The Great Global Warming Swindle

The Great Global Warming Swindle
SUSTAINABLE LIVING TASMANIA

Whos doing the swindling?
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The documentary film The Great Global
Warming Swindle is a slick and viewable
piece of television, promising to show
that "the actual scientific basis for the
theory (of man-made global warming) is
crumbling". As such The Swindle is a
swindle in itself.
1. Are greenhouse gases emitted
from human activities increasing
global temperature?
GGWS says that, from previous glacial
cycles, we can tell that CO2 doesnt cause
warming. This is false. Whats happening
now is different from what happened during
glacial cycles. Warming in glacial cycles is
triggered by changes in the suns radiation
and amplified by feedback processes such
as greenhouse gases being given off by a
warmer ocean and heat-reflecting ice cover
being removed. But with large-scale
burning of coal and oil, accumulating
greenhouse gases have become the main
agent of warming, also amplified by
feedback processes.
Viewers of Martin Durkin's film need to
be aware of its fallacies and
misrepresentations. Over several decades,
the views presented by GGWS have been
considered and tested by the worlds
climate scientists. An overwhelming
majority of scientists have rejected them
as irrelevant to the present, pressing
debate.
After analysing enormously complex
climate data, scientists have almost
unanimously concluded that while there
are many causes of global warming, we
humans are the main influence today.
They are saying that the consequences of
global warming will not be to our
advantage, that we will have to change
what were doing and that we must act,
now.
GGWS says that human influences are
small compared with natural sources. This is
wrong. For example, volcanic emissions are
about 1/150th of human CO2 emissions. If
volcanoes had an impact, the atmospheric
CO2 record would show spikes after
volcanic eruptions but it doesnt.
GGWS implies that the oceans are a bigger
source of greenhouse gases than human
emissions. This is wrong. There is a large
two-way exchange of CO2 between the
atmosphere and the oceans, but crucially,
about 1/60th of this is an imbalance driven
mainly by emissions from human activities.
Rather than comparing human emissions
with the two-way atmosphere-ocean
exchange, we should put our human
emissions (about 8 gigatonnes of carbon a
year) up against the oceans absorption of
these emissions (only 2.2 gigatonnes a year)
and the 2.6 gigatonnes/year absorbed by
biological processes on land. The rest of our
emissions 3.2 gigatonnes/year is
increasing the concentration in the
atmosphere.
Below are some of the issues canvassed
in GGWS, with a scientific response. The
notes highlight the processes of science,
in which issues are clarified through
rigorous examination and re-examination
of data, both old and new. In failing to
apply these processes, GGWS has let
down its audiences.

(Note: The comments relate to the
original version of the film shown in the
UK. The version screened on ABC TV
12.07.07 was edited to remove some of
the most glaring misrepresentations.)
Tasmanian Environment Centre Inc. trading as Sustainable Living Tasmania
1st floor, 71 Murray Street, Hobart, Tas 7000, Phone (03) 6234 5566, Fax (03) 6234 5543
Email info@sustainablelivingtasmania.org.au
www.sustainablelivingtasmania.org.au

2. Is the sun the dominant driver
of global temperature?
No, not at present. Changes in global
temperature have multiple influences,
including the sun, greenhouse gases and
aerosols. Earlier in the 20th century the
suns influence was detectable, but in
recent decades warming has been
dominated by greenhouse gases. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change says in its 2007 scientific report:
"It is likely that there has been significant
anthropogenic [human-induced] warming
over the past 50 years averaged over each
continent except Antarctica.The
observed patterns of warming, including
greater warming over land than over the
ocean, and their changes over time, are
only simulated by models that include
anthropogenic forcing.
3. Can we trust the data
presented in GGWS?
No. Some of the GGWS data is
misattributed, some is distorted, some is
cherry-picked and some is clearly
fabricated, as shown in three key graphs
used in the film.
Graph 1: Global temperature for 1880-
2000. This was attributed to NASA .
But this is significantly different from the
NASA graph at:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/.
For example, the temperature rise from
1940 to 2000 is about 0.35C in the true
NASA graph but only about 0.18C in the
GGWS version.
Graph 2: Global temperature and solar
forcing for 1860-1980 intended to show
a correlation between solar activity and
global temperature. One of the Danish
authors of this 1991 graph, Friis-
Christensen (who appeared in GGWS),
has recently criticised two of the films
uses of his data:
(http://folk.uio.no/nathan/web/statement_
bak.html), indicating that the 1991 plot
was too short to adequately describe recent
events. A paper published in 2000 failed to
show any correlation between solar
influences and temperature after 1985, when
the temperature continued to rise but solar
activity flattened out. This paper was
ignored by GGWS.
Graph 3: Global temperature and solar
forcing for 1550-1980. One of this graphs
Danish authors, Friis-Christensen, said
recently (see
http://folk.uio.no/nathan/web/statement_bak
.html) that the original 1991 paper provided
no solar activity for the period 1610 to
1710. In the GGWS version, this gap in
solar activity data is simply filled with a
replica of the global temperature (with
which it is supposed to correlate!). In his
web criticism, Friis-Christensen refers to
this as fabricated data.
4. Do model simulations disagree
with temperature observations?
GGWS claims that satellite and balloon
observations are at odds with computer
models, which predict more warming in the
mid-troposphere (the bottom part of our
atmosphere) than at down at the surface.
But this statement is based on old and
flawed analyses of satellite and balloon
data. One of the scientists who originally
made this claim, John Christie who
appears in GGWS has accepted these
flaws, though this was not acknowledged in
GGWS.
Other useful information:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archiv
es/2007/03/swindled/
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archiv
es/2007/03/swindled-carl-wunsch-responds/
http://www.climateofdenial.net/
Prepared by John Hunter (climate scientist),
Margaret Steadman (Executive Officer,
Sustainable Living Tasmania) and Peter
Boyer (The Climate Project)
June 2007 (Revised 9/7/07)
Tasmanian Environment Centre Inc. trading as Sustainable Living Tasmania
1
st
floor, 71 Murray Street, Hobart, Tas 7000, Phone (03) 6234 5566, Fax (03) 6234 5543
Email info@sustainablelivingtasmania.org.au
www.sustainablelivingtasmania.org.au

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SUSTAINABLE LIVING TASMANIA

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