Every so often we still come across the odd person who asseverates; “climate change isn’t real, anyway it’s not caused by humans, and anyway. it’s all a Big Communist Conspiracy designed to stop the people who fund our think tank from getting rich!” So, just in case you are passing through the Dog and Duck, or getting your car mended and you meet someone like that, we thought you might like to make use of a website designed to help you. You won’t get less Communist than the Royal Society (it was around when Karl Marx’s great grandparents were a twinkle in their fathers’ eyes) or more scientifically astute. It will even let you ask the following questions
1 a)What was the concentration of CO2 in parts per million in the atmosphere before the nineteenth century? b)What was it in 1959? c) And what was it in 2019
answers a) it was 260- 280 ppm for the previous 10 000 years It never rose above 300ppm for the whole of the ice ages, a period of over a million years b 316ppm c 411 ppm
2 Name three gases which trap heat and by how much has their level risen since pre industrial times
answers: Carbon dioxide 40% Methane 150% Nitrous oxide 20%
3 How do you explain the changing ratio of C14 to C12 in atmospheric gases?
answer: it comes from fossil fuels
4 By how much has the temperature risen since 1900. Can this be explained by natural variation?
answer 1OC No, it can’t
5 Is water vapour a driver or an amplifier of climate change?
answer: amplifier
There’s plenty more here [1] if you are interested But these questions should produce interesting answers. And remember the old saying: extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Let them come up with that.
#climate change #global warming #royal society #evidence #carbon dioxide
Learning, Science and Society 