I watched this documentary on CBC Newsworld the other day where some interesting points were made with regards to global warming and the greenhouse effect.

Many of you are familiar with the hockey-stick curve as it was the model developed and accepted by those who attended the conferences in Rio and Kyoto. This group of well respected scientists have proven this curve as inaccurate and our global temperature increases are a natural trend, nothing different than what had occurred before mankind's consumption of fossil fuels. Through the documentary they explain the earth’s surface temperature is rising, but the atmospheric temperature is not growing close to the rate some indicate. The higher surface temperature is likely due to our growing cities and little to do with the greenhouse effect itself. This is why we see temperatures in cities significantly higher than surrounding rural areas and why surface temperature measurements are so erroneous.

The greenhouse effect while it receives a lot of bad press these days, is actually required for our existence; through water vapour and clouds, and not just CO2. The earth has ways to cool itself in ways no climate model can explain, the earth’s many ice ages for example. Looking at our planet’s historical temperatures and CO2 levels, even in a time where we are consuming fossil fuels like no other, the levels are not out of the ordinary or even close to the highest.

It was interesting to see that all the hype over the greenhouse effect and global warming could be unjustified. I like seeing results like this such that we can focus our energy and resources at reducing smog and other chemicals (things that actually affect people’s health) instead of focusing on reducing a gas which could have no impact on our lives. I am a huge advocate of sustainable growth, but we need to understand what will limit our sustainability; CO2 emissions may not.

If you can get your hands on this documentary; I highly recommend it.

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