduce the volume of shade within vegetative canopies (Roderick et al., 2001). The fifth linkage is the tendency for less internal canopy shading to enhance whole-canopy photosynthesis (Healey et al., 1998), which finally produces the end result: a greater biological extraction of CO2 from the air and subsequent sequestration of its carbon, compliments of the intensified diffuse-light-driven increase in total canopy photosynthesis and subsequent transfers of the extra fixed carbon to plant and soil storage reservoirs.
3. Carbon SequestrationCO2 increases nitrogen in the soil which exponentially enhances its ability to safely absorb carbon. Idso squared 8 (Sherwood, Keith, CO2 to the Rescue ... Again! http://www.co2science.org/articles/V5/N22/COM.php)
Atmospheric CO2 enrichment has long been known to help earth's plants withstand the debilitating effects of various environmental stresses, such as high temperature, excessive salinity levels and deleterious air pollution, as well as the negative consequences of certain resource limitations, such as less than optimal levels of light, water and nutrients (Idso and Idso, 1994). Now, in an important new study, Johnson et al. (2002) present evidence indicating that elevated levels of atmospheric CO2 do the same thing for soil microbes in the face of the enhanced receipt of solar ultravioletB radiation that would be expected to occur in response to a 15% depletion of the earth's stratospheric ozone layer. In addition, their study demonstrates that this phenomenon will likely have important consequences for soil carbon sequestration. Johnson et al. conducted their landmark work on experimental plots of subarctic heath located close to the Abisko Scientific Research Station in Swedish Lapland (68.35N, 18.82E). The plots they studied were composed of open canopies of Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii and dense dwarf-shrub layers containing scattered herbs and grasses. For a period of five years, the scientists exposed the plots to factorial combinations of UV-B radiation - ambient and that expected to result from a 15% stratospheric ozone depletion - and atmospheric CO2 concentration - ambient (around 365 ppm) and enriched (around 600 ppm) - after which they determined the amounts of microbial carbon (Cmic) and nitrogen (Nmic) in the soils of the plots. When the plots were exposed to the enhanced UV-B radiation level expected to result from a 15% depletion of the planet's stratospheric ozone layer, the researchers found that the amount of Cmic in the soil was reduced to only 37% of what it was at the ambient UV-B level when the air's CO2 content was maintained at the ambient concentration. When the UV-B increase was accompanied by the CO2 increase, however, not only was there not a decrease in Cmic, there was an actual increase of fully 37% . The story with respect to Nmic was both similar and different at one and the same time. In this case, when the plots were exposed to the enhanced level of UV-B radiation, the amount of Nmic in the soil experienced a 69% increase when the air's CO2 content was maintained at the ambient concentration. When the UV-B increase was accompanied by the CO2 increase, however, Nmic rose even more, experiencing a whopping 138% increase. These findings, in the words of Johnson et al., "may have far-reaching implications ... because the productivity of many semi-natural ecosystems is limited by N (Ellenberg, 1988)." Hence, the 138% increase in soil microbial N observed in this study to accompany a 15% reduction in stratospheric ozone and a concomitant 64% increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration (experienced in going from 365 ppm to 600 ppm) should do wonders in enhancing the input of plant litter to the soils of these ecosystems, which phenomenon represents the first half of the carbon sequestration process, i.e., the carbon input stage. With respect to the second stage of keeping as much of that carbon as possible in the soil, Johnson et al. note that "the capacity for subarctic semi-natural heaths to act as major sinks for fossil fuel-derived carbon dioxide is [also] likely to be critically dependent on the supply of N." Indeed, in a previous essay in this series, wherein we discussed the findings of the literature review of Berg and Matzner (1997), we found that such is truly the case. With more nitrogen in the soil, the long-term storage of carbon is significantly enhanced, as more litter is chemically transformed into humic substances when nitrogen is more readily available; and these resulting more recalcitrant carbon compounds can be successfully stored in the soil for many millennia. Clearly, earth's biosphere is effectively programmed to engage in a whole host of different phenomena that may act to slow - or actually stop - the ongoing rise of the air's CO2 content, especially if there is a chance it might otherwise attain a dangerously high level in terms of its potential to induce global warming, as we have indicated in earlier essays of this series. Furthermore, as was suggested in yet another related context well over a decade ago (Idso, 1990), lowly soil microbes may well play a major role in this
Gonzaga Debate Institute 175 Warming Core biologically-mediated regulatory enterprise, as is so nicely demonstrated in the new and unique study of Johnson et al. in Swedish Lapland. 4. CO2 encouraged bio-aerosols block warming Volcano data supports. Idso and idso 1 (Craig, president of CO2 Science, Keith, Vice president of CO2 Science, Yet Another Biophysical Feedback Mechanism that May Help to Protect the Planet Against Deleterious CO2-Induced Global Warming October 10, 2001, http://www.co2science.org/articles/V4/N41/EDIT.php How significant is the process? Roderick et al. provide a good estimate based on one of our favorite approaches to questions of this type: the utilization of a unique "natural experiment," a technique that has been used extensively by Idso (1998) to evaluate the climatic sensitivity of the entire planet. Specifically, Roderick and his colleagues consider the volcanic eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in June of 1991. This event ejected enough gases and fine materials into the atmosphere that it produced sufficient aerosol particles to greatly increase the diffuse component of the solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth from that point in time through much of 1993, while only slightly reducing the receipt of total solar radiation. Based on a set of lengthy calculations, Roderick et al. conclude that the Mt. Pinatubo eruption may well have resulted in the removal of an extra 2.5 Gt of carbon from the atmosphere due to its diffuse-light-enhancing stimulation of terrestrial vegetation in the year following the eruption, which would have reduced the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 concentration that year by about 1.2 ppm. Interestingly, this reduction is about the magnitude of the real-world perturbation that was actually observed (Sarmiento, 1993). What makes this observation even more impressive is the fact that the CO2 reduction was coincident with an El Nio event; because, in the words of the authors, "previous and subsequent such events have been associated with increases in atmospheric CO2." In addition, the observed reduction in total solar radiation received at the earth's surface during this period would have had a tendency to reduce the amount of photosynthetically active radiation incident upon earth's plants, which would also have had a tendency to cause the air's CO2 content to rise, as it would tend to lessen global photosynthetic activity.
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Gonzaga Debate Institute 177 Warming Core Why is there so much passion about global warming, and why has the issue become so vexing that the American Physical Society, from which Dr. Giaever resigned a few months ago, refused the seemingly reasonable request by many of its members to remove the word "incontrovertible" from its description of a scientific issue? There are several reasons, but a good place to start is the old question "cui bono?" Or the modern update, "Follow the money." Alarmism over climate is of great benefit to many, providing government funding for academic research and a reason for government bureaucracies to grow. Alarmism also offers an excuse for governments to raise taxes, taxpayer-funded subsidies for businesses that understand how to work the political system, and a lure for big donations to charitable foundations promising to save the planet. Lysenko and his team lived very well, and they fiercely defended their dogma and the privileges it brought them. Speaking for many scientists and engineers who have looked carefully and independently at the science of climate, we have a message to any candidate for public office: There is no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to "decarbonize" the world's economy. Even if one accepts the inflated climate forecasts of the IPCC, aggressive greenhouse-gas control policies are not justified economically. Princeton physics professor William Happer on why a large number of scientists don't believe that carbon dioxide is causing global warming. A recent study of a wide variety of policy options by Yale economist William Nordhaus showed that nearly the highest benefit-to-cost ratio is achieved for a policy that allows 50 more years of economic growth unimpeded by greenhouse gas controls. This would be especially beneficial to the less-developed parts of the world that would like to share some of the same advantages of material well-being, health and life expectancy that the fully developed parts of the world enjoy now. Many other policy responses would have a negative return on investment. And it is likely that more CO2 and the modest warming that may come with it will be an overall benefit to the planet. If elected officials feel compelled to "do something" about climate, we recommend supporting the excellent scientists who are increasing our understanding of climate with well-designed instruments on satellites, in the oceans and on land, and in the analysis of observational data. The better we understand climate, the better we can cope with its everchanging nature, which has complicated human life throughout history. However, much of the huge private and government investment in climate is badly in need of critical review. Every candidate should support rational measures to protect and improve our environment, but it makes no sense at all to back expensive programs that divert resources from real needs and are based on alarming but untenable claims of "incontrovertible" evidence.
Warming is Key to Macroalgae Development Idso, Founder for Center for Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Carter, Marine Geologist, and Singer, Director of the Scienceand Environmental Policy Project, 2011 (Craig D., Robert, and S. Fred, 2011, NIPCC, Climate Change
Reconsidered, 2011 Interim Report, Chapter 7, http://nipccreport.org/reports/2011/2011report.html, accessed 7/5/13, AK) Writing as background for their study, Jiang et al. (2010) note seagrasses are flowering plants that thrive in shallow oceanic and estuarine waters around the world, and are ranked as one of the most ecologically and economically valuable biological systems on earth, citing the work of Beer et al. (2006). They state Thalassia hemprichii is among the most widely-distributed seagrass species in an Indo-Pacific flora, dominating in many mixed meadows, citing the work of Short et al. (2007). In conducting their analysis, the authors collected intact vegetative plants of T. hemprichii from Xincun Bay of Hainan Island, Southern China, which they transported to the laboratory and cultured inflowthrough seawater aquaria bubbled with four different concentrations of CO2 representative of (1) the present global ocean, with a pH of 8.10, (2) the projected ocean for 2100, with a pH of 7.75, (3) the projected ocean for 2200, with a pH of 7.50, and (4) the ocean characteristic of an extreme beyond the current predictions (a hundredfold increase in free CO2, with a pH of 6.2). The three researchers report the leaf growth rate of CO2enriched plants was significantly higher than that in the unenriched treatment, that nonstructural carbohydrates (NSC) of T. hemprichii, especially in belowground tissues, increased strongly with elevated CO2, and belowground tissues showed a similar response with NSC. The Chinese scientists identify several implications of their findings that CO2 enrichment enhances photosynthetic rate, growth rate and NSC concentrations of T. hemprichii. With higher
Gonzaga Debate Institute 178 Warming Core atmospheric CO2 concentrations, they note, colonization beyond current seagrass depth limits is possible; the extra stored NSC can be used to meet the carbon demands of plants during periods of low photosynthetic carbon fixation caused by severe environmental disturbance such as underwater light reduction; it can enhance rhizome growth, flowering shoot production and vegetative proliferation; and it may buffer the negative effects of transplant shock by increasing rhizome reserve capacity. They also write, the globally increasing CO2 may enhance seagrass survival in eutrophic coastal waters, where populations have been devastated by algal proliferation and reduced column light transparency, and ocean acidification will stimulate seagrass biomass and productivity, leading to more favorable habitat and conditions for associated invertebrate and fish species. Also researching the potential effects of ocean acidification onmacroalgae were Xu et al. (2010), who write, Gracilaria lemaneiformis (Bory) Webervan Bosse is an economically important red seaweed that is cultivated on a large scale in China due to the quantity and quality of agar in its cell walls. In addition, they state much attention has been paid to the biofiltration capacity of the species (Yang et al., 2005, 2006; Zhou et al., 2006), and that it has thus been suggested to be an excellent species for alleviating coastal eutrophication in China (Fei, 2004). Considering these important characteristics of this seaweed, the authors set out to examine how this aquatic plant might respond to elevated CO2. In conducting their experiment, plants were grown from thallicollected at 0.5 m depth from a farm located in Shenao Bay, Nanao Island, Shantou (China)for 16 days in 3-L flasks of natural seawater maintained at either natural (0.5 M) or high (30 M) dissolved inorganic phosphorus (Pi) concentrations in contact with air of either 370 or 720 ppm CO2, while their photosynthetic rates, biomass production, and uptake of nitrate and phosphate were examined. As best as can be determined from Xu et al.s graphical representations of their results, algal photosynthetic rates in the natural Pi treatment were increased only by a non-significant 5 percent as a result of the 95 percent increase in the airs CO2 concentration, and in the high Pi treatment they were increased by approximately 41 percent. In the case of growth rate or biomass production, on the other hand, the elevated CO2 treatment exhibited a 48 percent increase in the natural Pi treatment, whereas in the high Pi treatment there was no CO2-induced increase in growth, because the addition of the extra 29.5 M Pi boosted the biomass production of the low-CO2 natural-Pi treatment by approximately 83 percent, and additional CO2 did not increase growth rates beyond that point. The three Chinese researchers state elevated levels of CO2 in seawater increase the growth rate of many seaweed species despite the variety of ways in which carbon is utilized in these algae, noting some species, such as Porphyra yezoensis Ueda (Gao et al., 1991) and Hizikia fusiforme (Harv.) Okamura (Zou, 2005) are capable of using HCO3 , but are limited by the current ambient carbon concentration in seawater, and enrichment of CO2 relieves this limitation and enhances growth. Regarding the results they obtained with Gracilaria lemaneiformis, on the other handwhich they state efficiently uses HCO3 and whose photosynthesis is saturated at the current inorganic carbon concentration of natural seawater (Zou et al., 2004)they write, the enhancement of growth could be due to the increased nitrogen uptake rates at elevated CO2 levels, which in their experiment were 40 percent in the natural Pi treatment, because high CO2 may enhan ce the activity of nitrate reductase (Mercado et al., 1999; Gordillo et al., 2001; Zou, 2005) and stimulate the accumulation of nitrogen, which could contribute to growth. Whatever strategy might be employed, these several marine macroalgae appear to be capable of benefiting greatly from increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
CO2 Increases Soybean Disease Resistance Idso, Founder for Center for Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Carter, Marine Geologist, and Singer, Director of the Scienceand Environmental Policy Project, 2011 (Craig D., Robert, and S. Fred, 2011, NIPCC, Climate Change
Reconsidered, 2011 Interim Report, Chapter 7, http://nipccreport.org/reports/2011/2011report.html, accessed 7/5/13, AK) Eastburn et al. (2010) note, globally, soybean is the most widely planted dicot crop and has economic significance due to its wide variety of uses, ranging from food and health products to printing inks and biodiesal, but little to no work has evaluated the influence of future atmospheric conditions on soybean diseases. This is particularly surprising given that worldwide yield losses to all soybean diseases combined are about 11% (Wrather et al., 1997), which is equivalent to more than 24 million metric tons based on current production. In an attempt to begin to fill this knowledge void, Eastburn et al. evaluated the individual and combined effects of elevated carbon dioxide (CO2, 550 ppm) and ozone (O3, 1.2 times ambient) on three economically important soybean diseasesdowny mildew, Septoria brown spot, and sudden death syndrome (SDS)over the three-year period 20052007 under
Gonzaga Debate Institute 179 Warming Core natural field conditions at the soybean free-air CO2enrichment (SoyFACE) facility on the campus of the University of Illinois (USA). The five researchers found elevated CO2 alone or in combination with O3 significantly reduced downy mildew disease severity by 3966% across the three years of the study. On the other hand, they state elevated CO2 alone or in combination with O3 significantly increased brown spot severity in all three years, but the increase was small in magnitude. Finally, they state the atmospheric treatments had no effect on the incidence of SDS. Taken in their entirety, these findings thus suggest, on balance, that elevated CO2 should provide a net benefit to soybean productivity throughout the world, as its concentration continues to rise in the years and decades to come. In the introduction to another soybean study, Kretzschmar et al. (2009) write, isoflavonoids constitute a group of natural products derived from the phenylpropanoidpathway, which is abundant in soybeans, and they state the inducible accumulation of low molecular weight antimicrobial pterocarpan phytoalexins, the glyceollins, is one of the major defense mechanisms implicated in soybean resistance. Thus, in their study, as they describe it, they evaluated the effect of an elevated CO2 atmosphere on the production of soybean defensive secondary chemicals induced by nitric oxide and a fungal elicitor. They did this in a glasshouse where they grew soybeans from seed for a period of nine days in large, well-watered pots placed within opentop chambers that were maintained at atmospheric CO2 concentrations of either 380 or 760 ppm, while they examined changes in the production of phytoalexins and some of their precursors. This work revealed that elevated CO2 resulted in an increase of intermediates and diverted end products (daidzein by 127%, coumestrol by 93%,genistein by 93%, luteolin by 89% and apigenin by 238%) with a concomitant increase of 1.53.0 times in the activity of enzymes related to their biosynthetic routes. The Brazilian researchers state these findings indicate changes in the pool of defense-related flavonoids in soybeans due to increased carbon availability, which may differentially alter the responsiveness of soybean plants to pathogens in CO2 atmospheric concentrations such as those predicted for future decades. Or to put it more simply, the ongoing rise in the airs CO2 content will likely increase the ability of soybeans to withstand the attacks of various plant diseases in the years and decades to come.
Elevated CO2 Levels Key to Stronger Forests Idso, Founder for Center for Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Carter, Marine Geologist, and Singer, Director of the Scienceand Environmental Policy Project, 2011 (Craig D., Robert, and S. Fred, 2011, NIPCC, Climate Change
Reconsidered, 2011 Interim Report, Chapter 7, http://nipccreport.org/reports/2011/2011report.html, accessed 7/5/13, AK) Moving up from individual species and small groups of plants to the ecosystem scale, we consider the case of natural and plantation-type forests, beginning with studies of the latter type, where the air around groups of trees has been experimentally enriched with CO2, starting with the study of McCarthy et al. (2010). Conducted at the Duke Forest Free-Air CO2Enrichment (FACE) facility, this study is a long-term experiment designed to investigate the effects of an extra 200 ppm of atmospheric CO2 on the growth and development of a plantation of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) trees with an understory of various broadleaf species, including Liriodendron tulipifera, Liquidambar styraciflua, Acer rubrum,Ulmus alata, and Cornus florida, plus various other trees, shrubs, and vines. All of these were grown on a soil that Finzi and Schlesinger (2003) describe as being in a state of acute nutrient deficiency that can only be reversed with fertilization. Many researchers had long thought such fertility deficiency would stifle the ability of the extra aerial supply of CO2 to significantly stimulate the forests growth on a continuing basis. Working with data for the years 19962004, the team of nine researchers writes, net primary productivity *NPP+ for pines, hardwoods and the entire stand was calculated as the sum of the production of coarse wood (stems, branches, coarse roots), leaf litter (lagged for pines), fine roots and reproductive structures. The results of this protocol indicated elevated CO2 increased pine biomass production, starting in 1997 and continuing every year thereafter, and the CO2-induced enhancement remained fairly consistent as the stand developed. In addition, they found elevated CO2 increased stand (pine plus all other species) biomass production every year from 1997 onwards with no trend over time, while the average yearly increase in NPP caused by the approximate 54 percent increase in the airs CO2 content was 28 percent. Thus, and in spite of the original belief of many scientists that low levels of soil nitrogenespecially an acute deficiency would preclude any initial growth stimulation provided by atmospheric CO2 enrichment from long persisting, the suite of trees, bushes, and shrubs that constitute the Duke Forest has continued to maintain the extra CO2enabled vitality it exhibited right from the start of the study, with no sign of it even beginning to taper off. Further extending the results of
Gonzaga Debate Institute 180 Warming Core the Duke Forest FACE study were Jackson et al. (2009), who describe new belowground data they obtained there, after which they present a synthesis of these and other results obtained from 1996 through 2008, seeking to determine which, if any, variables show evidence for a decrease in their response to atmospheric CO2 during that time frame. Among many other things, Jackson et al. report on average, in elevated CO2, fine-root biomass in the top 15 cm of soil increased by 24%, and in recent years the fine-root biomass increase grew stronger, averaging ~30% at high CO2. Regarding coarse roots having diameters greater than 2 mm and extending to a soil depth of 32 cm, they report, biomass sampled in 2008 was twice as great in elevated CO2. We calculate from the graphical representation of their results that the coarse-root biomass was fully 130 percent greater, which is astounding, particularly given that the extra 200 ppm of CO2 supplied to the air surrounding the CO2-enriched trees represented only about a 55 percent increase over ambient conditions. In the concluding sentence of their papers abstract, Jackson et al. state, overall, the effect of elevated CO2 belowground shows no sign of diminishing. In expanding on this statement, the four researchers note if progressive nitrogen limitation were occurring in this system, we would expect differences in productivity to diminish for trees in the elevated vs. ambient CO2 plots , but they state, in fact there is little evidence from estimates of aboveground or total net primary productivity in the replicated Duke experiment that progressive nitrogen limitation is occurring there or at other forest FACE experiments, even after more than a decade of manipulation of the airs CO2 content, citing in this regardwith respect to the latter portion of their statementthe report of Finzi et al. (2007). Consequently, there is very good reason to believe the aerial fertilization effect of atmospheric CO2 enrichment will continue to benefit Earths forests significantly as long as the atmospheres CO2 concentration continues to rise.
CO2 key to the growth of fungi takes out your impact micro-organisms check for any temperature increases the risk of CO2 being beneficial outweighs any of your warming scenarios Idso, Founder for Center for Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Carter, Marine Geologist, and Singer, Director of the Science and Environmental Policy Project, 2011 (Craig D., Robert, and S. Fred, 2011, NIPCC, Climate Change
Reconsidered, 2011 Interim Report, Chapter 7, http://nipccreport.org/reports/2011/2011report.html, accessed 7/5/13, AK) Andrew and Lilleskov (2009) studied sporocarps (the reproductive structures of fungi), which can be significant carbon sinks for the ectomycorrhizal fungi that develop symbiotic relationships with plants by forming sheaths around their root tips, where they are the last sinks for carbon in the long and winding pathway that begins at the source of carbon assimilation in plant leaves. The researchers note it is critical to understand how ectomycorrhizal fungal sporocarpsare affected by elevated CO2 and ozone, because, they continue, sporocarps facilitate genetic recombination, permit long-distance dispersal and contribute to food webs, and we need to know how these important processes will be affected by continued increases in the concentrations of these two trace constituents of the atmosphere. Accordingly, the two researchers evaluated sporocarp biomass for a period of four years at the Aspen free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) site near Rhinelander, Wisconsin, which provided, in their words, a unique opportunity to examine the effects of both elevated CO2 and O3 on a forested ecosystem. The examination was conducted during years four through seven of the aspen and aspen-birch forests exposures to ambient and enriched concentrations of the two gases: CO2 (350 and 550 ppm) and O3 (3367 and 50-00 ppb). The scientists found total mean sporocarp biomass was generally lowest under elevated O3 with ambient CO2, and it was greatest under elevated CO2, regardless of O3 concentration. They also found a complete elimination of O3 effects on sporocarp production when [extra+ CO2 was added. And they state they expect that the responses seen in the present study were conservative compared to those expected under regional to global changes in CO2 and O3. Consequently, by itself or in combination with rising ozone concentrations, the ongoing rise in the atmospheres CO2 content appears destined to enhance the genetic recombination and long-distance dispersal of the ectomycorrhizal fungi that form symbiotic relationships with the roots of aspen and birch trees, thereby positively contributing to various food webs that will be found within aspen and aspenbirch forests of the future. In another study dealing with soil fungi, Alberton et al. (2010) write, roots of a very large number of plant species are regularly colonized by a group of ascomycete fungi with usually dark-pigmented (melanized) septate hyphae (Mandyam and Jumpponen, 2005; Sieber and Grunig, 2006) that are referred to as dark septate rootendophytic (DSE) fungi, with most species belonging to the Leotiomycetes (Kernaghan et al., 2003; Wang et al., 2006). To study these
Gonzaga Debate Institute 181 Warming Core fungi, the three researchers grew Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) plants from seed for 125 days in Petri dishesboth with and without inoculation with one of seven different species/strains of DSE fungiwithin controlled environment chambers maintained at atmospheric CO2 concentrations of either 350 or 700 ppm, destructively harvesting some of the seedlings at the 98-day point of the experiment and the rest of them at the experiments conclusion. They found across all plants (DSE-inoculated and control plants) under elevated CO2, shoot and root biomass increased significantly by 21% and 19%, respectively, relative to ambient, with higher values over the final four weeks (increases of 40% and 30% for shoots and roots, respectively). In addition, they indicate on average, shoot nitrogen concentration was 57% lower under elevated CO2, and elevated CO2 decreased root nitrogen concentration on average by 16%. Alberton et al. thus acknowledge their study did not suggest a role for DSE fungi in increased nutrient uptake. In fact, they emphasize that under elevated CO2, DSE fungi even reduced nitrogen content of the pine seedlings. But they also emphasize that surprisingly, even under reduced nitrogen availability, elevated CO2 led to increases in both above-ground and below-ground plant biomass. To explain how that happened, the Brazilian and Dutch scientists write, a potential mechanism for the increase of plant biomass even when plant nutrient uptake decreases is the production of phytohormones by DSE fungi. They observe that earlier authors noted that DSE fungi enhance plant growth by producing phytohormones or inducing host hormone production without any apparent facilitation of host nutrient uptake or stimulation of host nutrient metabolism (Addy et al., 2005; Schulz and Boyle, 2005), further demonstrating that low levels of soil nitrogen availability need not be an insurmountable impediment to significant CO2-induced increases in plant growth and development. In another study of note, Compant et al. (2010) write, virtually all land plant taxa investigated have well-established symbioses with a large variety of microorganisms (Nicolson, 1967; Brundrett, 2009), some of which are known to support plant growth and to increase plant tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses (Bent, 2006). Many of these microorganisms colonize the rhizosphere (Lugtenberg andKamilova, 2009), while others enter the root system of their hosts and enhance their beneficial effects with an endophytic lifestyle (Stone et al., 2000). This is the case, as they put it, for plant growthpromoting fungi such asarbuscular mycorrhizae, ectomycorrhizae and other endophytic fungi, as well as for plant growthpromoting bacteria and the more specialized plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria. Many members of the first two categories, they note, are applied as biocontrol agents, biofertilizers and/or phytostimulators in agriculture (Vessey, 2003; Welbaum et al., 2004) or as degrading microorganisms in phytoremediation applications (Denton, 2007). Consequently, and in order to determine how beneficial plant growth-promoting microorganisms might be affected by continued increases in the airs CO2 content and by possible concomitant changes in climate, Compant et al. reviewed the results of 135 studies that investigated the effects of CO2 and changes in various climatic factors on beneficial microorganisms and their interactions with host plants. They found the majority of studies showed that elevated CO2 had a positive influence on the abundance of arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal fungi, which, in their words, is generally in agreement with meta-analyses performed by Treseder (2004) and by Alberton et al. (2005). But they also found the effects on plant growth-promoting bacteria and endophytic fungi were more variable. Nevertheless, they state, in most cases, plant-associated microorganisms had a beneficial effect on plants under elevated CO2. In addition, they report numerous studies indicated that plant growth promoting microorganisms (both bacteria and fungi) positively affected plants subjected to drought stress. Temperature effects, on the other hand, were more of a wash, as Compant et al. state the effects of increased temperature on beneficial plant-associated microorganisms were more variable, positive and neutral, and negative effects were equally common and varied considerably with the study system and the temperature range investigated. In concluding, Compant et al. note the stress of drought is disadvantageous for nearly all terrestrial vegetation, but plant growth-promoting microorganisms should help land plants overcome this potentially negative aspect of future climate change, as long as the airs CO2 content continues to rise. Temperature effects, on the other hand, would appear to be no more negative than they are positive in a warming world, and when they might be negative, continued atmospheric CO2 enrichment should prove to be a huge benefit to plants by directly enhancing their growth rates and water use efficiencies. And under the best of climatic conditions, atmospheric CO2 enrichment should bring out the best of Earths plants, plus the best of the great majority of plant growth-promoting microorganisms that benefit them biochemically.
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Uniqueness Debate Group It The next agricultural revolution is underway. Absent CO2, food demand will devastate wild nature. Idso squared, Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, 01
(Craig and Keith, The Most Important Global Change, February 2001, Volume 4, Number 8: 21, http://www.co2science.org/articles/V4/N8/EDIT.php)
It thus behooves us to seriously consider the findings of Tilman et al. (2001), reported just four days later in the pages of Science, which Leo and Gergen had obviously not the advantage of seeing when they composed their essays. In
an analysis of the global environmental impacts of agricultural expansion that will likely occur over the next 50 years, which was based upon projected increases in population and concomitant advances in technological expertise, the group of ten respected researchers concluded that the task of meeting the doubled global food demand they calculated to exist in the year 2050 will likely exact an environmental toll that "may rival climate change in environmental and societal impacts." What are the specific problems? For starters, Tilman and his colleagues note that "humans currently appropriate more than a third of the production of terrestrial ecosystems and about half of usable freshwaters, have doubled terrestrial nitrogen supply and phosphorus liberation, have manufactured and released globally significant quantities of pesticides, and have initiated a major extinction event." Now, think of doubling those figures. In fact, do even more; for the scientists calculate global nitrogen fertilization and pesticide production will likely rise by a factor of 2.7 by the year 2050.
Agricultural demand will triple by 2050only increased CO2 emissions can solve Idso Cubed 5 (Craig, president of CO2 Science, Keith, Vice president of CO2 Science, Sherwood, Will Farming Destroy
Wild Nature? APRIL 13TH 2005 http://www.co2science.org/articles/V8/N15/EDIT.php) In an article in Science entitled "Farming and the Fate of Wild Nature," Green et al. (2005) address a looming problem of incredible proportions and significance: how to meet the two- to three-fold increase in food demand that will exist by 2050 (Tilman et al., 2002; Bongaarts, 1996) without usurping for agriculture all the land that is currently available to what they call "wild nature." The four scientists demonstrate the immediacy of the problem by discussing the relationship between farming and birds. They begin by noting that "farming (including conversion to farmland and its intensifying use) is the single biggest source of threat to bird species
listed as Threatened (accounting for 37% of threats) and is already substantially more important for species in developing countries than those in developed countries (40% and 24% of threats, respectively)," and by reporting that "for
developing and developed countries alike, the scale of the threat posed by agriculture is even greater for Near-Threatened species (57% and 33% of threats, respectively)." Clearly, a little more taking of land by agriculture will likely be devastating to several species of birds; and a lot more usurpation (using words employed by climate alarmists the world over) will likely be catastrophically deadly to many of them, and numerous other animals as well. So how does one solve the problem and keep from driving innumerable species to extinction (using more words that climate alarmists relish) and still feed the masses of humanity that will inhabit the planet a mere 45 years hence? The answer is simple: one has to raise more food without appreciably increasing the amounts of land and water used to do it. The problem is that it is getting more and more difficult to do
so. Already, in fact, Green et al. report that annual growth in yield is now higher in the developing world than it is in the developed world, which suggests we may be approaching the upper limits of the benefits to be derived from the types of technology that served us so well over the last four decades of the 20th century, when global food production outstripped population growth and kept us largely ahead of the hunger curve, at least where political unrest did not keep food from reaching the tables of those who needed it. This is also the conclusion of Green et al., who report that "evidence from a range of taxa in developing countries suggests that high-yield farming may allow more species to persist." But will the high-yield farming we are capable of developing in the coming years be high enough to keep the loss of wild nature's land at an acceptable minimum? This question was
addressed by Idso and Idso (2000), who developed a supply-anddemand scenario for food in the year 2050. Specifically, they identified the plants that currently supply 95% of the world's food needs and projected historical trends in the productivities of these crops 50 years into the future. They also evaluated the growth-enhancing effects of atmospheric CO2 enrichment on these plants and made similar yield projections based on the increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration likely to occur by that future date. This work indicated that world population would be 51% greater in the year 2050 than it was in 1998,
but that world food production would be only 37% greater, if its enhanced productivity were solely a consequence of anticipated improvements in agricultural technology and expertise. However, they just barely - by
determined that the consequent shortfall in farm production could be overcome - but the additional benefits anticipated to accrue from the aerial fertilization effect of the expected rise in the air's CO2 content, assuming no Kyoto-style cutbacks in anthropogenic CO2 emissions.
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2. Empirically proven -- CO2 increases total global biodiversityNASA study. Solomon, Financial Post, 08 (Lawrence, In Praise of CO2, Don Mills, June 7, 2008
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/06/08/surprise-earths-biosphere-is-booming-co2-the-cause/) The results surprised Steven Running of the University of Montana and Ramakrishna Nemani of NASA, scientists involved in analyzing the NASA satellite data. They found that over a period of almost two decades, the Earth as a whole became more bountiful a whopping 6.2%. by About 25% of the Earths vegetated landmass almost 110 million square kilometres enjoyed significant increases and only 7% showed significant declines. When the satellite data zooms in, it finds that each square metre of land, on average, now produces almost 500 grams of greenery per year. Why the increase? Their 2004 study, and other more recent ones, point to the warming of the planet and the presence of CO2, a gas indispensable to plant life. CO2 is natures fertilizer, bathing the biota with its life-giving nutrients. Plants take the carbon from CO2 to bulk themselves up carbon is the building block of life and release the oxygen, which along with the plants, then sustain animal life. As summarized in a report last month, released along with a petition signed by 32,000 U. S. scientists who vouched for the benefits of CO2: Higher CO2 enables plants to grow faster and larger and to live in drier climates. Plants provide food for animals, which are thereby also enhanced. The extent and diversity of plant and animal life have both increased substantially during the past half-century.
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Not a reason to reject Even if theyre unqualified, the aff should be able to provide warranted arguments to disprove our claims. Privilege debate over ad homs. The Idsos are qualified. A. Scholastic background Hayashi, Managing Director at The Dillard Anderson Group, 05
(Stuart, July 1, When Hot Tempers Not Hot Temperatures Create a Harsh Climate available at http://50thstar.blogspot.com/2005/07/whenhot-tempers-not-temperatures.html) When Robinsons paper cites a scientist who is not a climatologist, such as Sherwood B. Idso, it is done in a reasonable fashion. When Idso, for example, was going for his Ph.D., his focus was on soil sciences while his minor was meteorology, and he served as an adjunct professor of geology, geography, and botany in the past So it makes sense that the 56th note of Robinsons paper cites Idso about how increases in carbon dioxide can benefit the growth of plants. As far as professional credentials go, Idso is qualified to make that assessment.
And theyre a leading and respected group in the global warming debate. Exchange Morning Post 8 (An intelligent discussion about climate change, Exchange, April 23rd,
http://www.exchangemagazine.com/morningpost/2008/week17/Wednesday/0423016.html) The International Climate Science Coalition is an association of scientists, economists and energy and policy experts working to promote better public understanding of climate change. ICSC is committed to providing a highly credible alternative to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) thereby fostering a more rational, open discussion about climate issues.
All sides of the climate debate receive funding from interested parties and Idso reached and published his conclusion before and funding controversy arose. Idso, President Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, 06
Gonzaga Debate Institute 185 Warming Core (Sherwood, President Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, What Motivates the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change? September 27th 2006, http://www.co2science.org/articles/V9/N39/EDIT.php) In this regard, as I mentioned earlier, there are many scientists on both sides of the climate change debate who receive funds from people that admire their work and who continue to maintain their intellectual and moral integrity. Likewise, there are probably
some on both sides of the controversy who do otherwise. So how does one differentiate between them? Clearly, each researcher's case is unique. In my case, I feel that a
significant indication of what motivates me to do what I do can be gleaned from my publication record, which demonstrates that I studied and wrote about many of the topics we currently address on our website a full quarter-century ago in a host of different peer-reviewed scientific journals - as well as in a couple of books (Idso, 1982, 1989) that I selfpublished and for which I personally paid the publication costs - all of which happened well before I, or probably anyone else, had ever even contemplated doing what we now do and actually receiving funds to sustain the effort. What is more, many of these things occurred well before there was any significant controversy over the climate change issue, which largely began with the publication of one of my early contributions to the topic (Idso, 1980). Hence, it should be readily evident that my views about the potential impacts of the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 concentration from that time until now have never been influenced in even the slightest degree by anything other than what has appeared in the scientific literature. And my sons are in their father's image.
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C4 plants also benefit- sugarcane is key for world health Idso, Founder for Center for Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Carter, Marine Geologist, and Singer, Director of the Science and Environmental Policy Project, 2011
(Craig D., Robert, and S. Fred, 2011, NIPCC, Climate Change Reconsidered, 2011 Interim Report, Chapter 7, http://nipccreport.org/reports/2011/2011report.html, accessed 7/5/13, AK)Moving on to C4 plantswhere the enzyme PEP carboxylase allows CO2 to be taken in very quickly and delivered directly to RuBisCO for photosynthetic incorporation into a 4-carbon compoundVu and Allen (2009) note such vegetation represents fewer than 4% of all angiosperm species, yet their ecological and economic significance is substantial. On a global basis, for example, they write, up to onethird of terrestrial productivity is provided by C4 plants, citing Cerling et al. (1997), Ghannoum et al. (1997), and Brown et al. (2005), and they note in many tropical regions, the food source is primarily based on C4 crops, among [which] maize, millet, sorghum and sugarcane are the most agriculturally important monocots in terms of production (Brown, 1999), with up to 75% of the world sugar production provided by sugarcane (De Souza et al., 2008). In addition, they indicate the emerging use of sugarcane as a source for biofuel production has been highly recognized, citing Goldenberg (2007). So what will happen to the productivity of this important crop as the airs CO2 content continues its upward climb, especially if global air temperatures rise along with it? Historically, C4 crops have been thought to be relatively unresponsive to atmospheric CO2 enrichment, as they possess a CO2-concentrating mechanism that allows them to achieve a greater photosynthetic capacity than C3 plants at the current atmospheric CO2 concentration, particularly at high growth temperatures (Matsuoka et al., 2001). Thus, simple reasoning might suggest C4 plants may be little benefited, if at all, in a CO2-enriched and warmer world of the future. However, in the case of sugarcane, as the research of Vu and Allen demonstrates, simple reasoning would be incorrect, especially with respect to the most important measure of sugarcanes e conomic value: stem juice production. The two researchers with the USDAs Agricultural Research Service, who hold joint appointments in the Agronomy Department of the University of Florida (USA), grew two cultivars of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) for a period of three months in paired-companion, temperature gradient, sunlit greenhouses under daytime CO2 concentrations of 360 and 720 ppm and air temperatures of 1.5C (near ambient) and 6.0C higher than outside ambient temperature, after which they measured several different plant properties. On a main stem basis, Vu and Allen write, leaf area, leaf dry weight, stem dry weight and stem juice volume were increased by growth at doubled CO2 *as well as at] high temperature, and they state these increases were even greater under the combination of doubled CO2 and high temperature, with plants grown under these conditions averaging 50%, 26%, 84% and 124% greater leaf area, leaf dry weight, stem dry weight and stem juice volume, respectively, compared with plants grown at [the] ambient CO2/near-ambient temperature combination. In addition, they write, plants grown at *the+ doubled CO2/high temperature combination were 2- to 3-fold higher in stem soluble solids than those at [the] ambient CO2/near-ambient temperature combination. Consequently, as Vu and Allen conclude, sugarcane grown under predicted rising atmospheric CO2 and temperature in the future may use less water, utilize water more efficiently, and would perform better in sucrose production. This bodes well for tropical-region agriculture, especially, as they note, with the worldwide continued increase in demand for sugarcane as a source of food and biofuel. Last, they add that significant improvements in stem sucrose and biomass through classical breeding and/or new biotechnology may also be achieved; and, hence, they state, studies to identify the cultivars with high efficiency in water use and stem sucrose production under future changes in CO2 and climate are of great importance and should be initiated and explored. Working hand-in-hand with the benefits provided by the ongoing rise in the airs CO2 content, therefore, as well as those provided by the possibility of still higher air temperatures to come, we may yet be able to meet the increasing food needs of our expanding numbers without taking vast amounts of land and freshwater resources from Earths natural ecosystems. Also studying sugarcane, Gouvea et al. (2009) used the agrometeorological model of Doorenbos and Kassam(1994) to estimate sugarcane yield in tropical southern Brazil, based on future A1B climatic scenarios presented in the fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. They first calculated potential productivity, which considers the possible impacts caused by changes in temperature, precipitation, sunshine hours and CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, as well as technological advances, and then actual productivity, which additionally accounts for the yield-reducing effects of water stress. Based on their calculations, Gouvea et al. determined potential productivity will increase by 15% in relation to the present condition in 2020, by 33% in 2050 and by 47% in 2080, and actual productivity will increase by 12% in relation to the present condition in 2020, by 32% in 2050 and by 47% in 2080. They further indicate expected technological advances, including
Gonzaga Debate Institute 188 Warming Core the development of new varieties and best-management practices, will account for 35 percent of the yield gains in 2020, 51 percent in 2050, and 61 percent in 2080. Consequently, and in spite of the gloomy prognostications of the IPCC and its followers, this modeling exercise suggests there will be, in the words of the four researchers, a beneficial effect of forecasted climate changes on sugarcane productivity, due to the expected increases in temperature and CO2 concentration.
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Gonzaga Debate Institute 190 Warming Core the results they obtained with Gracilaria lemaneiformis, on the other handwhich they state efficiently uses HCO3 and whose photosynthesis is saturated at the current inorganic carbon concentration of natural seawater (Zou et al., 2004)they write, the enhancement of growth could be due to the increased nitrogen uptake rates at elevated CO2 levels, which in their experiment were 40 percent in the natural Pi treatment, because high CO2 may enhance the activity of nitrate reductase (Mercado et al., 1999; Gordillo et al., 2001; Zou, 2005) and stimulate the accumulation of nitrogen, which could contribute to growth. Whatever strategy might be employed, these several marine macroalgae appear to be capable of benefiting greatly from increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
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CO2 solves isoprene BVOCs Idso, Founder for Center for Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Carter, Marine Geologist, and Singer, Director of the Science and Environmental Policy Project, 2011 (Craig D., Robert, and S. Fred, 2011, NIPCC, Climate Change
Reconsidered, 2011 Interim Report, Chapter 7, http://nipccreport.org/reports/2011/2011report.html, accessed 7/8/13, AK) The scientists found that between 1901 and 2002, climate change at the global scale was responsible for a 7% increase in isoprene emissions, but rising atmospheric CO2 caused a 21% reduction, and by the end of the 20th century, anthropogenic cropland expansion had the largest impact, reducing isoprene emissions by 15%, so that overall, these factors combined to cause a 24% decrease in global isoprene emissions during the 20th century. These findings represent good news, as the factors identified should reduce the undesirable consequences of increases in tropospheric ozone and methane concentrations. The three scientists warn, however, that the possible rapid expansion of biofuel production with high isoprene-emitting plant species (e.g., oil palm, willow and poplar) may reverse the trend by which conversion of land to food crops leads to lower isoprene emissions. This provides yet another reason not to force use of biofuels as replacements for fossil fuels.
CO2 produces BVOCs that increases cloud formation which resolves warming and prevents future pest attacks Idso, Founder for Center for Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Carter, Marine Geologist, and Singer, Director of the Science and Environmental Policy Project, 2011 (Craig D., Robert, and S. Fred, 2011, NIPCC, Climate Change
Reconsidered, 2011 Interim Report, Chapter 7, http://nipccreport.org/reports/2011/2011report.html, accessed 7/8/13, AK) Still other secondary carbon compounds comprise what are known as biogenic volatile organic compounds or BVOCs. Plants re-emit a substantial portion of their assimilated CO2 back to the atmosphere as BVOCs, and these substances affect both the chemical and physical properties of the air, where they generate large quantities of organic aerosols that can affect the planets climate by forming cloud condensation nuclei that may lead to increased cooling during the day by reflecting a greater portion of the incoming solar radiation back to space. In addition, many BVOCs protect plants from a host of insect pests. But not all BVOCs are so helpful.
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unlikely to be the case. A set of controlled been performed in which ambient CO2 levels are elevated in forest stands and changes in various measures of productivity are made over several years. Experiments of this sort that have been done at Duke Forest indicate (in agreement with models), that any elevation of productivity is likely to be short-lived and is unlikely to significantly offset any gradual, long-term increases in co2 due to human activity. This is due in part to the fact that other conditions (e.g. availability of nutrients such as Nitrogen and Phosphorus) appear to quickly become limiting, even when carbon availability is removed as a constraint on plant growth when ambient CO2 concentrations are sufficiently increased. A few
simple calculations indicate that any hypothesized co2 fertilization response is unlikely to offset a significant fraction of projected increases in atmospheric co2 concentration over the next century. At present, about
600 billion tons of carbon are tied up in the above-ground vegetation. About 2-3 times this much is tied up in roots and below ground carbon, which is a more difficult carbon pool to augment. By comparison, scenarios for fossil fuel emissions for the 21st century range from about 600 billion tons (if we can keep total global emissions at current levels) to over 2500 billion tons if the world increases its reliance on combustion of coal as economic growth and population increase dramatically. These numbers clearly indicate that sequestering a significant fraction of projected emissions in vegetation is likely to be very difficult, especially as forests are cleared to make way for agriculture and communities. While there are possibilities of storage in wells and deep in the ocean, stabilizing the atmospheric CO2 concentration would require gathering up the equivalent of 1 to 2 times the worlds existing above ground vegetation and putting it down abandoned oil wells or deep in the ocean. While CO2 fertilization could help to increase above
ground vegetation a bit, storing more than a few tens of percent of the existing carbon would be quite surprising, and this is likely to be more like a few percent of global carbon emissions projected for the 21st century.
Multiple reasons warming kills agriculture William Cline, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Center for Global Development, 3-2008, Global warming and agriculture Finance and Development, the quarterly publication of the
IMF March 2008,. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2008/03/cline.htm For that reason, this study (Cline, 2007) was undertaken both to get a better long-term fix on overall world effects under current policies (the so-called baseline or business-as-usual scenario) and to understand the likely impact on individual countries and regions. The time frame stretched out to the average for 207099, what is called the "2080s." Climate model projections are available on a comparable basis for this period, which is far enough in the future to allow sizable warming and potential damage to materialize but close enough to the present to elicit public concern. The study, which is explored in this article, suggests that there is good reason not to downplay the risks to agriculture from global warming. How climate affects agriculture Climate change can affect agriculture in a variety of ways. Beyond a certain range of temperatures, warming tends to reduce yields because crops speed through their development, producing less grain in the process. And higher temperatures also interfere with the ability of plants to get and use moisture. Evaporation from the soil accelerates when temperatures rise and plants increase transpirationthat is, lose more moisture from their leaves. The combined effect is called "evapotranspiration." Because global warming is likely to increase rainfall, the net impact of higher temperatures on water availability is a race between higher evapotranspiration and higher precipitation. Typically, that race is won by higher evapotranspiration.
Gonzaga Debate Institute 195 Warming Core But a key culprit in climate changecarbon emissionscan also help agriculture by enhancing photosynthesis in many important, so-called C3, crops (such as wheat, rice, and soybeans). The science, however, is far from certain on the benefits of carbon fertilization. But we do know that this phenomenon does not much help C4 crops (such as sugar-cane and maize), which account for about one-fourth of all crops by value.
latest scientific research suggests that a previously discounted factor is helping to destabilize the food system: climate change. Many of the failed harvests of the past decade were a consequence of weather disasters, like floods in the United States, drought in Australia and blistering heat waves in Europe and Russia. Scientists believe some, though not all, of those events were caused or worsened by human-induced global warming. Temperatures are rising rapidly during the growing season in some of the most important agricultural countries, and a paper published several weeks ago found that this had shaved several percentage points off potential yields, adding to the price gyrations. For nearly two decades, scientists had predicted that climate change would be relatively manageable for agriculture, suggesting that even under worst-case assumptions, it would probably take until 2080 for food prices to double. In part, they were counting on a counterintuitive ace in the hole: that rising carbon dioxide levels, the primary contributor to global warming, would act as a powerful plant fertilizer and offset many of the ill effects of climate change. Until a few years ago, these assumptions went largely unchallenged. But lately, the destabilization of the food system and the soaring prices have rattled many leading scientists. The success of agriculture has been astounding, said Cynthia Rosenzweig, a researcher at NASA who helped pioneer the study of climate change and agriculture. But I think theres starting to be premonitions that it may not continue forever. A scramble is on to figure out whether climate science has been too sanguine about the risks. Some researchers, analyzing computer forecasts that are used to advise governments on future crop prospects, are pointing out what they consider to be gaping holes. These include a failure to consider the effects of extreme weather, like the
floods and the heat waves that are increasing as the earth warms. A rising unease about the future of the worlds food supply came through during interviews this
that in coming decades, farmers need to withstand whatever climate shocks come their way while roughly doubling the amount of food they produce to meet rising demand. And they need to do it while reducing the considerable environmental damage caused by the business of agriculture.
year with more than 50 agricultural experts working in nine countries. These experts say
Heat capacity, financial and tech constraints outweigh CO2 benefits James McCarthy, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001, Full Text of Third Assessment WG #2, 1.2.1.1,
http://www.ipcc.ch
Human production factors notwithstanding, food production is influenced mostly by the availability of water and nutrients, as well as by temperature.
Increases in temperatures could open new areas to cultivation, but they also could increase the risk of heat or drought stress in other areas. Livestock (e.g., cattle, swine, and poultry) are all susceptible to heat stress and drought (Gates, 1993). The effects of climatic changeseven smooth trends will not be uniform in space or time. For smoothly evolving climatic scenarios,
recent literature (see Chapter 5) tends to project that high latitudes may experience increases in productivity for global warming up to a 1C increase, depending on crop type, growing season, changes in temperature regimes, and seasonality of precipitation. In
the tropics and subtropics -where some crops already are near their maximum temperature tolerance and where dry land, no irrigated agriculture predominates the literature suggests that yields will tend to decrease with even nominal amounts of climate change (IPCC, 1998; Chapter 5). Moreover, the adaptive capacity of less developed countries in the tropics is limited by financial and technological constraints that are not equally applicable to more temperate. developed countries. This would increase the disparity in food production between developed and developing countries, For global warming greater than 2.5c Chapter 5 reports that most studies agree that world food prices a key indicator of overall agricultural vulnerability would increase. Much of the literature suggests that productivity increases in middle to high latitudes will diminish, and yield decreases in the tropics and subtropics are expected to be more severe (Chapters 5 and 19). These projections are likely to be. underestimates, and our confidence in them cannot be high because they are based on scenarios in which significant changes in extreme events such as droughts and floods are not fully considered or for which rapid nonlinear climatic changes have not been, assumed (Section 2.3.4 notes that vulnerability to
extreme events generally is higher than vulnerability to changing mean conditions).
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CO2 kills ocean biodiversity Joe Romm is a Fellow at American Progress and is the editor of Climate Progress, Science: Ocean Acidifying So Fast It Threatens Humanitys Ability to Feed Itself, 3/2/2012, http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/03/02/436193/scienceocean-acidifying-so-fast-it-threatens-humanity-ability-to-feeditself/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climateprogre The worlds oceans may be turning acidic faster today from human carbon emissions than they did during four major extinctions in the last 300
million years, when natural pulses of carbon sent global temperatures soaring, says a new study in Science. The study is the first of its kind to survey the geologic record for evidence of ocean acidification over this vast time period. What were doing today really stands out, said lead author Brbel Hnisch, a paleoceanographer at Columbia Universitys Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. We know that life during past ocean acidification events was not wiped outnew species evolved to replace those that died off. But if
industrial carbon
emissions continue at the current pace, we may lose organisms we care aboutcoral reefs, oysters, salmon. Thats the news release from a
major 21-author Science paper, The Geological Record of Ocean Acidification (subs. reqd). We knew from a 2010 Nature Geoscience stu dy that the oceans are now acidifying 10 times faster today than 55 million years ago when a mass extinction of m arine species occurred. But this study looked back over 300 million and found that the
unprecedented rapidity of CO2 release currently taking place has put marine life at risk in a frighteningly unique way: the current rate of (mainly fossil fuel) CO2 release stands out as capable of driving a combination and magnitude of ocean geochemical changes potentially unparalleled in at least the last ~300 My of Earth history, raising the possibility that we are entering an
Gonzaga Debate Institute 197 Warming Core unknown territory of marine ecosystem change. That is to say, its not just that acidifying oceans spell marine biological meltdown by end of century as a 2010 G eological Society study put it. We are also warming the ocean and decreasing dissolved oxygen concentration. That is a recipe for mass extinction. A 2009 Nature Geoscience study found that ocean dead zones devoid of fish and seafood are poised to expand and remain for thousands of years. And remember, we just learned from a 2012 new Nature Climate Change study that carbon dioxide is driving fish crazy and threatening their survival. Heres more on the new study: The oceans act like a sponge to draw down excess carbon dioxide from the air; the gas reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid, which over time is neutralized by fossil carbonate shells on the seafloor. But if CO2 goes into the oceans too quickly, it can deplete the carbonate ions that corals, mollusks and some plankton need for reef and shell-building.
Extinction
Craig 3 (Robin Kundis, Indiana University,Winter, 34 McGeorge L. Rev. 155, p. 264-266)
Biodiversity and ecosystem function arguments for conserving marine ecosystems also exist, just as they do for terrestrial ecosystems, but these arguments have thus far rarely been raised in political debates. For example, besides significant tourism values - the most economically valuable ecosystem service coral reefs provide, worldwide - coral reefs protect against storms and dampen other environmental fluctuations, services worth more than ten times the reefs' value for food production. Waste treatment is another significant, non-extractive ecosystem function that intact coral reef ecosystems provide. More generally,
"ocean ecosystems play a major role in the global geochemical cycling of all the elements that represent the basic building blocks of living organisms, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur, as well as other less abundant but necessary elements." In a very real and direct sense, therefore, human degradation of marine ecosystems impairs the planet's ability to support life. Maintaining biodiversity is often critical to maintaining the functions of marine ecosystems. Current evidence shows that, in general, an ecosystem's ability to keep functioning in the face of disturbance is strongly dependent on its biodiversity, "indicating that more diverse ecosystems are more stable." Coral reef ecosystems are particularly dependent on their biodiversity. Most ecologists agree that the complexity of interactions and degree of interrelatedness among component species is higher on coral reefs than in any other marine environment. This implies that the ecosystem functioning that produces the most highly valued components is also complex and that many otherwise insignificant species have strong effects on sustaining the rest of the reef system. Thus, maintaining and restoring the biodiversity of marine ecosystems is critical to maintaining and restoring the ecosystem services that they provide. Non-use biodiversity values for marine ecosystems have been calculated in the wake of
marine disasters, like the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. Similar calculations could derive preservation values for marine wilderness. However, economic value, or economic value equivalents, should not be "the sole or even primary justification for conservation of ocean ecosystems. Ethical arguments also have considerable force and merit." At the forefront of such arguments should be a recognition of how little we know about the sea - and about the actual effect of human activities on marine ecosystems. The United States has traditionally failed to protect marine ecosystems because it was difficult to detect anthropogenic harm to the oceans, but we now know that such harm is occurring - even though we are not completely sure about causation or about how to fix every problem. Ecosystems like the NWHI coral reef ecosystem should inspire lawmakers and policymakers to admit that most of the time we really do not know what we are doing to the sea and hence should be preserving marine wilderness whenever we can - especially when the United
if we kill the ocean we kill ourselves, and we will take most of the biosphere with us. The Black Sea is almost dead, its once-complex and productive
States has within its territory relatively pristine marine ecosystems that may be unique in the world. We may not know much about the sea, but we do know this much: ecosystem almost entirely replaced by a monoculture of comb jellies, "starving out fish and dolphins, emptying fishermen's nets, and converting the web of life into brainless, wraith-like blobs of jelly." More
The stresses piled up: overfishing, oil spills, industrial discharges, nutrient pollution, wetlands destruction, the introduction of an alien species. The sea weakened, slowly at first, then collapsed with shocking suddenness.
importantly, the Black Sea is not necessarily unique. The Black Sea is a microcosm of what is happening to the ocean systems at large. The lessons of this tragedy should not be lost to the rest of us, because much of what happened here is being repeated all over the world. The ecological stresses imposed on the Black Sea were not unique to communism. Nor, sadly, was the failure of governments to respond to the emerging crisis. Oxygen-starved "dead zones" appear with increasing frequency off the coasts of major cities and major rivers, forcing
the United States should protect fullyfunctioning marine ecosystems wherever possible - even if a few fishers go out of business as a result.
marine animals to flee and killing all that cannot. Ethics as well as enlightened self-interest thus suggest that
Their studies are flawed they were done in greenhouses rather than open fields
Mittelstaedt 9 (Martin, The Globe and Mails environment reporter, The Globe and Mail, 3-31, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/archives/article743395.ece, 7-3-11) Scientists have made another worrisome discovery, this time about carbon dioxide itself, the main greenhouse gas, which is vital for plant development. It had been assumed in the 1980s, based on greenhouse experiments, that an atmosphere richer in carbon dioxide would stimulate plant growth, raising some crop yields by as much as 30
per cent. That is part of the reason why, up until now, few people worried much about agriculture and global warming. It was thought that, while climate change
But new research published last on experiments in the U.S., Japan, Switzerland and New Zealand found the beneficial effects of carbon dioxide were vastly overrated when crops were grown in the more realistic setting of open farm fields, rather than in greenhouses. Corn yields didn't rise at all, and the rise in wheat and rice yields was less than half previous estimates.
might wreak havoc on ice-dependent polar bears and low-lying coastal cities, it held a verdant lining for farmers. year based
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***Russia DA***
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1NC- Russia DA
Arctic warming is key to Russias economy
Mahoney 11 (Honor Mahony,
is editor of the EUobserver in Brussels and has also written for The Irish Times, Sunday Business Post and Spiegel Online, 6/7/11, Ocnus.net, http://www.ocnus.net/artman2/publish/Business_1/Arctic-Shipping-Routes-Unlikely-to-be-Suez-of-the-North.shtml
Late last year a cargo ship made maritime history. It became the first foreign bulk carrier to make a commercial trip across Russian Arctic waters. Carrying over 40,000 tonnes of iron ore, the MV Nordic Barents left Kirkenes port in Norway on 4 September. It sailed the North Sea route, a path that runs eastwards from northern Europe, along Russia's north coast and through the Bering Strait. Some three weeks later, it docked in Xingang, northern China. The North Sea route has become freer of ice, but the navigation season is still just two-four months "The whole trip went very well. There were no big delays and it was a lot cheaper. Just compared to going via the Cape of Good Hope, the savings for fuel alone was around $550,000," said Christian Bonfils, CEO of Nordic Bulk Carriers, operator of the ship. The Russians have been using Arctic waters all year round for decades. Retreating sea ice due to global warming in recent years has seen foreign shipping companies start to look northwards for the possibility of commercial shipping routes . But until recently the area has been closed to foreign ships wanting to get to hungry Asian markets. Instead companies use the Suez Canal - a trip which, counted from Norway, is almost twice as long. Last year Tschudi Shipping, which owns a mine in Kirkenes, approached the Russians about the possibility of using the North Sea route to get to China, the mine's biggest customer. "We got a very clear message from the Russians. It was: 'We want to compete with Suez'," said CEO Felix Tschudi. The Norwegian company hooked up with Nordic Bulk Carriers, who had the right type of ice ship, to make the trip. Until then uncertainty about how much the Russians would charge for the mandatory use of their ice-breakers meant the trip was not economically viable. "The rate we paid last year [$210,000] for ice-breaker services was very comparable with the Suez Canal," said Bonfils. Getting Russian natural resources out So what prompted the Russian thaw? According to Professor Lawson Brigham, an expert on Arctic policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, it comes down to Russia wanting to exploit natural resources in the area. "The bottom line is that Russia's GNP is tied to Arctic natural resources development. The real driver is building up a transport system to move the cargoes of natural resources to global markets and one of the big global markets sitting there is China," he said. The region has a wealth of natural resources including nickel, iron ore, phosphate, copper and cobalt. There are huge reserves of gas in the Shtokman gas field, while a 2008 report by the US Geological Survey suggested oil in the Arctic circle could amount to 13 percent of the world's undiscovered supply. Tschudi and Bonfils have an additional, more prosaic explanation. The obligation to use Russian ice-breakers is a money spinner. "If they can employ their icebreakers in the summer season, then it's good business for them," said Bonfils. Problems Several more such trans-arctic trips are planned this year. According to Tschudi the North Sea route "will be important for those who are shipping from fairly high north." "It will be quite important for mines in the Kola Peninsula [in north west Russia], mines in Finland. You can also save by shipping from Rotterdam." But for all the buzz it has been creating shipping companies are also thrilled at the prospect of pirate-free waters caveats abound. Good trade depends on predictability Global warming has meant the North Sea route has become freer of ice. But this is the case only for about four months a year at most, sometimes only two. An impact study on Arctic marine shipping by the Arctic Council notes that the navigation season for the North Sea route is expected to be 90-100 days only by 2080. "Despite all of the change, the Arctic Ocean is ice-covered for most of the year." said Brigham, adding: "The global maritime industry works on just-in-time cargoes and the regular nature of marine traffic." "There is a little bit of a misperception that this is a new global regime with new global shipping lanes that will replace Panama and Suez [canals]." In addition, businesses need to feel less that they are subject to Russia's whim when it comes to tariffs. "We need predictability [on prices] in order to plan," said Tschudi. There are a host of other problems too. There is little infrastructure in Arctic territory. If a ship gets into trouble, help is far away. There are also no clear rules on standards for ships sailing in the area. The waters are not as well chartered as elsewhere. More oceangraphic and meterological data is needed as well as information on icebergs. At the political level, there is a dispute over the waters. Russia considers the Northern Sea route as national territory, so it makes the rules. The US disagrees.
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In Russia historically, economic health and political stability are intertwined to a degree that is rarely encountered in other major industrialized economies. It was the economic stagnation of the former Soviet Union that led to its political downfall. Similarly, Medvedev and Putin, both intimately acquainted with their nations history, are unquestionably alarmed at the prospect that Russias economic crisis will endanger the nations political stability, achieved at great cost after years of chaos following the demise of the Soviet Union. Already, strikes and protests are occurring among rank and file workers facing unemployment or non-payment of their salaries. Recent polling demonstrates that the once supreme popularity ratings of Putin and Medvedev are eroding rapidly. Beyond the political elites are the financial oligarchs, who have been forced to deleverage, even unloading their yachts and executive jets in a desperate attempt to raise cash. Should the Russian economy deteriorate to the point where economic collapse is not out of the question, the impact will go far beyond the obvious accelerant such an outcome would be for the Global Economic Crisis. There is a geopolitical dimension that is even more relevant then the economic context. Despite its economic vulnerabilities and perceived decline from superpower status, Russia remains one of only two nations on earth with a nuclear arsenal of sufficient scope and capability to destroy the world as we know it. For that reason, it is not only President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin who will be lying awake at nights over the prospect that a national economic crisis can transform itself into a virulent and destabilizing social and political upheaval. It just may be possible that U.S. President Barack Obamas national security team has already briefed him about the consequences of a major economic meltdown in Russia for the peace of the world. After all, the most recent national intelligence estimates put out by the U.S. intelligence community have already concluded that the Global Economic Crisis represents the greatest national security threat to the United States, due to its facilitating political instability in the world. During the years Boris Yeltsin ruled Russia, security forces responsible for guarding the nations nuclear arsenal went without pay for months at a time, leading to fears that desperate personnel would illicitly sell nuclear weapons to terrorist organizations. If the current economic crisis in Russia were to deteriorate much further, how secure would the Russian nuclear arsenal remain? It may be that the financial impact of the Global Economic Crisis is its least dangerous consequence.
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A much greater existential risk emerged with the build-up of nuclear arsenals in the US and the USSR. An all-out nuclear war was a possibility with both a substantial probability and with consequences that mighthave been persistent enough to qualify as global and terminal. There was a real worry among those best acquainted with the information available at the time that a nuclear Armageddon would occur and that it might annihilate our species or permanently destroy human civilization.[4] Russia and the US retain large nuclear arsenals that could be used in a future confrontation, either accidentally or deliberately. There is also a risk that other states may one day build up large nuclear arsenals. Note however that a smaller nuclear exchange, between India and Pakistan for instance, is not an existential risk, since it would not destroy or thwart humankinds potential permanently. Such a war might however be a local terminal risk for the cities most likely to be targeted. Unfortunately, we shall see that nuclear Armageddon and comet or asteroid strikes are mere preludes to the existential risks that we will encounter in the 21st century.
Russian economic weakness causes nuclear war, prolif, disease, terrorism, CBW use, and US intervention
Oliker and Charlick-Paley 2 ( (Olga and Tanya, OLIKER AND CHARLICK-PALEY 2002
Decline, www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1442/) RAND Corporation Project Air Force, Assessing Russias
The preceding chapters have illustrated the ways in which Russias decline affects that country and may evolve into challenges and dangers that extend well beyond its borders. The political factors of decline may make Russia a less stable international actor and other factors may increase the risk of internal unrest. Together and separately, they increase the risk of conflict and the potential scope of other imaginable disasters. The trends of regionalization, particularly the disparate rates of economic growth among regions, combined with the politicization of regional economic and military interests, will be important to watch. The potential for locale, or possibly ethnicity, to serve as a rallying point for internal conflict is low at present, but these factors have the potential to feed into precisely the cycle of instability that political scientists have identified as making states in transition to democracy more likely to become involved in war. These factors also increase the potential for domestic turmoil, which further increases the risk of international conflict, for instance if Moscow seeks to united a divided nation and/or demonstrate globally that its waning power remains something to be reckoned with. Given Russias conventional weakness, an increased risk of conflict carries with it an increased risk of nuclear weapons use, and Russias demographic situation increases the potential for a major epidemic with possible implications for Europe and perhaps beyond. The dangers posed by Russias civilian and military nuclear weapons complex, aside from the threat of nuclear weapons use, create a real risk of proliferation of weapons or weapons materials to terrorist groups, as well as perpetuating an increasing risk of accident at one of Russias nuclear power plants or other facilities. These elements touch upon key security interests, thus raising serious concerns for the United States. A declining Russia increases the likelihood of conflictinternal or otherwiseand the general deterioration that Russia has in common with failing states raises serious questions about its capacity to respond to an emerging crisis. A crisis in large, populous, and nuclear-armed Russia can easily affect the interests of the United States and its allies. In response to such a scenario, the United States, whether alone or as part of a larger coalition, could be asked to send military forces to the area in and around Russia. This chapter
Gonzaga Debate Institute 202 Warming Core will explore a handful of scenarios that could call for U.S. involvement. A wide range of crisis scenarios can be reasonably extrapolated from the trends implicit in Russias decline. A notional list includes: Authorized or unauthorized belligerent actions by Russia troops in trouble-prone Russian regions or in neighboring states could lead to armed conflict. Border clashes with China in the Russian Far East or between Russia and Ukraine, the Baltic states, Kazakhstan, or another neighbor could escalate into interstate combat. Nuclear-armed terrorists based in Russia or using weapons or materials diverted from Russian facilities could threaten Russia, Europe, Asia, or the United States. Civil war in Russia could involve fighting near storage sites for nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons and agents, risking large-scale contamination and humanitarian disaster. A nuclear accident at a power plant or facility could endanger life and health in Russia and neighboring states. A chemical accident at a plant or nuclear or nuclear-related facility could endanger life and health in Rusisa and neighboring states. Ethnic pogrom in south Russia could force refugees into Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and/or Ukraine. Economic and ethnic conflicts in Caucasus could erupt into armed clashes, which would endanger oil and gas pipelines in the region. A massive ecological disaster such as an earthquake, famine, or epidemic could spawn refugees and spread illness and death across borders. An increasingly criminalized Russian economy could create a safe haven for crime or even terrorist-linked groups. From this base, criminals, drug traders, and terrorists could threaten the people and economies of Europe, Asia, and the United States. Accelerated Russian weapons and technology sales or unauthorized diversion could foster the proliferation of weapons and weapon materials to rogue states and nonstate terrorist actors, increasing the risk of nuclear war.
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Arctic warming is key to Russias economy Technocrat '7 *March 29th, http://technocrat.net/d/2007/3/29/17033, Global Climate Change Spurs Arctic Economic
Boom+ It's not all doom and gloom with the Arctic warming up, for a lot of people and companies it means an economic boom. So much so, that there are now some long simmering territorial disputes back on the high burner. ..."The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the Arctic has as much as 25% of the world's undiscovered oil and gas. Moscow reportedly sees the potential of minerals in its slice of the Arctic sector approaching $2 trillion."....more bucks there, and all this new Arctic boom is going to require technicians, engineers, scientists, and many workers of the sturdy yeoman sort....a new frontier.
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Gonzaga Debate Institute 205 Warming Core these rivers will no longer be on waterways that essentially come to a dead end. It will become possible to transport cargo from these rivers to ports around the globe, which could lead to a decrease in transport costs and an increase in trade volume from the interior of Siberia. David Lempert and Hue Nhu Nguyen write in The Ecologist that the biggest winner from global warming is going to be Russia.
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Opinions among Russian experts vary, however. Mikhail Kozakov, financial markets director with investment company Grandis Capital, says: In the medium term, Russia is a more attractive investment destination than the developed markets. And besides, we have a trump card in the shape of our commodities. With the currency exchange situation as uncertain as the outlook for the economically developed countries, the commodity market is also becoming more interesting, at least for speculative capital. Some other positive factors will not escape investors notice. In spite of the overall mood of recession in Russia, the countrys economy is performing in a moderately positive manner. According to the State Statistics Committee (Goskomstat), industrial output increased by 5.1pc from January to October and GDP in the third quarter is expected to grow by an estimated 4.8pc. When times are hard, investors always look for alternative markets, says Georgy Aksyonov, an analyst with the Net Trader company. I think the Russian market, which is part of Brics and is still growing, albeit at a slower pace in recent years, may be promising in this situation. Another cause for optimism is that, in the current situation, the single European currency did not go into a tailspin, as many predicted: at the time of going to press, the euro/dollar rate has not once dropped below 1.30 since January of this year. It should also be noted that the European debt crisis is changing the attitude to protective mechanisms such as government bonds. Investors today are clearly shifting their focus from sovereign to corporate debt. This is good news for Russia, because Russian corporations are much cheaper than their Western counterparts. Russias financial authorities appear to be optimistic. Sergey Shevtsov, vice-president of the Central Bank, does not anticipate any serious threats to the domestic economy, though he admits that the crisis might lead to a shortage of liquidity. We expect it to peak in mid-December and, thereafter, the budget will be disbursing actively, he said on the fringes of an international financial conference sponsored by Sberbank. The liquidity deficit will grow but it will not, on the whole, create problems for the banking sector and the economy in general.
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(Reuters) - With a sovereign debt of just 10 percent of GDP and half a trillion dollars in reserves, Russia has a balance sheet that the United States and Europe can only envy as they battle their debt crises. But a closer look at Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin's latest fiscal plans reveals two concerns: he is betting that oil prices will stay high for years; and even if he is right, the pace of budget consolidation will slow significantly. By his own reckoning, the books would only balance with oil at $125 per barrel next year, reflecting the impact on the public finances of the global slump that put an end to years of surpluses generated at much lower oil prices. Kudrin has only managed to keep the projected deficit below 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) over the three-year budget horizon by hiking his oil price forecast to the mid-$90s from the high $70s previously. Even then, the fiscal strategy abandons a previous goal of balancing the budget by 2015. After stripping out energy revenues -- which account for nearly half of the tax take -the deficit will stay over 10 percent of GDP. "Given the very high oil price forecast, the slow fiscal consolidation is disappointing," said Ivan Tchakarov, chief economist at Renaissance Capital. "The oil sensitivity of the budget has increased dramatically." "It's a retrograde step," agreed Edward Parker, sovereign analyst at Fitch Ratings in London. The biggest risk for Russia remains "a sharp and sustained" drop in oil prices. LOCKED IN In rough terms, a $10 fall in the oil price would translate into an increase of one percentage point in the deficit for the world's largest oil and gas producer. "With oil at $95 everybody's happy," said Sergei Guriev, rector of Moscow's New Economic School. "But at $70, borrowing becomes hard for both companies and the government." On the spending side, the government has locked itself into higher pension outlays, increasing budget transfers from 1.5 percent of GDP in 2008 to 5.2 percent in 2010, Yevsei Gurvich, head of the Economic Expert Group, wrote in a recent study. An offsetting hike in payroll taxes will be partly unwound next year on the orders of President Dmitry Medvedev, who is likely to run for a second term next March if Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chooses not to return to Russia's highest office. That will swell the largest budget item, social spending, which will rise in 2012 by 20 percent to 3.8 trillion roubles ($135 billion), accounting for 31 percent of federal outlays. Put another way, Russia will spend four-fifths of its energy revenues on welfare. The cost of the pension system, if left unreformed, could "completely undermine the stability of the budget system," Gurvich wrote. Kudrin will present his budget to parliament in the autumn. DOWNSIDE ACCELERATORS Even if those costs are bearable under a sanguine view on oil, they would become difficult to sustain in the event of a sharp and sustained oil price crash due to other contingent liabilities that are, effectively, derivatives on the oil price. Chief of those are debts owed by large state-controlled firms, such as energy majors Gazprom and Rosneft and banks Sberbank and VTB. Economists at Deutsche Bank have estimated that a contingent liability shock caused by such "quasi-sovereign" entities could add 10 percentage points to Russia's national debt by 2020.
The recession was a devastating reminder of Russias economic dependence on natural resources, mainly oil. And the differing interpretations of the recovery often rest on contrasting views about how easy it will be to escape that dependence. The enthusiasts focus on the fruit that government efforts to marshal oil funds to diversify the economy will bear. But the doubters worry that oil dependence will not be conquered without stronger policies to ensure sufficient private investment flows, properly targeted. Clemens Grafe, economist at UBS and firmly in the optimist camp, says fears that Russian domestic demand will fall behind that in the other Brics are misplaced. He argues that a structural shift in fiscal policy means that oil revenues were not just used for the 200809 crisis rescue package, but will be shifted onshore longer term, boosting domestic demand and investment. This shift, together with structurally lower inflation rates, means that private-sector savings and domestic leverage are likely to expand rapidly
Gonzaga Debate Institute 208 Warming Core and drive the economy forward, he says. While Russia will continue to be dependent on volatile commodity prices, domestic savings will grow and interest rates can stay low, which will fuel a trend growth rate significantly higher than that of the world economy.
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To ask whether the Russian economy will rid itself of its dependence on oil is to ask whether ideology will trump economics. Many people in Russiaincluding President Medvedevseem to believe Russia should de-emphasize the role of oil, gas, and other commodities because they are primitive. Relying on them, they argue, is degrading. From the economic point of view, this makes no sense. Oil is Russias comparative advantage. It is the most competitive part of the economy. Oil and gas are something everyone wants, and Russia has more of them than anyone else. It is true that the Russian economy is backward, and that oil plays a role in that backwardness. But oil is not the root cause. The causes of Russias backwardness lie in its inherited production structure. The physical structure of the real economy (that is, the industries, plants, their location, work forces, equipment, products, and the production chains in which they participate) is predominantly the same as in the Soviet era. The problem is that it is precisely the oil wealth (the so-called oil rent) that is used to support and perpetuate the inefficient structure. For the sake of social and political stability, a large share of Russias oil and gas rents is distributed to the production enterprises that employ the inherited physical and human capital. The production and supply chains in that part of the economy are in effect rent distribution chains. A serious attempt to convert Russias economy into something resembling a modern Western economy would require dismantling this rent distribution system. This would be both highly destabilizing, and costly in terms of current welfare. Current efforts for diversification do not challenge the rent distribution system. On the contrary, the kinds of investment envisioned in those efforts will preserve and reinforce the rent distribution chains, and hence make Russia more dependent on oil rents. Even under optimal conditions for investment, any dream of creating a non-oil Russia that could perform as well as todays commodity-based economy is unrealistic. The proportion of GDP that would have to be invested in non-oil sectors is impossibly high. Granted, some new firms, and even entire sectors, may grow on the outside of the oil and gas sectors and the rent distribution chains they support. But the development of the new sectors will be difficult, slow, and costly . Even if successful, the net value they generate will be too small relative to oil and gas to change the overall profile of the economy. Thus, while it is fashionable to talk of diversification of the Russian economy away from oil and gas, this is the least likely outcome for the countrys economic future. If Russia continues on the current course of pseudo-reform (which merely reinforces the old structures), oil and gas rents will remain important because they will be critical to support the inherently inefficient parts of the economy. On the other hand, if Russia were to somehow launch a genuine reform aimed at dismantling the old structures, the only realistic way to sustain success would be to focus on developing the commodity sectors. Russia could obtain higher
growth if the oil and gas sectors were truly modern. Those sectors need to be opened to new entrants, with a level playing field for all participants. Most important, oil, gas, and other commodity companies need to be freed from the requirement to participate in the various informal schemes to share their rents with enterprises in the backward sectors inherited from the Soviet system. Certainly, there are issues with oil. It is a highly volatile source of wealth. But there are ways to hedge those risks. A bigger problem is that oil will eventually lose its special status as an energy source and therefore much of its value. But that time is far off. It will not happen suddenly. In the meantime, sensible policies can deal with the problems. Otherwise, the approach should be to generate the maximum value possible from the oil and protect that value through prudent fiscal policies. Russia
should not, can not, and will not significantly reduce the role of oil and gas in its economy in the foreseeable future. It will only harm itself by ill-advised and futile efforts to try.
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Gonzaga Debate Institute 211 Warming Core again. Since then, violence has wracked the southern regions of Jalal-Abad, Batken and Osh -- strongholds of the previous government. In recent days, nearly 100,000 Kyrgyz residents have fled to Uzbekistan. The interim government of Prime Minister Roza Otunbayeva is totally outmatched. It is not so much that her government is in danger of falling -those same mountains that make it nearly impossible for Bishkek to control Osh make it equally difficult for Osh to take over Bishkek but that the country has de facto split into (at least) two pieces. As such, Otunbayeva -- whose government only coalesced due to the Russian intervention -- has publicly and directly called upon the Russians to provide troops to help hold the country together. This request cuts to the core weakness in the Russian strategy. Despite much degradation in the period after the Soviet dissolution, Russia's intelligence services remain without peer. In fact, now that they have the direct patronage of the Russian prime minister, they have proportionally more resources and influence than ever. They have proved that they can rewire Ukraine's political world to expunge American influence, manipulate events in the Caucasus to whittle away at Turkey's authority, cause riots in the Baltics to unbalance NATO members, and reverse Kyrgyzstan's color revolution. But they do not have backup. Were this the 19th century, there would already be scads of Russian settlers en route to the Fergana to dilute the control of the locals (although they would certainly be arriving after the Russian army), to construct a local economy dependent upon imported labor and linked to the Russian core, and to establish a new ruling elite. (It is worth noting that the resistance of Central Asians to Russian encroachment meant that the Russians never seriously attempted to make the region into a majority-Russian one. Even so, the Russians still introduced their own demographic to help shape the region more to Moscow's liking.) Instead, Russia's relatively few young families are busy holding the demographic line in Russia proper. For the first time in Russian history, there is no surplus Russian population that can be relocated to the provinces. And without that population, the Russian view of the Fergana -- to say nothing of Kyrgyzstan -- changes dramatically. The region is remote and densely populated, and reaching it requires transiting three countries. And one of these states would have something to say about that. That state is Uzbekistan. The Uzbek Goliath After the Russians and Ukrainians, the Uzbeks are the most populous ethnicity in the former Soviet Union. They are a Turkic people who do not enjoy particularly good relations with anyone. Uzbekistan's ruling Karimov family is roundly hated both at home and abroad; the Central Asian country boasts one of the most repressive governing systems in modern times. Uzbekistan also happens to be quite powerful by Central Asian standards. There are more Uzbeks in Central Asia than there are Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Tajiks and Russians combined. The Uzbek intelligence services are modeled after their Russian counterparts, interspersing agents throughout the Uzbek population to ensure loyalty and to root out dissidents. It is the only country of the five former Soviet states in the region that actually has a military that can engage in military action. It is the only one of the five that has most of its cities in logical proximity and linked with decent infrastructure (even if it is split into the Tashkent region and the Fergana region by Stalinesque cartographic creativity). It is the only one of the five that is both politically stable (if politically brittle) and that has the ability to project power. And it is also the only Central Asian state that is selfsufficient in both food and energy. To top it all off, some 2.5 million ethnic Uzbeks reside in the other four former Soviet Central Asian states, providing Tashkent a wealth of tools for manipulating developments throughout the region. And manipulate it does. In addition to the odd border spat, Uzbekistan intervened decisively in Tajikistan's civil war in the 1990s. Tashkent is not shy about noting that it thinks most Tajik, and especially Kyrgyz, territory should belong to Uzbekistan, particularly the territory of southern Kyrgyzstan, where the current violence is strongest. Uzbekistan views many of the Russian strategies to expunge Western interests from Central Asia as preparation for moves against Uzbekistan, with the Russian-sponsored coup in Kyrgyzstan an excellent case in point. From March through May, Uzbekistan began activating its reserves and reinforcing its Fergana border regions, which heightened the state of fear in Bishkek from shrill to panic mode. Given Uzbek means, motive and opportunity, Moscow is fairly confident that sending Russian peacekeepers to southern Kyrgyzstan would provoke a direct military confrontation with an angry and nervous Uzbekistan. In STRATFOR's view, Russia would win this war, but this victory would come neither easily nor cheaply. The Fergana is a long way from Russia, and the vast bulk of Russia's military is static, not expeditionary like its U.S. counterpart. Uzbek supply lines would be measured in hundreds of meters, Russian lines in thousands of kilometers. Moreover, Uzbekistan could interrupt nearly all Central Asian natural gas that currently flows to Russia without even launching a single attack. (The Turkmen natural gas that Russia's Gazprom normally depends upon travels to Russia via Uzbek territory.) Yet this may be a conflict Russia feels it cannot avoid. The Russians have not forward-garrisoned a military force sufficient to protect Kyrgyzstan, nor can they resettle a population that could transform Kyrgyzstan. Therefore, the Russian relationship with Kyrgyzstan is based neither on military strategy nor on economic rationality. Instead, it is based on the need to preserve a certain level of credibility and fear -- credibility that the Russians will
Gonzaga Debate Institute 212 Warming Core protect Kyrgyzstan should push come to shove, and Kyrgyz fear of what Russia will do to it should they not sign on to the Russian sphere of influence. It is a strategy strongly reminiscent of the U.S. Cold War containment doctrine, under which the United States promised to aid any ally, anytime, anywhere if in exchange they would help contain the Soviets. This allowed the Soviet Union to choose the time and place of conflicts, and triggered U.S. involvement in places like Vietnam. Had the United States refused battle, the American alliance structure could have crumbled. Russia now faces a similar dilemma, and just as the United States had no economic desire to be in Vietnam, the Russians really do not much care what happens to Kyrgyzstan -- except as it impacts Russian interests elsewhere. But even victory over Uzbekistan would not solve the problem. Smashing the only coherent government in the region would create a security vacuum. Again, the Americans provide a useful corollary: The U.S. "victory" over Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the Taliban's Afghanistan proved that "winning" is the easy part. Occupying the region over the long haul to make sure that the victory is not worse than the status quo antebellum is a decade-to-generational effort that requires a significant expenditure of blood and treasure. Russia desperately needs to devote such resources elsewhere -- particularly once the United States is no longer so preoccupied in the Middle East. Russia is attempting to finesse a middle ground by talking the Uzbeks down and offering the compromise of non-Russian troops from the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russian-led military organization, as an alternative to Russian forces. This may resolve the immediate crisis, but neither the Uzbeks nor the challenges they pose are going anywhere. And unlike Russia, Uzbekistan boasts very high demographic growth. The bottom line is this: Despite all of Russia's recent gains, Moscow's strategy requires tools that the Russians no longer have. It requires Moscow delving into the subregional politics of places that could well bleed Russia dry -- and this is before any power that wishes Russia ill begins exploring what it and the Uzbeks might achieve together.
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In particular, within our lifetimes and possibly in less than a single generation, we may witness the opening up of Arctic sea lanes that are fully navigable year round, he added. The economic and military impact will be enormous, and the social impacts could also be both powerful and positive. I imagine a world where international shipping can take the direct northern route linking Asian markets to Europe, cutting consumption of fuel and reducing carbon emissions from the shorter shipping routes; the potential for maritime commerce to stimulate the economic development of Arctic ports, from James Bay to the High Arctic; secure sea lanes for the shipping of strategic commodities, enabling northern oil producers to deliver product to market without having to navigate through chokepoints vulnerable to terrorism. Among other likely benefits, Zellen mentions an emergence of a more efficient military supply distribution network, enabling NATO, the United States and allied Asian nations to operate securely across the top of the world to bolster military bases and troops deployed in distant military theaters. Ultimately, he says, the most positive outcome of the thawing ocean could be a true reconciliation between Russia, the United States and the West, and the full integration of Russia into a Western security alliance. Even with the increasing security and economic strains, Russia prioritized the social aspect of development in the Arctic during its chairmanship of the Arctic Council from 2004 to 2006. Alexander Ignatiev, an official at Russias Foreign Ministry who served as head of Senior Arctic Officials at the Arctic Council, says the socio-economic plight in the countrys northern regions prompted Russia to put emphasis on this dimension of the institutions agenda.
Relations solve extinction Allison, Director Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvards Kennedy School, 2011 (10-31 -- Graham, Director Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvards Kennedy School, and
Former Assistant Secretary of Defense, and Robert D. Blackwill, Senior Fellow Council on Foreign Relations, 10 Reasons Why Russia Still Matters, Politico, 2011, http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=161EF282 -72F9-4D488B9C-C5B3396CA0E6)
That central point is that Russia
matters a great deal to a U.S. government seeking to defend and advance its national interests. Prime Minister Vladimir Putins decision to return next year as president makes it all the more critical for Washington to manage its relationship with Russia
through coherent, realistic policies. No one denies that Russia is a dangerous, difficult, often disappointing state to do business with. We should not overlook its many human rights and legal failures. Nonetheless, Russia is a player whose choices affect our vital interests in nuclear security and energy. It is key to supplying 100,000 U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan and preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Ten realities require U.S. policymakers to advance our nations interests by engaging and working with Moscow. First,
Russia remains the only nation that can erase the United States from the map in 30 minutes. As every president since John F. Kennedy has recognized, Russias cooperation is critical to averting nuclear war. Second, Russia is our most consequential partner in preventing nuclear terrorism. Through a combination of more than $11 billion in U.S. aid,
provided through the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, and impressive Russian professionalism, two decades after the collapse of the evil empire, not one nuclear weapon has been found loose. Third,
Russia plays an essential role in preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and missile-delivery systems. As Washington seeks to stop Irans drive toward nuclear weapons, Russian choices to sell or withhold sensitive technologies are the difference between failure and the possibility of success. Fourth, Russian support in sharing intelligence and cooperating in operations remains essential to the U.S. war to destroy Al Qaeda and combat other transnational terrorist groups. Fifth, Russia provides a vital supply line to 100,000 U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan. As U.S. relations with Pakistan have deteriorated, the Russian lifeline has grown ever more important and now accounts for half all daily deliveries. Sixth, Russia is the worlds largest oil producer and second largest gas producer. Over the past decade, Russia has added more oil and gas exports to world energy markets than any
other nation. Most major energy transport routes from Eurasia start in Russia or cross its nine time zones. As citizens of a country that imports two of every three of the 20 million barrels of oil that fuel U.S. cars daily, Americans feel Russias impact at our gas pumps. Seventh,
Moscow is an important player in todays international system. It is no accident that Russia is one of the five veto-wielding, permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, as well as a
Gonzaga Debate Institute 215 Warming Core member of the G-8 and G-20. A Moscow more closely aligned with U.S. goals would be significant in the balance of power to shape an environment in which China can emerge as a global power without overturning the existing order. Eighth, Russia is the largest country on Earth by land area, abutting China on the East, Poland in the West and the United States across the Arctic. This territory provides transit corridors for supplies to global markets whose stability is vital to the U.S. economy. Ninth, Russias brainpower is reflected in the fact that it has won more
Nobel Prizes for science than all of Asia, places first in most math competitions and dominates the world chess masters list. The only way U.S. astronauts can now travel to and from the International Space Station is to hitch a ride on Russian rockets. The co-founder of the most advanced digital company in the world, Google, is Russian-born Sergei Brin. Tenth,
Russias potential as a spoiler is difficult to exaggerate. Consider what a Russian president intent on frustrating U.S. international objectives could do from stopping the supply flow to Afghanistan to selling S-300 air defense missiles to Tehran to joining China in preventing U.N. Security Council resolutions.
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thanks to global warming, deposits of natural resources once layered over in impenetrable ice are now easier to get at. Second, thanks to melting ice, some previously icebound shipping lanes like the Northwest Passage are opening up. The available resources are still a long way from being developed. The climate is incredibly harsh, and easier-to-get-at resources still exist on the
First, fringes of the Arctic. As an oil and gas story, this one has a long fuse. The Arctic thaws more immediate and bigger impact will be as a shipping lane. Since Aug. 21,
the Northwest Passage has been open to navigation and free of ice for the first time. Analysts confirm that the passage is almost completely clear and that the region is more open than it has ever been since the advent of routine monitoring in 1972, reports the
U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center. The fabled passage through the Arctic Ocean connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans along the northern coast of North America. To pass through here from China on your way to Europe is about 5,000 miles shorter than going through the Panama or Suez canals. As the Financial Times observes, A ship traveling at 21 knots between Rotterdam and Yokohama takes 29 days if it goes via the Cape of Good Hope, 22 days via the Suez Canal and just 15 days if it goes across the Arctic Ocean. An oil tanker could make the trip from the Russian port city of Murmansk to the east coast of Canada in a week by crossing the Arctic Ocean. That is about half the time it takes to get an oil tanker from Abu Dhabi to Galveston, Texas. In the early 1900s, it took the famed Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team nearly two years to pick their way through the ice and narrow waterways. Now the Northwest Passage could revolutionize shipping. More than 90% of all goods in the world, measured by tonnage, make their way by sea. And as Ive noted in the past, the rapid surge in trade with China and India is putting a lot of strain on ports around the world. In recent years, the volume of container shipments has grown 5-7% annually - basically, doubling every 10-15 years. The ships carrying those containers are getting bigger, and the old canals cant hold these new seafaring beasts of burden as they once did. The Suez Canal can still handle the largest current container ships, but not the next generation. The Panama Canal is even smaller. Its too small for ships that are now common on longer shipping routes. Panama plans to deepen its channels and make them wider. But even so, the new Panama Canal wont be able to service the next generation of ships. So it looks like the world will have a new navigable ocean with the Northwest Passage.
The effects on trade could be immense. Much shorter shipping distances and quicker shipping times will lower the cost of doing business. It could lead to big increases in trade and, certainly, a major shift in sea lanes. A freer-flowing Arctic Ocean would also bring fish stocks north - with fishing fleets not far behind. It could mean a new boom in fishing for salmon, cod, herring and smelt. It could also mean that sleepy old ports could become important new hubs in international trade. As the
Financial Times recently wrote, Leading world powers have an unprecedented chance to win navigation rights and ownership of resources in the Arctic seabed
The U.S. alone could lay claim to more than 200,000 square miles of additional undersea territory. The specific investment implications of this are still too early to say. But the cracking open of new trade routes or reopening of old ones - and their impact on global trade - always has ripple effects across financial markets. As for the Arctic, the Northwest Passage has got to be one of the most important new developments on that front in a long time.
untouched since its emergence during the twilight of the dinosaurs.
in the global economy are associated with the rise and fall of a pre-eminent power and the often bloody transition from one pre-eminent leader to the next. As such, exogenous shocks such as economic crisis could usher in a redistribution of relative power (see also Gilpin, 1981) that leads to uncertainty about power balances, increasing the risk of miscalculation (Fearon, 1995). Alternatively, even a relatively certain redistribution of power could lead to a permissive
environment for conflict as a rising power may seek to challenge a declining power (Werner, 1999). Seperately, Pollins (1996) also shows that global economic cycles combined with parallel leadership cycles impact the likelihood of conflict among major, medium and small powers, although he suggests that the causes and
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of trade expectations suggests that future expectation of trade is a significant variable in understanding economic conditions and security behavious of states. He argues that interdependent states are likely to gain pacific benefits from trade so long as they have an optimistic view of future trade relations, However, if the expectations of future trade decline, particularly for difficult to replace items such as energy resources, the likelihood for conflict increases, as states will be inclined to use force to gain access to those resources. Crisis could potentially be the trigger for decreased trade expectations either on its own or because it triggers protectionist moves by interdependent states. Third, others have considered the link between economic decline and external armed conflict at a national level. Blomberg and Hess (2002) find a strong correlation between internal conflict and external conflict, particularly during periods of economic downturn. They write, The linkages between internal and external conflict and prosperity are
strong and mutually reinforcing. Economic conflict tends to spawn internal conflict, which in turn returns the favor. Moreover, the presence of a recession tends to amplify the extent to which international and external conflict self-reinforce each other. (Blomberg & Hess, 2002. P. 89) Economic decline has been linked with an increase in the likelihood of terrorism (Blomberg, Hess, & Weerapana, 2004), which has the capacity to spill across borders and lead to external tensions. Furthermore, crises generally reduce the popularity of a sitting government. Diversionary
theory suggests that, when facing unpopularity arising from economic decline, sitting governments have increase incentives to fabricate external military conflicts to create a rally around the flag effect. Wang (1996), DeRouen (1995), and Blomberg, Hess, and Thacker (2006) find supporting evidence showing that economic decline and use of force are at least indirectly correlated. Gelpi (1997), Miller (1999), and Kisangani and Pickering (2009) suggest that the tendency towards diversionary tactics are greater for democratic states than autocratic states, due to the fact that democratic leaders are
generally more susceptible to being removed from office due to lack of domestic support. DeRouen (2000) has provided evidence showing that periods of weak economic performance in the United States, and thus weak Presidential popularity, are statistically linked to an increase in the use of force. In summary, recent economic scholarship positively correlated economic integration with an increase in the frequency of economic crises, whereas political science scholarship links economic decline with external conflict at systemic, dyadic and national levels. This implied connection between integration, crisis and armed conflict has not featured prominently in the economic-security debate and deserves more attention.
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Arctic shipping could also dramatically affect global trade patterns. In 1969, oil companies sent the S.S. Manhattan through the Northwest Passage to test whether it was a viable route for moving Arctic oil to the Eastern Seaboard. The Manhattan completed the voyage with the help of accompanying icebreakers, but oil companies soon deemed the route impractical and prohibitively expensive and opted instead for an Alaskan pipeline. But today such voyages are fast becoming economically feasible. As soon as marine insurers recalculate the risks involved in these voyages, transArctic shipping will become commercially viable and begin on a large scale. In an age of just-in-time delivery, and with increasing fuel costs eating into the profits of shipping companies, reducing long-haul sailing distances by as much as 40 percent could usher in a new phase of globalization. Arctic routes would force further competition between the Panama and Suez Canals, thereby reducing current canal tolls; shipping chokepoints such as the Strait of Malacca would no longer dictate global shipping patterns; and Arctic seaways would allow for greater international economic integration. When the ice recedes enough, likely within this decade, a marine highway directly over the North Pole will materialize. Such a route, which would most likely run between Iceland and Alaska's Dutch Harbor, would connect shipping megaports in the North Atlantic with those in the North Pacific and radiate outward to other ports in a hub-and-spoke system. A fast lane is now under development between the Arctic port of Murmansk, in Russia, and the Hudson Bay port of Churchill, in Canada, which is connected to the North American rail network.
Trade solves Nuclear War Copley News Service, privately held newspaper business, founded in Illinois, but later based in La Jolla, California.Its flagship paper was The San Diego Union-Tribune,99 (December 1)
For decades, many children in America and other countries went to bed fearing annihilation by nuclear war. The specter of nuclear winter freezing the life out of planet Earth seemed very real. Activists protesting the World Trade Organization's meeting in Seattle apparently have forgotten that threat. The truth is that nations join together in groups like the WTO not just to further their own prosperity, but also to forestall conflict with other nations. In a way, our planet has traded in the threat of a worldwide nuclear war for the benefit of cooperative global economics. Some Seattle protesters clearly fancy themselves to be in the mold of nuclear disarmament or anti-Vietnam War protesters of decades past. But they're not. They're special-interest activists, whether the cause is environmental, labor or paranoia about global government. Actually, most of the demonstrators in Seattle are very much unlike yesterday's peace activists, such as Beatle John Lennon or philosopher Bertrand Russell, the father of the nuclear disarmament movement, both of whom urged people and nations to work together rather than strive against each other. These and other war protesters would probably approve of 135 WTO nations sitting down peacefully to discuss economic issues that in the past might have been settled by bullets and bombs. As long as nations are trading peacefully, and their economies are built on exports to other countries, they have a major disincentive to wage war. That's why bringing China, a budding superpower, into the WTO is so important. As exports to the United States and the rest of the world feed Chinese prosperity, and that prosperity increases demand for the goods we produce, the threat of hostility diminishes. Many anti-trade protesters in Seattle claim that only multinational corporations benefit from global trade, and that it's the everyday wage earners who get hurt. That's just plain wrong. First of all, it's not the military-industrial complex benefiting. It's U.S. companies that make high-tech goods. And those companies provide a growing number of jobs for Americans. In San Diego, many people have good jobs at Qualcomm, Solar Turbines and other companies for whom overseas markets are essential. In Seattle, many of the 100,000 people who work at Boeing would lose their
Gonzaga Debate Institute 219 Warming Core livelihoods without world trade. Foreign trade today accounts for 30 percent of our gross domestic product. That's a lot of jobs for everyday workers. Growing global prosperity has helped counter the specter of nuclear winter. Nations of the world are learning to live and work together, like the singers of anti-war songs once imagined. Those who care about world peace shouldn't be protesting world trade. They should be celebrating it.
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Too late
Connor, degree in zoology from the University of Oxford,2008( Steve, 12/16/2008,The
Independent, Has the Arctic melt passed the point of no return?, http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/arctic-melt-passes-the-point-of--no-return-1128197.html Scientists have found the first unequivocal evidence that the Arctic region is warming at a faster rate than the rest of the world at least a decade before it was predicted to happen. Climate-change researchers have found that air temperatures in the region are higher than would be normally expected during the autumn because the increased melting of the summer Arctic sea ice is accumulating heat in the ocean. The phenomenon, known as Arctic amplification, was not expected to be seen for at least another 10 or 15 years and the findings will further raise concerns that the Arctic has already passed the climatic tipping-point towards ice-free summers, beyond which it may not recover. The Arctic is considered one of the most sensitive regions in terms of climate change and its transition to another climatic state will have a direct impact on other parts of the northern hemisphere, as well more indirect effects around the world. Although researchers have documented a catastrophic loss of sea ice during the summer months over the past 20 years, they have not until now detected the definitive temperature signal that they could link with greenhouse-gas emissions. However, in a study to be presented later today to the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, scientists will show that Arctic amplification has been under way for the past five years, and it will continue to intensify Arctic warming for the foreseeable future. Computer models of the global climate have for years suggested the Arctic will warm at a faster rate than the rest of the world due to Arctic amplification but many scientists believed this effect would only become measurable in the coming decades. However, a study by scientists from the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in Colorado has found that amplification is already showing up as a marked increase in surface air temperatures within the Arctic region during the autumn period, when the sea ice begins to reform after the summer melting period. Julienne Stroeve, of the NSIDC, who led the study with her colleague Mark Serreze, said that autumn air temperatures this year and in recent years have been anomalously high. The Arctic Ocean warmed more than usual because heat from the sun was absorbed more easily by the dark areas of open water compared to the highly reflective surface of a frozen sea. "Autumn 2008 saw very strong surface temperature anomalies over the areas where the sea ice was lost," Dr Stroeve told The Independent ahead of her presentation today. "The observed autumn warming that we've seen over the Arctic Ocean, not just this year but over the past five years or so, represents Arctic amplification, the notion that rises in surface air temperatures in response to increased atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations will be larger in the Arctic than elsewhere over the globe," she said. "The warming climate is leading to more open water in the Arctic Ocean. As these open water areas develop through spring and summer, they absorb most of the sun's energy, leading to ocean warming. "In autumn, as the sun sets in the Arctic, most of the heat that was gained in the ocean during summer is released back to the atmosphere, acting to warm the atmosphere. It is this heat-release back to the atmosphere that gives us Arctic amplification." Temperature readings for this October were significantly higher than normal across the entire Arctic region between 3C and 5C above average but some areas were dramatically higher. In the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, for instance, near-surface air temperatures were more than 7C higher than normal for this time of year. The scientists believe the only reasonable explanation for such high autumn readings is that the ocean heat accumulated during the summer because of the loss of sea ice is being released back into the atmosphere from the sea before winter sea ice has chance to reform. "One of the reasons we focus on Arctic amplification is that it is a good test of greenhouse
Gonzaga Debate Institute 221 Warming Core warming theory. Even our earliest climate models were telling us that we should see this Arctic amplification emerge as we lose the summer ice cover," Dr Stroeve said. "This is exactly what we are not starting to see in the observations. Simply put, it's a case of we hate to say we told you so, but we did," she added. Computer models have also predicted totally ice-free summers in the Arctic by 2070, but many scientists now believe that the first ice-free summer could occur far earlier than this, perhaps within the next 20 years.
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***SO2 Screw***
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The loss of sulfate aerosols will have a rapid impact on climate change
Henson 98, Director at University Coperation for Atmospheric Research, 1998 *Bob, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Particles of Doubt, April 10, http://www.ucar.edu/communications/highlights/1998/particles.html] Sulfates are sprinters in the climate race: they stay in the atmosphere only a few days to weeks before falling or raining out. In contrast, greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are marathon runners, remaining airborne for years, even centuries. Because they have so little time to roam, sulfates tend to affect the climate mainly over regions where they're emitted. Their short lifespan also means that any big change in sulfur emissions might have a relatively prompt impact on local climate (although weather patterns would likely create too much "noise" for scientists to directly detect such a link). In the United States, where concern over acid rain led to stringent regulation in the 1970s and 1980s, sulfur emissions have gradually stabilized. However, they are rising quickly in regions like China, India, and Southeast Asia.
Aerosols guarantee slow warming, but rapid warming will CAUSE EXTINCTION
Freedman, senior science writer for Climate Central, 2005 *Andrew, Keep warming below threshold to avert 'runaway climate change,' report says, Greenwire, January 25, 2005+
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Industrialized nations must join developing countries to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius -- or 3.6 degrees Farenheit -- above pre-industrial levels, according to a report released yesterday by the International Climate Change Task Force. Temperature increases beyond that level would increase the risk for
disruption of human societies and natural systems, and potentially bring about abrupt or "runaway climate change," the report says. The task force, led by former British cabinet Secretary Stephen Byers and
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), was established under the auspices of the Institute for Public Policy Research in Britain, the Center for American Progress in the United States, and the Australia Institute. Calling itself a "unique international cross-party, cross-sector collaboration," the task force says its goal is to propose ways to bring the United States and Australia, which both rejected the Kyoto Protocol to limit greenhouse gas emissions, back into multilateral negotiations on climate change. It is also meant to inform the next meeting of the group of eight nations, which will be led by Blair and feature climate change as a key topic. The report "provides ambitious but achievable policy solutions that reach across partisan lines and national boundaries to build momentum for a new global energy agenda that can make important progress on this critical problem," said Center for American Progress President and Chief Executive Officer John Podesta in a statement. The 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, which led to the Kyoto agreement, committed signatories to averting "dangerous" human interference with the climate system but left open the question of what would constitute such interference. "Scientific evidence suggests that there is a threshold of temperature increase above which the extent and magnitude of the impacts of climate change increase sharply," the report states. The 2 degrees Celsius threshold has been increasingly discussed in scientific and policy circles during the past few years and has been adopted as official policy by the European Union, which represents the largest bloc of countries participating in the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, the United States has steered clear of any such predictions of a threshold level that would constitute dangerous human interference under the UNFCCC. "No one can say with certainty what that threshold is, but it is important that we make an educated judgment at this time based on the best available science," the task force report states. It found that a net warming of about 2 degrees Celsius likely would be associated with carbon dioxide concentrations above 400 parts per million, a level that is likely to be surpassed on a business as usual emissions scenario as early as the next few decades. The emissions picture is a complicated one, in part because some of the warming effects of the CO2 are blunted by atmospheric particles such as sulfate aerosols, which exert a cooling influence on the climate.
Decreases in sulfur emissions will cause warming due to an increase in methane emissions from wetlands and a decrease in radiative forcing
Gauci, Professor of Earth Sciences, Open University, 2004 [Vincent Gauci, Department of Earth Sciences, Open University, Sulfur pollution suppression of the wetland methane source in the 20th and 21st centuries, Environmental Sciences, http://cepsar.open.ac.uk/pers/v.gauci/pics/d39285.pdf] Our estimates of the combined effects of climate change, sulfate aerosol radiative effects, and SDEP (GHGAEROSDEP) on CH4 emissions show that anthropogenic SDEP may have been sufficient to have decreased the global wetland CH4 source to a level below preindustrial estimates by 1015 Tg during the second half of the 20th century (Fig. 3). The combined effect of SO4 2 aerosols (cooling) and SO4 2-deposition (limiting methane production at the source by microbial competition) are predicted to offset the effect of GHG warming on CH4 emissions by 26 Tg in 2030 and by 15 Tg in 2080. In this scenario, CH4 emissions will exceed preindustrial emissions by 14 Tg by 2080. The influence of production and deposition of oxidized sulfur compounds through economic growth in North America and Europe between 1960 and 1980, followed by increases in the economic growth in South America, Africa, and (primarily) Asia, are responsible for this pattern. Beyond 2030, however, a decline is predicted in sulfur pollution because of anticipated cleaner technologies. Together with the additional effect of enhanced greenhouse warming, we predict this reduction in sulfur pollution will result in a rapid increase in CH4 emission (15% enhancement between 2030 and 2080) that may exacerbate climate warming during that time.
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This evidence is particularly devastating for them, not only is it a link to both of our climate turns, but it proves that the turns function simultaneously and are consistent. If they appear in the literature and the studies together, there is no inconsistency between them. Also, we only need to win one of these scenarios to access our rapid warming impacts.
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2NC Overview
DECREASING EMISSIONS AS A WHOLE CAUSES Loss of sulfate they wash out of the environment within days and cause massive warming. Happens literally centuries before your warming impact THATS HENSON Anthropogenic sulfate aerosols cool the earth and cancel out global warming, but they are extremely short-lived
NASA Atmospheric Sciences Division, 1996 *Atmospheric Aerosols: What Are They, and Why Are They So Important?, NASA.gov, August 1996, http://oea.larc.nasa.gov/PAIS/Aerosols.html] The third type of aerosol comes from human activities. While a large fraction of human-made aerosols come in the form of smoke from burning tropical forests, the major component comes in the form of sulfate aerosols created by the burning of coal and oil. The concentration of human-made sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere has grown rapidly since the start of the industrial revolution. At current production levels, human-made sulfate aerosols are thought to outweigh the naturally produced sulfate aerosols. The concentration of aerosols is highest in the northern hemisphere where industrial activity is centered. The sulfate aerosols absorb no sunlight but they reflect it, thereby reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface. Sulfate aerosols are believed to survive in the atmosphere for about 3-5 days. The sulfate aerosols also enter clouds where they cause the number of cloud droplets to increase but make the droplet sizes smaller. The net effect is to make the clouds reflect more sunlight than they would without the presence of the sulfate aerosols. Pollution from the stacks of ships at sea has been seen to modify the low-lying clouds above them. These changes in the cloud droplets, due to the sulfate aerosols from the ships, have been seen in pictures from weather satellites as a track through a layer of clouds. In addition to making the clouds more reflective, it is also believed that the additional aerosols cause polluted clouds to last longer and reflect more sunlight than non-polluted clouds. Climatic Effects of Aerosols The additional reflection caused by pollution aerosols is expected to have an effect on the climate comparable in magnitude to that of increasing concentrations of atmospheric gases. The effect of the aerosols, however, will be opposite to the effect of the increasing atmospheric trace gases - cooling instead of warming the atmosphere.
NEW LINK Decreases in sulfur emissions will cause warming due to an increase in methane emissions from wetlands and a decrease in radiative forcing
Gauci, Professor of Earth Sciences, Open University, 2004 [Vincent Gauci, Department of Earth Sciences, Open University, Sulfur pollution suppression of the wetland methane source in the 20th and 21st centuries, Environmental Sciences, http://cepsar.open.ac.uk/pers/v.gauci/pics/d39285.pdf] Our estimates of the combined effects of climate change, sulfate aerosol radiative effects, and SDEP (GHGAEROSDEP) on CH4 emissions show that anthropogenic SDEP may have been sufficient to have decreased the global wetland CH4 source to a level below preindustrial estimates by 1015 Tg during the second half of the 20th century (Fig. 3). The combined effect of SO4 2- aerosols (cooling) and SO4 2-deposition (limiting methane production at the source by microbial competition) are predicted to offset the effect of GHG warming on CH4 emissions by 26 Tg in 2030 and by 15 Tg in 2080. In this scenario, CH4 emissions will exceed preindustrial emissions by 14 Tg by 2080. The influence of production and deposition of oxidized sulfur compounds through economic growth in North America and Europe between 1960 and 1980, followed by increases in the economic growth in South America, Africa, and (primarily) Asia, are responsible for this pattern. Beyond 2030, however, a decline is predicted in sulfur pollution because of anticipated cleaner technologies. Together with the additional effect of enhanced greenhouse warming, we predict this reduction in sulfur pollution will result in a rapid increase in CH4 emission (15% enhancement between 2030 and 2080) that may exacerbate climate warming during that time.
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Natural wetlands and rice paddies are a potentially huge source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Sulfate aerosols prevent methane production by keeping the wetlands cool and encouraging sulfur-reducing bacteria, preventing a massive spike in global warming
Gauci, Professor of Earth Sciences, Open University, 2004 [Vincent Gauci, Department of Earth Sciences, Open University, Sulfur pollution suppression of the wetland methane source in the 20th and 21st centuries, Environmental Sciences, http://cepsar.open.ac.uk/pers/v.gauci/pics/d39285.pdf] Natural wetlands form the largest source of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere. Emission of this powerful greenhouse gas from wetlands is known to depend on climate, with increasing temperature and rainfall both expected to increase methane emissions. This study, combining our eld and controlled environment manipulation studies in Europe and North America, reveals an additional control: an emergent pattern of increasing suppression of methane (CH4) emission from peatlands with increasing sulfate (SO4 2 -S) deposition, within the range of global acid deposition. We apply a model of this relationship to demonstrate the potential effect of changes in global sulfate deposition from 1960 to 2080 on both northern peatland and global wetland CH4 emissions. We estimate that sulfur pollution may currently counteract climate-induced growth in the wetland source, reducing CH4 emissions by 15 Tg or 8% smaller than it would be in the absence of global acid deposition. Our ndings suggest that by 2030 sulfur pollution may be sufcient to reduce CH4 emissions by 26 Tg or 15% of the total wetland source, a proportion as large as other components of the CH4 budget that have until now received far greater attention. We conclude that documented increases in atmospheric CH4 concentration since the late 19th century are likely due to factors other than the global warming of wetlands. Atmospheric methane (CH4) is a powerful greenhouse gas (GHG) that is responsible for an estimated 22% of the present anthropogenically enhanced greenhouse effect (1). Natural (nonrice agriculture) wetlands are the worlds largest single CH4 source and are estimated to currently contribute between 110 and 260 Tg (Tg 1012 g) to the global methane budget (2), of which one-third is derived from temperate and boreal northern wetlands (3). CH4 emissions from wetlands are climatesensitive, responding positively to increases in temperature and rainfall as microbial activity and anaerobic conditions increase and negatively to cool temperatures and drought (4, 5). Like many other ecosystems, wetlands are also subject to the effects of aerial pollution and increasing CO2 levels. The stimulatory effects of increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations on CH4 emission (by enhancement of net primary productivity) is well reported (68), although a similar stimulatory effect of nitrogen pollution on wetland CH4 emission has not always been identified (810) because of differing effects nitrogen has on the ecosystem, e.g., plant species composition is an important factor in determining the effect of experimental N additions on CH4 fluxes (10). CH4 is produced by two different groups of methanogenic archaea (MA); one group obtains energy by the fermentation of simple organic compounds, such as acetate to CO2 and CH4, and the other obtains energy by oxidizing molecular hydrogen to H2 O by using CO2, which is reduced to CH4. Acetate-fermenting MA tend to dominate in more nutrient-rich peatlands and in summer, when the supply of labile organic carbon is relatively high. However, it has been recently demonstrated that climate, depth of the acrotelm, and acetate concentrations add a fair degree of plasticity over controls on acetate-fermenting MA228228228228228228 (11). Both groups of microorganisms are strictly anaerobic, and both are suppressed by another group of anaerobic microorganisms, sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) (12). SRB have a higher affinity for both hydrogen and acetate than MA, which, under ideal conditions, enables them to maintain the pool of these substrates at concentrations too low for MA to use (13, 14). In wetlands, however, the balance between sulfate reduction and methanogenesis is affected by factors such as the temperature [warmer temperatures favor methanogenesis (15)], the rate of SO4 2 and acetate supply [lower concentrations of sulfate or higher concentrations of acetate reduce the intensity of competition (13)], and the availability of noncompetitive substrates [some low molecular weight hydrocarbons may be preferentially used over acetate by SRB (16, 17) and some substrates such as methanol, methanethiol, and dimethyl sulfide may be used by MA but are poorly used by SRB (18, 19)]. As a consequence, sulfate reduction in wetlands partially, rather than completely, inhibits methane production (19). Stimulation of sulfate reduction has been exploited as a mechanism to reduce GHG emissions from rice paddies; in field trials, CH4 emissions have been reduced by as much as 72% with doses of gypsum (CaSO4) ranging from several hundred to thousands of kilograms of SO4 2 per hectare (ha) (20, 21).228
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Aerosols counter global warming, the claims that it is only regional or insufficient to counter warming are based on old and discarded data Berreby 93 (David, Staff Writer, The parasol effect - sulfate aerosols block sun's rays and may cause cooling, Science,
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1511/is_n7_v14/ai_13923194/print) Indeed, Charlson himself, with his longtime collaborator Bert Bolin of Stockholm University, wrote a paper in the mid1970s that said aerosols could not have much impact on global climate. We had made a mistake, Charlson says now. We didnt have the global chemical model. We were guessing as to numbers. We didnt get the geographical extent of sulfates right. Then, in the 1980s, sulfate haze began to register as more than a technical problem for tourists and bomber pilots. Sulfate aerosols were recognized as the key culprit in the acid rain that is killing lake fish, stunting forests, and corroding buildings and equipment in Europe and North America. The acid rain problem led to more support for research into sulfates. Out of this focus on the problem came better techniques for measuring emissions, as well as new and more accurate computer models of wind patterns and chemical mixing in the lower atmosphere and of the dispersal of particles on those winds. In early 1990 this led to a big break. Charlson was attending a meeting on sulfates in a huge nineteenth- century faux-medieval castle in Bavaria. Many other climate experts were there also, of course, including two other collaborators and old friends of Charlsons from Stockholm University, Henning Rodhe and Joakim Langner, who were showing off one of these improved computer models. The new Swedish model was the first devised to process data about industrial activity and weather, and it yielded a crucial variable in acid rain--the distribution of sulfur in the air after it leaves the pollution centers that create it. Fortunately, Charlson recalls, one of the talks after theirs was very boring. His mind wandered back to the Swedes model, which--not surprisingly--predicted strikingly high concentrations of sulfates throughout the heavily industrialized Northern Hemisphere and related that finding to acid rain. But they hadnt related such levels of sulfates to one of Charlsons areas of expertise--optical scattering. Charlson won his first patent for measuring such scattering nearly 30 years ago, with an invention dubbed the nephelometer (nephelos is the Greek word for cloud). The prototype still sits on a bookshelf in his office. Its gunmetal gray, roughly the size and shape of a bazooka. Through an inlet on the bottom, a tiny pump sucks aerosol-laden air into a chamber. On one side of the cylindrical chamber, about halfway down its length, is a halogen movie-projector lamp. At one end of the chamber is an electric light detector--the technologically more sophisticated great- grandson, Charlson says, of those electric eyes that open doors and set off alarms. By determining how much light makes it through an air sample to the light detector, Charlson can accurately measure how much light is being deflected by aerosols in the
Gonzaga Debate Institute 231 Warming Core sample. It gives you the scattering efficiency, Charlson says. You might think of it as the amount of a light beam that a particle blocks out per gram of material. To get a complete measure of optical scattering, Charlson explains, you make a measurement with a nephelometer; simultaneously you filter the air, get the particles out of it, and do a chemical analysis of the material. That gives you an amount of sulfate per cubic meter of air. Then you take the ratio of the scattering to the concentration of material. Thats what allows you to say that given X amount of sulfate in the air, there will be Y amount of scattering. As he sat in the Bavarian castle, listening to the high figures for sulfates that the Swedish model yielded, Charlson realized that he knew how to make the optical calculations, to get the amount of scattering in meters squared per gram of material in the air. He took out a pencil and did some rough math on a scrap of paper. It was much bigger than I thought, he recalls. So after the boring talk was over, at the coffee break, I grabbed Langner and Rodhe and said, Look at this! That was the light bulb, right there. That was a Thursday. I was due to see them in Stockholm the next week. When I got there on Monday, a new model, with my light-scattering calculations incorporated, was sitting on a desk waiting for me. The computer model confirmed his rough calculation. The aerosol umbrellas over the Northern Hemisphere, he saw, are keeping, on average, about a watt of solar energy per square meter from reaching Earths surface. That may not sound like much--very roughly, Charlson says, its perhaps a fifth of the amount of heat put out by a Christmas-tree light bulb, spread out over an average desktop. But thats enough to cool Earth substantially. Its also, on average, equal to the amount of heat added to the planet by man-made greenhouse gases, according to some estimates.
The cooling effect of aerosols is balancing 90% of the warming expected from greenhouse gas emissions, the best data and studies support our aerosols argument
World Climate Report 1 (Smoking Out UN-Science, World Climate Report, Feb 19, 2001, http://www.worldclimatereport.com/archive/previous_issues/vol6/v6n11/feature1.htm) The upshot of the addition of Jacobson's findings is that the amount of warming we should currently be observing increases. Using the estimates of NASA climatologist James Hansen, if there were no indirect sulfate cooling, and if the oceans weren't holding back warming, the total rise in temperature of the lower atmosphere (the troposphere) should be around 2.3 to 3.3C by now, with the majority in recent decades. Yet according to surface, satellite and weather balloon records, the observed warming averaged over the troposphere since the three histories became concurrently available (since January 1979), is only around 0.07C or about one-tenth of what should have happened. Something has got to give here. The ocean isn't holding back that much Hansen says he believes about 60 percent of the ultimate warming for today's atmospheric changes should already have been realized. The only way a person can explain the profound difference between observations and projections is to assume that the sulfate cooling effect is massive.
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[Dennis. L., P., UW Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Hawaii Institute Director of Geophysics and Planetology, NASA Earth Observation Systems Group EOS Science Plan #339, Volcanoes and Climate Effects of Aerosols, http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/science_plan/Ch8.pdf, 7/12/13, JZ]
Modeling of tropospheric aerosols present a greater challenge, because of the large number of heterogeneously distributed aerosols and the evidence that aerosols can alter cloud properties. The predominant anthropogenic aerosol is probably sulfate originating from the burning of fossil fuels. The regional distribution of these aerosols can be estimated from aerosol formation models (Langner and Rodhe 1991) and used to calculate an approximate anthropogenic sulfate climate forcing (Kiehl and Briegleb 1993). There is a qualitative consistency among the regions of heavy aerosol amounts (Eastern United States, Europe, and China), calculated aerosol coolings (Taylor and Penner 1994), and the observed temperature change of the past century (Karl et al. 1995).
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Gonzaga Debate Institute 236 Warming Core was originally measured. The original instruments couldnt distinguish between dust and sulfate aerosols where both were present, over the Mediterranean or East Asia, for example. Recent instruments, like the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) measure radiation at multiple wavelengths. This allows particle size to be distinguished with greater confidence, which can be used with some assumptions to infer the aerosol species. The new generation of satellite instruments is at the heart of recent attempts to reduce the large uncertainty of direct radiative forcing by aerosols. Each of these studies provides an estimate of the most likely value, along with a range of uncertainty. Bellouin et al. (2005) in Nature arrive at TOA forcing of -0.8 0.1 W/m2. While near the center of the range published by the IPCC, this estimate is noteworthy for its comparatively small uncertainty. Yet on the same day, Chung et al. (2005) published an article in the JGR, estimating based upon similarly extensive calculations that the forcing by aerosols at TOA is -0.35 0.25 W/m2. A few months earlier, Yu et al. (2005) had estimated a more conciliatory value of 0.5 0.33 W/m2. The wide range of estimates give some indication the difficulty of the problem. Forcing estimates differ not only at TOA but also at the surface: Bellouin et al. predict that aerosols reduce the net radiation incident upon the surface by 1.9 0.2 W/m2 compared to 3.4 0.1 W/m2 for Chung et al. (2005). That is, Chung et al. estimate much greater atmospheric absorption. Because radiation into the surface is mainly balanced by evaporation, except within extremely arid regions, the discrepancy has implications for the supply of moisture to the atmosphere. Chung et al. estimate a much larger reduction in global rainfall by aerosols. What are the sources of disagreement and uncertainty? Ideally, one would know the three-dimensional distribution of each aerosol species and its evolution throughout the year. One would also be able to distinguish natural and human fractions of each species. For sulfate aerosols, this means distinguishing droplets created by industrial sources, compared to biogenic sources. In addition, the ability of each particle to scatter radiation would be known as a function of its age and aggregation with other species (in the way that dust can be coated with sulfates when passing over industrial areas, for example). Many of these processes are included in aerosol models, but some of the key parameters are uncertain given limited observations. Bellouin et al. attempt an empirical end-run around this uncertainty by dividing the planet into six regions where aerosol concentration is high, and using a typical value of particle absorption based on surface measurements. The measured absorption is a single value that reflects the combined effect of both anthropogenic and natural aerosols, although the six representative sites were chosen where contribution by the former dominates. Regions with a preponderance of sulfates, such as the eastern coast of North America and downwind, were assigned greater reflectance and lesser absorption than particles over the Indian Ocean where dark soot particles are more common. This is based upon contrasting surface measurements at Washington DC and the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. The total aerosol mass was inferred from MODIS estimates of the aerosol optical thickness (AOT), which measures attenuation of a light beam passing through an aerosol layer. To estimate the anthropogenic fraction of aerosols, Bellouin et al. made use of the fact that anthropogenic aerosols such as sulfate and soot are generally smaller than natural aerosols such as soil dust and sea salt. MODIS provides not only the total AOT but also the fractional contribution corresponding to smaller particles whose diameter is less than one micron (a thousandth of a millimeter). Bellouin et al. attributed the total AOT to human influence in regions where the fine fraction AOT exceeds 85% of the total. Conversely, regions where larger particles make the predominant contribution to AOT were excluded from the anthropogenic total. While MODIS is able to make this distinction between small and large particles over ocean, the distinction is more uncertain over land, and here Bellouin et al. resorted to the anthropogenic fraction computed by five aerosol models, a number chosen to reduce the uncertainty associated with any single model. Despite their different result compared to Bellouin et al., the calculations by Chung et al. and Yu et al. are similar. Chung et al. assign the total AOT using MODIS, and adjust this value using local measurements by the AERONET array of sun photometers. (These instruments point toward the sun and record incident radiation at various wavelengths.) The main difference is that Chung et al. compute the anthropogenic fraction over both land and ocean using a single aerosol model, and they use this model along with AERONET measurements to specify the radiative properties of the combined aerosol population within each column. Consequently, these properties vary within each region as opposed to the regionally averaged values used by Bellouin et al. based upon a single putatively representative site. Yu et al. use an even broader array of measurements and models. Why do similar methods result in forcing estimates whose uncertainty ranges dont overlap? This is difficult to know, although here we speculate upon the effect of some of the differing assumptions. Chung et al. specify greater particle absorption compared to all but one of the six regional values used by Bellouin et al. Because the TOA forcing becomes less negative as absorption increases, this accounts for some of the difference. Similarly, Chung et al.s replacement of their model estimate of anthropogenic particle fraction over the ocean with the MODIS estimate (following Bellouin et al.) narrows
Gonzaga Debate Institute 237 Warming Core the difference. Treatment of aerosol forcing over cloudy regions also contributes to the difference. Both studies estimate nearly identical forcing at the surface in the absence of clouds. While aerosol absorption and reflection have opposing effects at TOA, they both reduce sunlight beneath the aerosol layer, contributing to negative forcing at the surface. Thus, forcing at the surface is less sensitive to the relative strength of absorption versus reflection. When cloudy regions are included, Chung et al. calculate a much larger reduction of surface radiation than Bellouin et al., who assume that aerosol forcing in these regions is zero. At TOA, Chung et al. calculate positive aerosol forcing within cloudy regions, accounting for some of the global disagreement with Bellouin et al. TOA forcing depends strongly upon the relative position of the cloud and aerosol layer. An absorbing soot layer above a bright cloud absorbs more radiation than if the layer were beneath the cloud. Unlike AOT, the vertical distribution of aerosols is not measured routinely, and is comparatively uncertain. The disagreement among forcing estimates raises the more general point of whether any study really captures the full range of uncertainty. The number of calculations needed to sample the uncertainty can increase exponentially with the number of uncertain parameters. While parametric uncertainty is straightforward to estimate, the dearth of observations makes it difficult to estimate the effect of assuming a bulk absorption that represents an average aerosol rather than computing absorption by each species separately. The latter is an example of a structural uncertainty that is typically difficult to characterize. Given the difficulty of measuring the aerosol mass over the entire planet, along with myriad aspects of the aerosol life cycle that are poorly measured and impossible to model precisely, the most reliable estimate of forcing uncertainty may be derived by combining the central forcing estimate from a number of studies, as opposed to taking the uncertainty range of any single study. Yu et al. seem to acknowledge the large outstanding uncertainty by relegating their estimate of anthropogenic aerosol forcing to a table, rather than highlighting it in the abstract or conclusions. Progress will come by more systematic comparisons among studies to identify key uncertainties. The unambiguous distinction between individual aerosol species within models will eventually become possible by direct observation as a result of more discerning instruments. Nonetheless, models will remain valuable for their ability to distinguish natural and anthropogenic sources of the same aerosol species. While Bellouin et al. assume that all soot particles over the ocean are anthropogenic, naturally occurring forest fires contribute as well. As consensus emerges regarding the global aerosol forcing, attention will turn to regional values that cause local changes to climate and heat redistribution by the atmosphere. Because of the added complexity of cloud physics, the aerosol indirect effect may be even more resistant to consensus. Aerosol forcing remains a crucial problem because its offset of greenhouse warming is expected to decrease with time as governments address the health problems associated with aerosols. Because of their comparatively short lifetimes, the concentration of aerosols decreases much faster than that of CO2 given a reduction in fossil fuel use. Regardless of the absolute amount of the forcing, future reductions in aerosol emissions will be a positive forcing, amplifying the warming effects of increasing greenhouse gases.
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Gonzaga Debate Institute 239 Warming Core now, with the majority in recent decades. Yet according to surface, satellite and weather balloon records, the observed warming averaged over the troposphere since the three histories became concurrently available (since January 1979), is only around 0.07Cor about one-tenth of what should have happened. Something has got to give here. The ocean isn't holding back that muchHansen says he believes about 60 percent of the ultimate warming for today's atmospheric changes should already have been realized. The only way a person can explain the profound difference between observations and projections is to assume that the sulfate cooling effect is massive. Rational folks would think that something so large as this putative cloud enhancement would be pretty darned obvious by now. The fact that it is not most likely means it is not very big. Think about it: We have had weather satellites circling the globe for decades. Under the hypothesis that sulfate cooling balances greenhouse warming, the amount of sulfates has to have increased dramatically in this period; otherwise there would be a profound and obvious acceleration in the rate of warming. And despite a new Science paper that shows major increases in south Asian aerosol emissionscorroborating the notion that sulfates are risingno one can find evidence for cloud brightening in the satellite data! Summing up: Jacobson finds that soot causes more warming and cancels the cooling from sulfates. Even after making liberal assumptions about oceanic thermal inertia, the planet should have warmed tremendously, unless cooling from the sulfate-induced brightening of clouds is massive. And yet no one can find those brightened clouds. That leaves one other excuse for the dearth of warming, and it is the one that scares the pants off of just about every climate scientist who has banged the gong of disastrous global warming: We may simply have overestimated the sensitivity of tropospheric temperature to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide. That's the bottom line. By process of elimination, we have smoked out the truth behind the U.N.'s melodramatic "storyline" entertaining an 11F warming in this century.
Attempts to reduce air pollution will cause global warming by eliminating the cooling effects of sulfate aerosols Health and Energy 7 (Sulfur Dioxide cuts may allow Increased Global Warming, February 20,
http://healthandenergy.com/sulfur_dioxide.htm)
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Sulfur dioxide emissions from the burning of coal and oil react with water and oxygen in the air to form sulfate aerosols;
acidic compounds that fall to the Earth in the form of acid rain. Global warming and acid rain are two environmental problems the world will be forced to reckon with in the 21st century. Unfortunately, efforts to mitigate acid rain may actually increase regional warming, according to a university professor. "It is ironic, in a sense, that in working to solve one environmental problem you
exacerbate another problem", said Michael Schlesinger, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois,
Sulfur dioxide emissions from the burning of coal and oil react with water and oxygen in the air to form sulfate aerosols acidic compounds that fall to the Earth in the form of acid rain, wreaking havoc on the worlds forests and streams. Sulfate aerosols also reflect sunlight back into space. "This acts as a negative radiative
forcing which partially compensates for the positive radiative forcing due to greenhouse gases", said Schlesinger. Take away the sulfur dioxide a gas that doesnt stray too far from its source of emission and all of a sudden something that used to mitigate the effects of carbon dioxide is lost, resulting in regional warming.
Urbana-Champaign.
"In recent studies, we found that decreasing the sulfur dioxide emissions led to significant regional warming in North America, Europe and Asia", said Schlesinger. Schlesinger and his colleagues based their study on four scenarios for emissions of greenhouse gases that are being produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the panels Third Assessment Report scheduled for completion in 2001. In these scenarios, sulfur dioxide emissions have been de-coupled from carbon dioxide emissions. Even though the burning of coal and oil produces both carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions, technologies exist that allow for both low-sulfur fuels and "scrubbers" placed in smoke stacks that clean emissions of sulfur dioxide. Therefore, in each of the scenarios that Schlesinger and his colleagues examined, sulfur dioxide emissions either leveled off early in the next century or decreased while carbon dioxide emissions continued to rise. "Thus it appears that mitigation of the acid-rain problem by future reductions in sulfur dioxide emissions exacerbates
are reduced",
the greenhouse-warming problem by enhancing the warming in and near the regions where the sulfur dioxide emissions
he said.
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Coal-fired power plants are uniquely powerful sources of sulfate aerosol emissions Schnapp Department of Energy, Environmental Aspects, Electric Power In dustry Overview no date given (Robert, http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/page/prim2/chapter6.html)
When fossil fuels are burned in the production of electricity, a variety of gases and particulates are formed. If these gases and particulates are not captured by some pollution control equipment, they are released into the atmosphere. This section provides a brief summary of the gaseous emissions from U.S. electric utilities and the methods employed to reduce or eliminate their release into the atmosphere. Among the gases emitted during the burning of fossil fuels are sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and carbon dioxide (CO2). Coal-fired generating units produce more SO2 and NOx than other fossil-fuel units for two reasons. First, because coal generally contains more sulfur than other fossil fuels, it creates more SO2 when burned. Second, there are more emissions from coal-fired plants because more coal-fired capacity is used compared with other fossil-fueled capacity.
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Black aerosols outweigh reflective particles Science Daily, Breaking science news and articles on global warming, extrasolar planets, stem cells, bird flu, autism, nanotechnology, dinosaurs, evolution -- the latest 10 (Best Hope for Saving Arctic Sea Ice Is Cutting Soot Emissions, Say Researchers, July 30, 2010, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100728092617.htm)
The quickest, best way to slow the rapid melting of Arctic sea ice is to reduce soot emissions from the burning of fossil fuel, wood and dung, according to a new study by Stanford researcher Mark Z. Jacobson. His analysis shows that soot is second only to carbon dioxide in contributing to global warming. But, he said, climate models to date have mischaracterized the effects of soot in the atmosphere. Because of that, soot's contribution to global warming has been ignored in national and international global warming policy legislation, he said. "Controlling soot may be the only method of significantly slowing Arctic warming within the next two decades," said Jacobson, director of Stanford's Atmosphere/Energy Program. "We have to start taking its effects into account in planning our mitigation efforts and the sooner we start making changes, the better." To reach his conclusions, Jacobson used an intricate computer model of global climate, air pollution and weather that he developed over the last 20 years that included atmospheric processes not incorporated in previous models. He examined the effects of soot -- black and brown particles that absorb solar radiation -- from two types of sources. He analyzed the impacts of soot from fossil fuels -- diesel, coal, gasoline, jet fuel -and from solid biofuels, such as wood, manure, dung, and other solid biomass used for home heating and cooking in many locations. He also focused in detail on the effects of soot on heating clouds, snow and ice. What he found was that the combination of both types of soot is the second-leading cause of global warming after carbon dioxide. That ranks the effects of soot ahead of methane, an important greenhouse gas. He also found that soot emissions kill more than
Gonzaga Debate Institute 243 Warming Core 1.5 million people prematurely worldwide each year, and afflicts millions more with respiratory illness, cardiovascular disease and asthma, mostly in the developing world where biofuels are used for home heating and cooking . Jacobson's study will be published in Journal of Geophysical Research (Atmospheres). Reducing soot could have immediate impact It is the magnitude of soot's contribution, combined with the fact that it lingers in the atmosphere for only a few weeks before being washed out, that leads to the conclusion that a reduction in soot output would start slowing the pace of global warming almost immediately. Greenhouse gases, in contrast, typically persist in the atmosphere for decades -- some up to a century or more -- creating a considerable time lag between when emissions are cut and when the results become apparent. Mark Jacobson found that eliminating soot produced by the burning of fossil fuel and solid biofuel could reduce warming above parts of the Arctic Circle in the next 15 years by up to 1.7 degrees Celsius. Jacobson found that eliminating soot produced by the burning of fossil fuel and solid biofuel could reduce warming above parts of the Arctic Circle in the next 15 years by up to 1.7 degrees Celsius. For perspective, net warming in the Arctic has been at least 2.5 degrees Celsius during the last century and is expected to warm significantly more in the future if nothing is done. The most immediate, effective and low-cost way to reduce soot emissions is to put particle traps on vehicles, diesel trucks, buses, and construction equipment. Particle traps filter out soot particles from exhaust fumes. Soot could be further reduced by converting vehicles to run on clean, renewable electric power. Jacobson found that although fossil fuel soot contributed more to global warming, biofuel-derived soot caused about eight times the number of deaths as fossil fuel soot. Providing electricity to rural developing areas, thereby reducing usage of solid biofuels for home heating and cooking, would have major health benefits, he said. Soot from fossil fuels contains more black carbon than soot produced by burning biofuels, which is why there is a difference in impact. Black carbon is highly efficient at absorbing solar radiation in the atmosphere, just like a black shirt on a sunny day. Black carbon converts sunlight to heat and radiates it back to the air around it. This is different from greenhouse gases, which primarily trap heat that rises from the Earth's surface. Black carbon can also absorb light reflecting from the surface, which helps make it such a potent warming agent. First model of its type Jacobson's climate model is the first global model to use mathematical equations to describe the physical and chemical interactions of soot particles in cloud droplets in the atmosphere. This allowed him to include details such as light bouncing around inside clouds and within cloud drops, which he said are critical for understanding the full effect of black carbon on heating the atmosphere. "The key to modeling the climate effects of soot is to account for all of its effects on clouds, sea ice, snow and atmospheric heating," Jacobson said. Because of the complexity of the processes, he said it is not a surprise that previous models have not correctly treated the physical interactions required to simulate cloud, snow, and atmospheric heating by soot. "But without treating these processes, no model can give the correct answer with respect to soot's effects," he said. Jacobson argues that leaving out this scale of detail in other models has led many scientists and policy makers to undervalue the role of black carbon as a warming agent. The strong global heating due to soot that Jacobson found is supported by recent findings of Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a professor of climate and atmospheric science at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, who measures and models the climate effects of soot. "Jacobson's study is the first time that a model has looked at the various ways black carbon can impact climate in a quantitative way," said Ramanathan, who was not involved in the study. Black carbon has an especially potent warming effect over the Arctic. When black carbon is present in the air over snow or ice, sunlight can hit the black carbon on its way towards Earth, and also hit it as light reflects off the ice and heads back towards space. "It's a double-whammy over the ice surface in terms of heating the air," Jacobson said. Black carbon also lands on the snow, darkening the surface and enhancing melting. "There is a big concern that if the Arctic melts, it will be a tipping point for the Earth's climate because the reflective sea ice will be replaced by a much darker, heat absorbing, ocean below," said Jacobson. "Once the sea ice is gone, it is really hard to regenerate because there is not an efficient mechanism to cool the ocean down in the short term."
Global dimming causes millions of deaths prevents rainfall Ramanathan, : Professor of Applied Ocean Sciences, Distinguished Professor of Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, Director, Center for Clouds, Chemistry & Climate (C4), Chief Scientist, Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment (Veerabhadran Ramanathan 1-15-2005, Global Dimming, BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/dimming_trans.shtml
Gonzaga Debate Institute 244 Warming Core Basically the Global Dimming we saw in the North Indian Ocean, it was contributed on the one hand by the particles themselves shielding the ocean from the sunlight, on the other hand making the clouds brighter. So this insidious soup, consisting of soot, sulphates, nitrates, ash and what have you, was having a double whammy on the Global Dimming. NARRATOR: And when he looked at satellite images, Ramanathan found the same thing was happening all over the world. Over India. Over China, and extending into the Pacific. Over Western Europe... extending into Africa. Over the British Isles. But it was when scientists started to investigate the effects of Global Dimming that they made the most disturbing discovery of all. Those more reflective clouds could alter the pattern of the world's rainfall. With tragic consequences. NEWS REPORT - MICHAEL BUERK VOICE OVER: Dawn, and as the sun breaks through the piercing chill of night on the plain outside Korum it lights up a biblical famine, now in the 20th Century. This place say workers here is the closest thing to hell on earth. NARRATOR: The 1984 Ethiopian famine shocked the world. It was partly caused by a decade's long drought right across sub-Saharan Africa - a region known as the Sahel. For year after year the summer rains failed. At the time some scientists blamed overgrazing and poor land management. But now there's evidence that the real culprit was Global Dimming. The Sahel's lifeblood has always been a seasonal monsoon. For most of the year it is completely dry. But every summer, the heat of the sun warms the oceans north of the equator. This draws the rain belt that forms over the equator northwards, bringing rain to the Sahel. But for twenty years in the 1970s and 80s the tropical rain belt consistently failed to shift northwards - and the African monsoon failed. For climate scientists like Leon Rotstayn the disappearance of the rains had long been a puzzle. He could see that pollution from Europe and North America blew right across the Atlantic, but all the climate models suggested it should have little effect on the monsoon. But then Rotstayn decided to find out what would happen if he took the Maldive findings into account. DR LEON ROTSTAYN (CSIRO Atmospheric Research): What we found in our model was that when we allowed the pollution from Europe and North America to affect the properties of the clouds in the northern hemisphere the clouds reflected more sunlight back to space and this cooled the oceans of the northern hemisphere. And to our surprise the result of this was that the tropical rain bands moved southwards tracking away from the more polluted northern hemisphere towards the southern hemisphere. NARRATOR: Polluted clouds stopped the heat of the sun getting through. That heat was needed to draw the tropical rains northwards. So the life giving rain belt never made it to the Sahel. DR LEON ROTSTAYN: So what our model is suggesting is that these droughts in the Sahel in the 1970s and the 1980s may have been caused by pollution from Europe and North America affecting the properties of the clouds and cooling the oceans of the northern hemisphere. NARRATOR: Rotstayn has found a direct link between Global Dimming and the Sahel drought. If his model is correct, what came out of our exhaust pipes and power stations contributed to the deaths of a million people in Africa, and afflicted 50 million more. But this could be just of taste of what Global Dimming has in store. PROF VEERABHADRAN RAMANATHAN: The Sahel is just one example of the monsoon system. Let me take you to anther part of the world. Asia, where the same monsoon brings rainfall to three point six billion people, roughly half the world's population. My main concern is this air pollution and the Global Dimming will also have a detrimental impact on this Asian monsoon. We are not talking about few millions of people we are talking about few billions of people. NARRATOR: For Ramanathan the implications are clear. PROF VEERABHADRAN RAMANATHAN: There is no choice here we have to cut down air pollution, if not eliminate it altogether.
SO2 isnt sufficient to offset increasing CO2 NewScientist.com, Weekly science and technology news magazine, considered by some to be the world's best, with diverse subject matter, 2004, (2004 Climate Change, www.newscientist.com/hottopics/climate/climatefaq.jsp)
Right again. One of the nice ironies of this story is that burning coal and oil produces sulphate particles - which make acid rain. These particles help to shield the more industrialised countries from the full impact of global warming. In some places, such as central Europe and parts of China, they may have overwhelmed the warming, producing a net cooling. Other aerosols, such as dust from soil erosion and desertification, can also curb warming. But even if you find the idea of using one form of pollution to protect us from another, there is a problem. Whereas the average C02 molecule in the atmosphere lasts for about a century, sulphates and other aerosol molecules persist for only a few
Gonzaga Debate Institute 245 Warming Core days. This means two things. First, if you turned down the power stations, the world would get much hotter within a few days. Secondly, aerosols do not accumulate in the atmosphere in the way that C02 does. If you carry on burning a given amount of fossil fuel, the cooling effect of the sulphates will remain constant, while the warming effect of C02 will keep on increasing. So sulphates are not a solution.
Volcanoes solve aerosols United States Geological Survey June 11, 2o1o Volcanic Gases and their effects ( 6/11/10 http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hazards/gas/index.php)
Magma contains dissolved gases that are released into the atmosphere during eruptions. Gases are also released from magma that either remains below ground (for example, as an intrusion) or is rising toward the surface. In such cases, gases may escape continuously into the atmosphere from the soil, volcanic vents, fumaroles, and hydrothermal systems. At high pressures deep beneath the earth's surface, volcanic gases are dissolved in molten rock. But as magma rises toward the surface where the pressure is lower, gases held in the melt begin to form tiny bubbles. The increasing volume taken up by gas bubbles makes the magma less dense than the surrounding rock, which may allow the magma to continue its upward journey. Closer to the surface, the bubbles increase in number and size so that the gas volume may exceed the melt volume in the magma, creating a magma foam. The rapidly expanding gas bubbles of the foam can lead to explosive eruptions in which the melt is fragmented into pieces of volcanic rock, known as tephra. If the molten rock is not fragmented by explosive activity, a lava flow will be generated. Together with the tephra and entrained air, volcanic gases can rise tens of kilometers into Earth's atmosphere during large explosive eruptions. Once airborne, the prevailing winds may blow the eruption cloud hundreds to thousands of kilometers from a volcano. The gases spread from an erupting vent primarily as acid aerosols (tiny acid droplets), compounds attached to tephra particles, and microscopic salt particles. Volcanic gases undergo a tremendous increase in volume when magma rises to the Earth's surface and erupts. For example, consider what happens if one cubic meter of 900C rhyolite magma containing five percent by weight of dissolved water were suddenly brought from depth to the surface. The one cubic meter of magma now would occupy a volume of 670 m3 as a mixture of water vapor and magma at atmospheric pressure (Sparks et. al., 1997)! The one meter cube at depth would increase to 8.75 m on each side at the surface. Such enormous expansion of volcanic gases, primarily water, is the main driving force of explosive eruptions . The most abundant gas typically released into the atmosphere from volcanic systems is water vapor (H2O), followed by carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2). Volcanoes also release smaller amounts of others gases, including hydrogen sulfide (H2S), hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen chloride (HCL), hydrogen fluoride (HF), and helium (He). The volcanic gases that pose the greatest potential hazard to people, animals, agriculture, and property are sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen fluoride. Locally, sulfur dioxide gas can lead to acid rain and air pollution downwind from a volcano. Globally, large explosive eruptions that inject a tremendous volume of sulfur aerosols into the stratosphere can lead to lower surface temperatures and promote depletion of the Earth's ozone layer. Because carbon dioxide gas is heavier than air, the gas may flow into in low-lying areas and collect in the soil. The concentration of carbon dioxide gas in these areas can be lethal to people, animals, and vegetation. A few historic eruptions have released sufficient fluorine-compounds to deform or kill animals that grazed on vegetation coated with volcanic ash; fluorine compounds tend to become concentrated on fine-grained ash particles, which can be ingested by animals. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) The effects of SO2 on people and the environment vary widely depending on (1) the amount of gas a volcano emits into the atmosphere; (2) whether the gas is injected into the troposphere or stratosphere; and (3) the regional or global wind and weather pattern that disperses the gas. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is a colorless gas with a pungent odor that irritates skin and the tissues and mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, and throat. Sulfur dioxide chiefly affects upper respiratory tract and bronchi. The World Health Organization recommends a concentration of no greater than 0.5 ppm over 24 hours for maximum exposure. A concentration of 6-12 ppm can cause immediate irritation of the nose and throat; 20 ppm can cause eye irritation; 10,000 ppm will irritate moist skin within minutes. Emission rates of SO2 from an active volcano range from <20 tonnes/day to >10 million tonnes/day according to the style of volcanic activity and type and volume of magma involved. For example, the large explosive eruption of Mount Pinatubo on 15 June 1991 expelled 35 km3 of dacite magma and injected about 20 million metric tons of SO2 into the stratosphere. The sulfur aerosols resulted in a 0.5-0.6C cooling of the Earth's surface in the Northern Hemisphere. The sulfate aerosols also accelerated
Gonzaga Debate Institute 246 Warming Core chemical reactions that, together with the increased stratospheric chlorine levels from human-made chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) pollution, destroyed ozone and led to some of the lowest ozone levels ever observed in the atmosphere.
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Gonzaga Debate Institute 248 Warming Core behavior, and xed-SST results are unlikely to represent very well the impacts of trends in aerosols where the ocean has plenty of time to respond to ux changes at the surface. Moreover, the observed changes are signicantly larger than those reported here even with xed SST: from 1965 to 1995, mean sea-level pressure north of 45 N dropped by 2.5 hPa relative to that from 45 N to the equator (Gillett 2005), compared with a peak response here of 0.4 hPa. Similarly, zonal wind increased by 7 m s-1 at 60 N and 50 hPa (Scaife et al. 2005), compared to roughly 1ms-1 here. Thus, we nd wind and pressure changes that occur in roughly the same ratio as those of recent hard-toexplain trends, but at much smaller magnitudes. Nonetheless, the decadal variability in aerosol forcing (e.g., SE Asian haze Ramanathan et al. 2001b; e.g., Chung and Ramanathan 2003)as opposed to, say, the more monotonically changing forcing by greenhouse gases makes it an interesting possibility for explaining variations in the AO, which also have a strong decadal nature (Feldstein 2002). Given the cancellation found here between absorbing and scattering aerosol impacts, it is possible that decadal changes in the ratio of black carbon to sulfate could have exerted large effects. It is also possible that shifts of emissions from one region to another (Streets et al. 2009) may have affected the AO by inuencing rTand the wavelength of perturbations to the midlatitude ow. It would appear worthwhile to include more realistic aerosol forcing changes in climate models, or at least to consider more seriously the possible impacts of unknown variations in the distribution and type of aerosols as an additional source of forcing uncertainty in model experiments.