Letter writer Francis Farley recently offered: "This is a challenge to global warming deniers. Can you refute the following statements?"
I am not an expert in climatology, but I've had an interest in the subject for some time and do not believe human-caused global warming to be the glooming disaster it is popularly believed to be. Responding to this challenge, I offer one of many published sources of evidence. The source is work by William Kininmonth, a former head of Australia's National Climate Centre.
"A general understanding has evolved within scientific and political discussions on the issue that global warming exceeding 2 degrees Celsius would be dangerous. The evidence, however, is speculative and linked to the projections of computer models.
"The claims that human emissions of carbon dioxide will cause dangerous climate change largely have their foundation on three premises:
"1. Prior (to humans) the Earth was in radiation balance and the Earth's climate was then stable.
"2. Stability is being disrupted by accumulation of human-caused carbon dioxide in the atmosphere & reducing infrared radiation to space.
"3. There is a direct relationship between the reduction of infrared radiation to space and the increase in surface temperature.
"There is little disagreement that additional carbon dioxide & will enhance the greenhouse effect. However, these seemingly plausible statements are either demonstrably false or not verified by rigorous theory or observation."
The article goes on to demonstrate there is not a direct linear relationship between decreased infrared radiation to space and increasing surface temperature of the earth.
— Mark Lopes, Durham