{"id":662,"date":"2017-02-02T20:46:42","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T20:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/?p=662"},"modified":"2017-02-02T21:15:17","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T21:15:17","slug":"dare-to-doubt-20-climate-change-facts-for-deniers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/dare-to-doubt-20-climate-change-facts-for-deniers\/","title":{"rendered":"Dare to Doubt: 20 Climate Change Facts for Deniers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
    \n
  1. Carbon dioxide is rising as a component of Earth\u2019s atmosphere (NOAA, 2017).<\/li>\n
  2. The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has not been this high for the past 5 million years (Stap et al. 2016).<\/li>\n
  3. Beginning about 10,000 years ago and extending\u00a0to the advent of the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was roughly constant, indicating that natural sources were well-balanced by removals from the atmosphere (Fluckiger et al. 2002).<\/li>\n
  4. The current rise in carbon dioxide is due to human activities, especially combustion of fossil fuels (Hofmann et al. 2009).<\/li>\n
  5. Carbon dioxide is a \u201cgreenhouse\u201d gas, inasmuch as it absorbs heat radiation leaving the Earth\u2019s surface (Tyndall, 1865).<\/li>\n
  6. There is a natural greenhouse effect on Earth, which keeps its temperature above freezing (Houghton 1986).<\/li>\n
  7. Water vapor, methane and nitrous oxide also act \u201cgreenhouse gases\u201d in the atmosphere, but the human impacts are greatest for CO2 <\/sub>(Schmidt et al. 2010).<\/li>\n
  8. Past period of high CO2<\/sub> have been unusually warm (Luthi et al. 2008, Parrenin et al. 2013; Triparti et al. 2009).<\/li>\n
  9. 2016 was the hottest year on record (Science 355: 331, 2017).<\/li>\n
  10. Rising CO2<\/sub> will affect the mean annual (not necessarily daily) temperature on Earth (Trenberth 1992).<\/li>\n
  11. Mean annual temperature is an essential feature of climate (von Humboldt 1860).<\/li>\n
  12. Different climate regions on Earth determine what crops we can grow, what diseases we experience, and how much water is available (von Humboldt 1860).<\/li>\n
  13. Past changes in global climate have determined the position of sea level (Grant et al. 2012).<\/li>\n
  14. Higher levels of CO2<\/sub> in Earth\u2019s atmosphere increase the acidity of seawater, making it difficult for shellfish to synthesize their shells (Ekstrom et al. 2014).<\/li>\n
  15. CO2<\/sub> is an essential component for plant photosynthesis, and it should increase the rate of growth of most plants\u2014both crops and weeds\u2014when other conditions are favorable (Taiz and Zeiger 1998).<\/li>\n
  16. Measured increases in plant growth during the past few decades have been rather modest (Long et al. 2006; Groenendijk et al. 2015).<\/li>\n
  17. Higher plant growth does not equate with greater carbon storage on land, as a way to mitigate rising CO2<\/sub> in the atmosphere (Wieder et al. 2015).<\/li>\n
  18. Higher temperatures are associated with greater occurrence of drought, which lowers plant growth (Rind et al. 1990).<\/li>\n
  19. Drought is directly correlated to and a determinant of forest fires.<\/li>\n
  20. Drought, famine, and losses of soil fertility are implicated in the downfall of several historical civilizations (deMenocal 2001).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    References<\/p>\n

    deMenocal, P.B. 2001.\u00a0 Cultural response to climate change during the late Holocene.\u00a0 Science 292: 667-673.<\/p>\n

    Ekstrom, J.A. and 16 others.\u00a0 2014. Vulnerability and adaptation of US shellfisheries to ocean acidification.\u00a0 Nature Climate Change\u00a0 doi: 10.1038\/NClimate2508.<\/p>\n

    Fluckiger, J., E. Monnin, B. Stauffer, J. Schwander, T.F. Stocker, J. Chappellaz, D. Raynaud, and J.M. Barnola. 2002.\u00a0\u00a0 High-resolution Holocene N2<\/sub>O ice-core record and its relationship with CH4<\/sub> and CO2<\/sub>.\u00a0 Global Biogeochemical Cycles 16:<\/p>\n

    Grant, K.M., E.J. Rohling, M. B. Matthews, A. Ayalon, M. M. Elizalde, C.B. Ramsey, C. Satow, and A.P. Roberts. 2012.\u00a0 Rapid coupling between ice volume and polar temperature over the past 150,000 years.\u00a0 Nature 491: 744-747.<\/p>\n

    Groenendijk, P., P. van der Sleen, M. Vlam, S. Bunyavejchewin, F. Bongers and P.A. Zuidema. 2015.\u00a0\u00a0 No evidence for consistent long-term growth stimulation of 13 tropical tree species: Results from tree-ring analysis.\u00a0 Global Change Biology doi: 10.111\/gcb.12955.<\/p>\n

    Houghton, J.T. 1986.\u00a0 The Physics of Atmospheres.<\/em> 2nd<\/sup> ed., Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n

    Long, S.P. Long, E.A. Ainsworth, A.D.B. Leakey, J. Nosberger, and D.R. Ort. 2006.\u00a0 Food for thought: Lower-Than-Expected Crop Yield Stimulation with Rising CO2<\/sub> Concentration.\u00a0 Science 312: 1918-1921.<\/p>\n

    Luthi, D., M. Le Floch, B. Bereiter, T. Blunier, J.M. Barnola, U. Siegenthaler, D. Raynaud, J. Jouzel, H. Fischer, K. Kawamura, and T.F. Stocker. 2008.\u00a0 High-resolution carbon dioxide concentration record 650,000-800,000 years before present.\u00a0 Nature 453: 379-382.<\/p>\n

    NOAA.\u00a0 2017.\u00a0 https:\/\/www.esrl.noaa.gov\/gmd\/ccgg\/trends\/full.html<\/a><\/p>\n

    Parrenin, F., V. Masson-Delmotte, P. Kohler, D. Raynaud, D. Paillard, J. Schwander, C. Barbante, A. Landais, A. Wegner, and J. Jouzel. 2013.\u00a0 Synchronous change of atmospheric CO2<\/sub> and Antarctic temperature during the last deglacial warming.\u00a0 Science 339: 1060-1063.<\/p>\n

    Rind, D., R. Goldberg, J. Hansen, C. Rosenzweig, and R. Ruedy. 1990.\u00a0\u00a0 Potential evapotranspiration and the likelihood of future drought.\u00a0 Journal of Geophysical Research 95: 9983-10004.<\/p>\n

    Schmidt, G.A., R.A. Ruedy, R.L. Miller, and A.A. Lacis. 2010. Attribution of the present-day total greenhouse effect.\u00a0 Journal of Geophysical Research 115:<\/p>\n

    Stap, L.B., B. de Boer, M. Ziegler, R. Bintanja, L.J. Lourens, and R.S.W. van de Wal. 2016.\u00a0 CO2<\/sub> over the past 5 million years: Continuous simulation and new \u03b411<\/sup>B-based proxy data.\u00a0 Earth and Planetary Science Letters 439: 1-10.<\/p>\n

    Taiz, L. and E. Zeiger. 1998.\u00a0 Plant Physiology<\/em>. 2nd<\/sup> ed., Sinauer Associates Publishers, MA<\/p>\n

    Trenberth, K.E. 1992.\u00a0 Climate System Modeling. Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n

    Tripati, A.K., C.D. Roberts, and R.A. Eagle. 2009.\u00a0\u00a0 Coupling of CO2<\/sub> and ice sheet stability over major climate transitions of the last 20 million years.\u00a0 Science 326: 1394-1397.<\/p>\n

    Tyndall, J. 1865. Heat: A Mode of Motion.<\/em>\u00a0 D. Appleton and Co., New York.<\/p>\n

    von Humboldt, A.\u00a0 1860. Cosmos: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe<\/em> (translated and reprinted by Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore, 1997)<\/p>\n

    Wieder, W.R., C.C. Cleveland, W.K. Smith, and K. Todd-Brown. 2015.\u00a0 Future productivity and carbon storage limited by terrestrial nutrient availability.\u00a0 Nature Geoscience 8: 441-445<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Carbon dioxide is rising as a component of Earth\u2019s atmosphere (NOAA, 2017). The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has not been this high for the past 5 million years (Stap et al. 2016).Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":517,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[114,81,83,5,143],"tags":[137,291],"coauthors":[6],"class_list":["post-662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biogeochemistry","category-climate","category-energy","category-faculty","category-renewable-energy","tag-climate-change","tag-greenhouse-effect"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5KxUl-aG","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/517"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":670,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions\/670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}