Thread: Climategate--The Final Chapter
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Old 04-04-2016, 04:47 AM
  #743  
Flytolive
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Originally Posted by PurpleToolBox View Post
No he didn't.
Claim: Measurements reveal that CO2 levels are a consequence of temperature, not the cause. Temperature drives CO2 levels.
Assessment: True before 1800. But false today.
Some 800,000 years' worth of ice core records indicate that temperature rises did drive an increase in CO2 levels. But that was before humans started digging up huge quantities fossil fuels and transferring all that sequestered carbon to the atmosphere.
It is worth noting, however, that even in the past CO2 had an impact on temperatures, given its role as a greenhouse gas.
It's also worth noting that ancient temperature and CO2-level changes happened over thousands of years. The Earth needed, for example, 5,000 years to bring atmospheric CO2 concentrations up 80 ppm after the last glacial period.
With the onset of industrialization, the tables turned. Humans have increased atmospheric CO2 levels almost 80 ppm in just 60 years. Now humans are the drivers of CO2 level, not temperature.
And what frightens climate scientists is that temperature hasn't caught up yet.
Source: NOAA Mauna Loa Observatory ESRL Global Monitoring Division - Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network
Source: Scott Mandia, State University of New York, Suffolk Global Warming Misinformation - CO2 Lags Temperature
Source: Eric Steig, University of Washington
The lag between temperature and CO2. (Gore?s got it right.) « RealClimate

Originally Posted by PurpleToolBox View Post
Nobody knows why we had mini ice ages even though CO2 was increasing significantly and why the warming was much much higher than the current 0.8C trend even though CO2 levels were flat compared to today.
Another red herring.

IPCC Third Assessment Report - Climate Change 2001
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