Top 5 Climate Sceptic Arguments & How to Respond to Them
Channel: New Internationalist
Date: 2013-11-19

Danny Chivers debunks the 5 most common climate sceptic arguments in 3 and a bit minutes.

Check out www.nononsensevideos.org for references on everything in the video, great resources and ways to take action.

Buy Danny's No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Change here: http://nin.tl/1at9sSo

1. Do the scientists all agree?

The thing we should remember about science is that it moves forward through debate and there's plenty of disagreement amongst scientists about things like the exact rate of global warming.

However there is practically no disagreement, however, there is practically no disagreement that climate change is happening, that it's serious, and that it's caused by humanity's greenhouse gas emissions.

A recent survey of 12,000 peer-reviewed climate science papers found that 97% agreed that climate change was caused by humanity's greenhouse gas emissions.

Yes yes yes, but hasn't the climate always changed?

2. Hasn't the climate always changed?

Well yeah evidence from ice sheets and trees rings does show that in the distant past the Earth has swung between warmer and colder periods.

These changes were caused by the sun going through a warmer phase or slight variations in the earth's orbit leading to gradual warming or cooling over hundreds or thousands of years.

What's going on now however can't be explained by those natural cycles.
We've blasted a huge amount of carbon into the atmosphere over the past 150 years, overriding those slow natural changes and kicking off a period of rapid warming unlike anything that we know of in prehistoric times.

That's what you say! But I've heard that recent evidence shows that climate change has stopped.

3. Has Climate Change Stopped?

I really wish it had but it hasn't! The rise in surface temperature has been going through a slow patch since the early 2000s, but scientists expect the warming to go a bit faster or slower sometimes.

One reason for this is that the ocean have been absorbing more heat than usual, so even though temperatures at the surface of planet have been are rising a bit more slowly, the total average temperature including under the seas has still been heading steadily upwards.

But the global economy is bust. Can we really afford to tackle climate change?

4. Can we afford to tackle climate change?

There are several responses to this question. The first one is to ask: Are you sure you understand the scale of the problem?

Climate change could strip away the basic life support systems that humanity relies on to survive on this planet.

If you wake up to find your house flooded, you don't worry about whether you will be late for work, you start shifting sandbags!

Also, there's plenty of money around for tackling climate change. Governments currently subsidise the fossil fuel industry by almost 2,000 billion dollars.
If that money was instead spent on renewable power and energy efficiency it would benefit local economies and create jobs, like in Germany where the renewables sector employs around 400,000 people.

Yes yes, I can accept all of that, but isn't climate change a giant global conspiracy, with the world's natural scientists in league with Al Gore and the polar bears and the secret Shadow World Government?

5. Isn't climate change a giant global conspiracy, with the world's natural scientists in league with Al Gore and the polar bears and the secret Shadow World Government?

Yes, you're right.

So if these arguments are all false, why are some people so drawn to them?
Well it might be because cracking down on the fossil fuel industry would conflict with their political beliefs or challenge what they do for a living, or simply because this stuff is really freaking scary and they just don't want to think about it. All of which is understandable but has nothing to do with the facts.