Why the disconnect between CO2, temps?

The Colorado Legislature and Gov. Polis seem determined to wreck our electrical power system, our oil and gas industr y, and the rest of our economy in an attempt to reduce CO2 emissions. Their motive for this action appears to be to stop excessive warming caused by CO2 through the greenhouse gas effect. Polis’ emissions reduction roadmap states that human caused emissions of greenhouse gases, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, is causing atmospheric warming.

To back up this statement, the road map provides two graphs. One shows the increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration over the past 270 years. The other shows the change in average global air temperature since about 1850. The road map then notes that the steepest increase in air temperature has occurred over the past half-centur y and implies that is primarily due to a steep increase in CO2 concentration during that same period.

But what the road map does not address are the inconsistencies between the two graphs provided and the belief that CO2 is the primar y cause of the rise in global temperature. The first inconsistency is that the temperature went up almost as fast from about 1910 to 1945 as it did over the last half-centur y while the CO2 concentration increased much more slowly, at less than one sixth the later rate. The other inconsistency is that the temperature actually went down from about 1945 to 1975 although the CO2 concentration still increased.

And a recent article on the Watts Up With That website, “Millennial CO2 And Temperature,” shows that this disconnect between CO2 and temperature has been going on for at least the last 2,000 years. Based on ice core data, the atmospheric CO2 concentration stayed relatively constant from the “Roman Period” until the recent increase noted above. However, during that time, temperature did not remain so constant. There was an early “Roman Warm Period,” which lasted until about 200 AD. Then temperatures dropped until about 500 AD. After that, the world warmed up again to the “Medieval Warm Period.” Then the temperatures cooled to the “Little Ice Age” which ended about 1700 AD, and since then temperatures have generally warmed up to the present time.

The author of the WUWT ar ticle, Willis Eschenbach, lists a number of questions about the temperature record over the last two millennia. Essentially, he asks what caused each warming and cooling period to occur, why did each one star t when it did and why did each one last for the specific period of time that it did. He goes on to note that not one climate scientist, and I would add any other kind of scientist, really knows the answer to those questions. And, since CO2 concentration stayed relatively constant, it obviously wasn’t CO2. The author goes on to say, “Without having enough understanding of the climate to know the answers to those questions, there is absolutely no way to say that the recent warming is not merely more natural fluctuations in the earth’s temperature.”

Neither has anyone been able to explain the inconsistencies that I noted earlier between the CO2 concentration and temperature since 1910. This adds to the uncer tainty about what has caused the one degree rise in global temperature since the industrial age began. If the rise is largely due to something other than CO2, which cer tainly seems to be the case, stopping all CO2 emissions will have only a minor ef fect on it.

More and more people, including a number of world leaders judging by their actions, appear to be coming to realize that it is highly unlikely that CO2 is primarily responsible for the recent temperature rise. However, most of our politicians, egged on by much of our media, are still acting like it is and tr ying to eliminate fossil fuels. The sensible approach is to keep our power system and our economy strong by using reliable proven power sources so that we are able to adapt as needed to any changes in the climate.

Continuing to promote unreliable intermittent wind and solar power through government subsidies and mandates is definitely the wrong approach. The only ones that helps are the crony capitalist wind and solar developers and the politicians they have bought.

Carl Brady is a retired engineer who has lived in Frederick for almost 16 years.