Environmental Issues

Historical & Present Climate Data

Many scientists are calling the climate change conference in Kyoto, Japan, "futile or worse." They warn that the theory of global warming has been tested carefully, and does not hold up. Measurements of atmospheric temperatures over the past 50 years, they say, have definitively shown that major atmospheric greenhouse warming is not occurring.

Here are some of their findings:

  • During the past 3,000 years, there have been five distinct periods when it was warmer than it is today.

  • Atmospheric temperatures have been rising for the past 300 years, but remain below the 3,000-year average.

  • There is a close correlation between temperature changes and changes in solar activity -- with rising temperatures over the past 250 years corresponding to periods of increased solar activity.

  • The highest temperatures in the recent past occurred about 1940, and temperatures have actually tended to decrease during the last 20 years -- as confirmed by measurements from weather balloons.

These findings contradict the theory that rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere -- the result of increased industrialization -- are responsible for global warming, the scientists point out.

They say that attempts to predict global weather over long periods through the use of computer models are, at present, doomed to failure because of the complexity of all the factors involved.

Finally, scientists say hydrocarbon use has major environmental benefits. A great deal of research has shown that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide accelerate the growth rates of plants and also permit plants to grow in drier regions. In fact, standing timber in the U.S. has already increased 30 percent since 1950.

Source: Arthur B. Robinson and Zachary W. Robinson (both Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine), "Science Has Spoken: Global Warming Is a Myth," Wall Street Journal, December 4, 1997.

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