Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda

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Jul
31

Just the facts, ma’am…

Another day, another record-breaking heat wave. And this one is really really bad.

Amazon workers are going on strike…construction crews on the Canadian border are knocking off early to avoid heat…Florida utility workers are postponing checks for gas leaks due to excessive heat risks

Yet some folks still don’t think we humans are the problem…they call up all kinds of specious arguments supported by “I read an article…” “They said…” “This one scientist”

I’ve put together a handy point:counterpoint addressing deniers’ arguments…feel free to plagiarize!

About global warming!

Denier: Scientists don’t agree that humans are driving global warming or, another equally wrong argument that “non-human events” (volcanoes??) are the driver.

Well…Net is even four years ago, almost every climate scientist agreed global warming is caused by humans.

Every credible scientific organization agrees.

More than 400 billion metric tons of carbon have been released into the atmosphere from the consumption of fossil fuels and cement production since 1751- half of which was emitted since the 1980s. 

There are no credible sources asserting non-human greenhouse gas production is a significant contributor to the 45% increase in carbon over the last 150 years. (If you have any, please post in comments below)

Denier: The climate changes all the time…those scientists don’t know why.
Well…research shows climate changes NOT associated with greenhouse gases were most likely generated by earth’s wobbling on its axis – and the sun was cooler long ago.
Denier: You can’t prove human-generated greenhouse gas increases are causing these big weather events.
Well…yes we can.  Attribution science is becoming ever better at predicting future events based on human-caused global warming’s effects.
Denier: Weather was worse (pick a time) and here’s a chart/graph/meme that proves it.
These are misleading misuses of data from credible sources...one fave is this – which is actually from the EPA…which deniers use to say “see…it was worse back in the thirties!!”
A graph showing the temperature of the year Description automatically generated
Well…a “heat wave index” is really misleading as it refers to a specific event – a “heat wave” and doesn’t address global warming.  Fortunately, the EPA has this. As you can see, things varied in the past – up until about 1980…then, the trend is only up.