query: The idea that climate change is producing heat records across the Earth is among the most egregious manipulations of data in the absurd global warming debate.

positive: Attribution of recent climate change Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are :  increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases  global changes to land surface , such as deforestation  increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols .   There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity .   According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence .   Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities :  A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established .  Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual .  Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included .  Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming .   The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .

positive: Climate change (general concept) Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth\'s energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth\'s energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.\nThe energy moving through Earth\'s climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region\'s climate. Such changes can be the result of "internal variability", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system\'s components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism.\nClimate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.

positive: Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally .   Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be .   Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .

negative: Breeding for heat stress tolerance Plant breeding is process of development of new cultivars . Plant breeding involves development of varieties for different environmental conditions -- some of them are not favorable . Among them , heat stress is one of such factor that reduces the production and quality significantly . So breeding against heat is a very important criterion for breeding for current as well as future environments produced by global climate change ( e.g. global warming ) .

negative: Effects of global warming on humans Climate change has brought about possibly permanent alterations to Earth 's geological , biological and ecological systems . These changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health , such as extreme weather , ozone depletion , increased danger of wildland fires , loss of biodiversity , stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 160,000 deaths , since 1950 , are directly attributable to climate change . Many believe this to be a conservative estimate .   To date , a neglected aspect of the climate change debate , much less research has been conducted on the impacts of climate change on health , food supply , economic growth , migration , security , societal change , and public goods , such as drinking water , than on the geophysical changes related to global warming . Human impacts can be both negative and positive . Climatic changes in Siberia , for instance , are expected to improve food production and local economic activity , at least in the short to medium term . Numerous studies suggest , however , that the current and future impacts of climate change on human society are and will continue to be overwhelmingly negative .   The majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world , who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health , wealth and other factors , and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change . A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009 , estimated more than 300,000 deaths and about $ 125 billion in economic losses each year , and indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries .

negative: Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years .   In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing .   Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years .   Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) ,  whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change .   Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .

negative: Climate change in Germany Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe .

negative: Effects of climate change on island nations Climate change is producing drastic changes to Earth processes and changing Earth 's environmental status quo . Especially pertinent to human development is the threat of climate change on island nations . As sea levels continue to rise , island peoples and cultures are being threatened . As the former President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands , Christopher Loeak , noted `` In the last year alone , my country has suffered through unprecedented droughts in the north , and the biggest ever king tides in the south ; and we have watched the most devastating typhoons in history leave a trail of death and destruction across the region . '' Efforts to combat theses environmental changes are ongoing and multinational . Particularly notable is the adoption of the Paris agreement at the UN Climate Summit in Paris in 2015 , which by no means an unqualified success , is certainly a step in the right direction in regards to fighting the effects of climate by aiming to slow the pace of global warming .

negative: January 2014 southeastern Australia heat wave The January 2014 southeastern Australia heat wave was a significant heat wave event which affected most of southeastern Australia from 13 to 18 January 2014 . The main areas affected were Victoria , Tasmania , southern New South Wales away from the coast and the southern half of South Australia . The event ranked along with the 2009 heat wave , 1939 heat wave and 1908 heat wave as one of the most significant multi-day heatwaves on record . The heat wave broke a number of records for extended periods of heat .   A spike in heat waves and record breaking high temperatures across Australia over the past five years has led to concerns over the effects of global warming and climate change on the country .   Adelaide , South Australia suffered the brunt of the summer heat wave , recording 13 days with temperatures above 40 ° C.

negative: Greening Earth Society The Greening Earth Society , now defunct , was a public relations organization which promoted the idea that there is considerable scientific doubt about the effects of climate change and increased levels of carbon dioxide . The Society published the World Climate Report , a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute .   It was a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association , with which it shared an office and many staff members . It has been called a `` front group created by the coal industry '' and an `` industry front '' . Fred Palmer , a Society staffer , is a registered lobbyist for Peabody Energy , a coal company .   Although the Greening Earth Society was generally skeptical of the impact of climate change , it acknowledged some degree of global warming as real : `` Fact # 1 . The rate of global warming during the past several decades has been about 0.18 ° C per decade '' . Note that the actual increase in the global surface temperature during the 100 years ending in 2005 was 0.74 ± 0.18 ° C.

negative: Debate over China's economic responsibilities for climate change mitigation This article documents the debate over China 's economic responsibilities for climate change mitigation and mitigation of climate change in China .   Both internationally and within the People 's Republic of China , there has been an ongoing debate over China 's responsibilities , particularly since 2006 , when China surpassed the US as the country with the highest emissions rate for the main atmospheric gas in global warming , carbon dioxide ( CO2 )

negative: Cloud feedback Cloud feedback is the coupling between cloudiness and surface air temperature where a surface air temperature change leads to a change in clouds , which could then amplify or diminish the initial temperature perturbation . Cloud feedbacks can affect the magnitude of internally generated climate variability or they can affect the magnitude of climate change resulting from external radiative forcings .   Global warming is expected to change the distribution and type of clouds . Seen from below , clouds emit infrared radiation back to the surface , and so exert a warming effect ; seen from above , clouds reflect sunlight and emit infrared radiation to space , and so exert a cooling effect . Cloud representations vary among global climate models , and small changes in cloud cover have a large impact on the climate . Differences in planetary boundary layer cloud modeling schemes can lead to large differences in derived values of climate sensitivity . A model that decreases boundary layer clouds in response to global warming has a climate sensitivity twice that of a model that does not include this feedback . However , satellite data show that cloud optical thickness actually increases with increasing temperature . Whether the net effect is warming or cooling depends on details such as the type and altitude of the cloud ; details that are difficult to represent in climate models .

negative: Berkeley Earth Berkeley Earth is a Berkeley , California based independent 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit focused on land temperature data analysis for climate science . Berkeley Earth was founded in early 2010 ( originally called the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project ) with the goal of addressing the major concerns from outside the scientific community regarding global warming and the instrumental temperature record . The project 's stated aim was a `` transparent approach , based on data analysis . '' In February 2013 , Berkeley Earth became an independent non-profit . In August 2013 , Berkeley Earth was granted 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) tax-exempt status by the US government . The primary product is air temperatures over land , but they also produce a global dataset resulting from a merge of their land data with HadSST .   Berkeley Earth founder Richard A. Muller told The Guardian  '' ... we are bringing the spirit of science back to a subject that has become too argumentative and too contentious , ... we are an independent , non-political , non-partisan group . We will gather the data , do the analysis , present the results and make all of it available . There will be no spin , whatever we find . We are doing this because it is the most important project in the world today . Nothing else comes close . ''   Berkeley Earth has been funded by unrestricted educational grants totaling ( as of December 2013 ) about $ 1,394,500 . Large donors include Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , the Charles G. Koch Foundation , the Fund for Innovative Climate and Energy Research ( FICER ) , and the William K. Bowes , Jr. . Foundation . The donors have no control over how Berkeley Earth conducts the research or what they publish .   The team 's preliminary findings , data sets and programs were published in journals operated by OMICS Group , a predatory open access publisher beginning in December 2012 . The study addressed scientific concerns including urban heat island effect , poor station quality , and the risk of data selection bias . The Berkeley Earth group concluded that the warming trend is real , that over the past 50 years ( between the decades of the 1950s and 2000s ) the land surface warmed by 0.91 ± 0.05 ° C , and their results mirror those obtained from earlier studies carried out by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , the Hadley Centre , NASA 's Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) Surface Temperature Analysis , and the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia . The study also found that the urban heat island effect and poor station quality did not bias the results obtained from these earlier studies .

negative: Abrupt climate change An abrupt climate change occurs when the climate system is forced to transition to a new climate state at a rate that is determined by the climate system energy-balance , and which is more rapid than the rate of change of the external forcing . Past events include the end of the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse , Younger Dryas , Dansgaard-Oeschger events , Heinrich events and possibly also the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum . The term is also used within the context of global warming to describe sudden climate change that is detectable over the time-scale of a human lifetime . One proposed reason for the observed abrupt climate change is that feedback loops within the climate system both enhance small perturbations and cause a variety of stable states .   Timescales of events described as ` abrupt ' may vary dramatically . Changes recorded in the climate of Greenland at the end of the Younger Dryas , as measured by ice-cores , imply a sudden warming of + 10 C-change within a timescale of a few years . Other abrupt changes are the + 4 C-change on Greenland 11,270 years ago or the abrupt + 6 C-change warming 22,000 years ago on Antarctica . By contrast , the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum may have initiated anywhere between a few decades and several thousand years . Finally , Earth Systems models project that under ongoing greenhouse gas emissions as early as 2047 , the Earth 's near surface temperature could depart from the range of variability in the last 150 years , affecting over 3 billion people and most places of great species diversity on Earth .

negative: Economics of global warming The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge .   One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions .   The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial .   The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) .   One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples .   Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .

negative: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science .   The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .

negative: A Friend of the Earth T. Coraghessan Boyle 's novel A Friend of the Earth ( 2000 ) is a story of environmental destruction . The novel is set in 2025 ; as a result of global warming and the greenhouse effect , the climate has drastically changed , and , accordingly , biodiversity is a thing of the past .

negative: Simon Tett Simon Tett is a climatologist working at the University of Edinburgh . He used to work at the Hadley Centre .   His most-cited paper , is , and of it he says :   All attempts at detecting and attributing climate change signals need a reliable observed data set and simulations with mechanisms that drive climate change included . In a nutshell , this paper is important because it was the first study to investigate the effect of sulphate aerosols in a general circulation model of the climate system . The experiments simulate the climate back to 1860 ( which is when the global records of surface temperature became reliable ) ... After 1970 our model with greenhouse gases alone begins to depart significantly from the observations . However , when we included sulphate aerosols , which have a cooling effect , the model agreed with the data from the 1930s and onwards . The rapid warming that has taken place since 1970 is , according to the model , attributable to a heating effect from greenhouse gases and a cooling effect from sulphate aerosols .

negative: Long-term effects of global warming See also Effects of global warming . The focus of this article is on the effects beyond 2100 .   There are expected to be various long-term effects of global warming . Most discussion and research , including that by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports , concentrates on the effects of global warming up to 2100 , with only an outline of the effects beyond this .

negative: Global warming hiatus A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods .   Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system .   Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified .   Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .

negative: David Parker (climatologist) David Parker is head of climate monitoring at the Hadley Centre , Exeter , England .   He has published extensively on the land and marine temperature record and its consistency . In 2002 , he was an organiser of a `` Workshop on Advances in the Use of Historical Marine Climate Data '' .   In 2004 , he has published a paper in Nature , showing that the urban heat island effect has not affected the historical temperature record . In this article , Parker shares his observations of the minimum temperature over 24 hours worldwide since 1950 that were expressed as anomalies . Also it includes his reasoning to why urbanization has not systematically exaggerated the observed global warming trends in minimum temperature . He further goes on to mention how the criterion for `` calm '' was changed while the global trend for minimum temperature remained unchanged . From his analysis he finds that windy and calm nights warmed at the same rate . Both the windy and calm increased at a rate of ( 0.16 + 0.03 C ) . He compares his small sample of 26 stations in North America and Siberia with global trends from 1950 to 1953 , covering over 5,000 stations . Estimates of recent global warming , supported by Parker 's analysis shows that urban warming has not introduced significant biases . `` The reality and magnitude of global-scale warming is supported by the near-equality of temperature trends on windy nights with trends based on all data . '' ( Parker ) This paper has been commented on by Roger Pielke , Sr. , et al. .

negative: Climate change denial Climate change denial , or global warming denial , is part of the global warming controversy . It involves denial , dismissal , unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which strongly depart from the scientific opinion on climate change , including the extent to which it is caused by humans , its impacts on nature and human society , or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions . Some deniers do endorse the term , but others often prefer the term climate change skepticism , although this is a misnomer for those who deny anthropogenic global warming . In effect , the two terms form a continuous , overlapping range of views , and generally have the same characteristics : both reject , to a greater or lesser extent , mainstream scientific opinion on climate change . Climate change denial can also be implicit , when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action . Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism .   Campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a `` denial machine '' of industrial , political and ideological interests , supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers in manufacturing uncertainty about global warming . In the public debate , phrases such as climate skepticism have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism . The labels are contested : those actively challenging climate science commonly describe themselves as `` skeptics '' , but many do not comply with common standards of scientific skepticism and , regardless of evidence , persistently deny the validity of human caused global warming .   Although scientific opinion on climate change is that human activity is extremely likely to be the primary driver of climate change , the politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial , hindering efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to the warming climate . Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none .   Of the world 's countries , the climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States . Since January 2015 , the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has been chaired by oil lobbyist and climate change denier Jim Inhofe . Inhofe is notorious for having called climate change `` the greatest hoax ever perpetrated against the American people '' and for having claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax in February 2015 when he brought a snowball with him in the Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor . Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of emissions . Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby , the Koch brothers , industry advocates and libertarian think tanks , often in the United States . More than 90 % of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks .  The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $ 900 million . Between 2002 and 2010 , nearly $ 120 million ( # 77 million ) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organisations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change . In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network ( SPN ) , an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks , had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation .   Since the late 1970s , oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming . Despite this , oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades , a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies .

negative: Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean The Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean ( SHEBA ) study was a National Science Foundation-funded research project designed to quantify the heat transfer processes that occur between the ocean and the atmosphere over the course of a year in the Arctic Ocean , where the sun is above the horizon from spring through summer and below the horizon the rest of the time . The study was designed to provide data for use in global climate models , which scientists use to study global climate change .

negative: Business action on climate change Business action on climate change includes a range of activities relating to global warming , and to influencing political decisions on global-warming-related regulation , such as the Kyoto Protocol . Major multinationals have played and to some extent continue to play a significant role in the politics of global warming , especially in the United States , through lobbying of government and funding of global warming skeptics . Business also plays a key role in the mitigation of global warming , through decisions to invest in researching and implementing new energy technologies and energy efficiency measures . ( See also individual and political action on climate change . )

negative: Thematic Mapper A Thematic Mapper ( TM ) is one of the Earth observing sensors introduced in the Landsat program . The first was placed aboard Landsat 4 ( decommissioned in 2001 ) , and another was operational aboard Landsat 5 up to 2012 . TM sensors feature seven bands of image data ( three in visible wavelengths , four in infrared ) most of which have 30 metre spatial resolution . TM is a whisk broom scanner which takes multi-spectral images across its ground track . It does not directly produce a thematic map .   The Thematic Mapper has become a useful tool in the study of albedo and its relationship to global warming and climate change . The TM on the Landsat 5 has proven useful in determining the amount of ice loss on glaciers due to melting .   Landsat 7 carries an enhanced TM sensor known as the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus ( ETM + ) .

negative: Medieval Warm Period The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important .   Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures .   Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .

negative: Cirrus cloud thinning Cirrus cloud thinning is a proposed form of climate engineering . Cirrus clouds are high cold ice that , like other clouds , both reflect sunlight and absorb warming infrared radiation . However , they differ from other types of clouds in that , on average , infrared absorption outweighs sunlight reflection , resulting in a net warming effect on the climate . Therefore , thinning or removing these clouds would reduce their heat trapping capacity , resulting in a cooling effect on Earth 's climate . This could be a potential tool to reduce anthropogenic global warming . Cirrus cloud thinning is an alternative category of climate engineering , in addition to solar radiation management and greenhouse gas removal .

negative: Glossary of climate change This article serves as a glossary of climate change terms . It lists terms that are related to global warming .

negative: Scientific opinion on climate change The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect .   This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys .   National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that :  Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level .  Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities .  Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming .  The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time .  The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) .   Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion .   No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .

negative: Global Warming: What You Need to Know Global Warming What You Need to Know is a 2006 global warming ( climate change ) documentary , directed by Nicolas Brown , starring Tom Brokaw , James Hansen , Michael Oppenheimer , and Mark Serreze . The film focuses on impacts from climate change , and Tom Brokaw interviews scientists . The documentary premiered on Discovery Channel , 16 July 2006 .

negative: James Annan James D. Annan is a scientist involved in climate prediction . He was a member of the Global Warming Research Program at Frontier Research Centre for Global Change which is associated with the Earth Simulator in Japan . In 2014 he left Japan , returning to the United Kingdom as a co-founder of Blue Skies Research .

negative: List of ministers of climate change A list of ministers of climate change or officials in charge of cabinet positions with portfolios dealing primarily with climate change and issues related to mitigation of global warming .

negative: Ross McKitrick Ross McKitrick is a Canadian economist specializing in environmental economics and policy analysis . He is a professor of economics at the University of Guelph , and a senior fellow of the Fraser Institute . He is a member of the academic advisory boards of the John Deutsch Institute , the Global Warming Policy Foundation , and the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation .   He has authored works about climate change issues , including co-authoring the book Taken By Storm : The Troubled Science , Policy and Politics of Global Warming in 2003 . McKitrick produced a series of videos and articles for the Friends of Science in which he argued that there is a `` pause '' in global warming that reveals flaws in current climate change models . The Friends of Science argue that the sun -- not human emissions of GHG -- is the main driver of climate change .

negative: Effects of global warming on Australia Predictions measuring the effects of global warming on Australia assert that global warming will negatively impact the continent 's environment , economy , and communities . Australia has been designated as one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change , according to the Stern Review and others , due partially to the importance of its agricultural sector and the prominence of its coast .   Australia is vulnerable to the effects of global warming projected for the next 50 to 100 years because of its extensive arid and semi-arid areas , an already warm climate , high annual rainfall variability , and existing pressures on water supply . The continent 's high fire risk increases this susceptibility to change in temperature and climate . Additionally , Australia 's population is highly concentrated in coastal areas , and its important tourism industry depends on the health of the Great Barrier Reef and other fragile ecosystems . The impacts of climate change in Australia will be complex and to some degree uncertain , but increased foresight may enable the country to safeguard its future through planned mitigation and adaptation . Mitigation may reduce the ultimate extent of climate change and its impacts , but requires global solutions and cooperation , while adaptation can be performed at national and local levels .

negative: Space mirror (climate engineering) The use of space mirrors as an anti-global warming measure is a proposed technology for climate change mitigation by deflection of sunlight . It was one of a series of proposals for controlling global warming made to the United States government in 2001 .   At the `` Response Options to Rapid or Severe Climate Change '' round-table meeting organized by the President 's Climate Change Technology Program in September 2001 to gather ideas for averting climate change , one of the proposals was to station one or more wire-mesh `` mirrors '' in orbit to deflect sunlight back into space or to filter it . The idea was proposed by Lowell Wood , a senior staff scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , who calculated that deflecting 1 % of sunlight would restore climatic stability , and that that would require either a single mirror 600000 sqmi in area or several smaller ones . Wood had been researching the idea for more than ten years but considered it so infeasible that it should only be a back-up plan for solving the global warming problem .   In January 2007 , The Guardian reported that the US government was recommending that research on sunlight deflection , including space mirrors , be continued as `` insurance '' and that the next United Nations Report on Climate Change advocate such a strategy . In addition to the space mirror , suggested sunlight-reducing techniques included launching thousands of highly reflective balloons and pumping sulphate droplets into the upper atmosphere to emulate volcanic emissions .   Space mirrors were first considered in the 1980s as a way to cool the climate of Venus . James Early , also at Livermore , in 1989 proposed using a `` space shade '' 2,000 kilometers in diameter orbiting at Lagrangian Point L1 . He estimated the cost at between one and ten trillion US dollars and suggested manufacturing it on the moon using moon rock .   Using space mirrors as a space sunshade to reduce the impact of sunlight falls into the category of geoengineering : deliberately modifying the earth 's climate . At a conference on the topic organized by Daniel Schrag of Harvard University and David Keith of the University of Calgary in November 2007 , the consensus was that it was worth studying such ideas further despite their high cost , the doubtful feasibility of some including the space mirror , and the risk of their distracting attention from reduction of greenhouse gas emissions .


query: Scientists have determined that the factors which caused the Little Ice Age cooling are not currently causing global warming.

positive: Ice age An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere , resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers . Within a long-term ice age , individual pulses of cold climate are termed `` glacial periods '' ( or alternatively `` glacials '' or `` glaciations '' or colloquially as `` ice age '' ) , and intermittent warm periods are called `` interglacials '' . In the terminology of glaciology , ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres . By this definition , we are in an interglacial period -- the Holocene -- of the ice age . The ice age began 2.6 million years ago at the start of the Pleistocene epoch , because the Greenland , Arctic , and Antarctic ice sheets still exist .

positive: James Hansen James Edward Hansen ( born 29 March 1941 ) is an American adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University . He is best known for his research in climatology , his 1988 Congressional testimony on climate change that helped raise broad awareness of global warming , and his advocacy of action to avoid dangerous climate change . In recent years he has become a climate activist to mitigate the effects of climate change , on a few occasions leading to his arrest .   In 2000 , Hansen advanced an alternative view of global warming over the last 100 years , arguing that during that time frame the negative forcing via aerosols and the positive forcing via largely balanced each other out , and that the 0.74 ± 0.18 ° C net rise in average global temperatures could mostly be explained by greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide , such as methane and chlorofluorocarbons . However , even then he wrote `` the future balance of forcings is likely to shift toward dominance of CO2 over aerosols ''

positive: Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years .   In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing .   Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years .   Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) ,  whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change .   Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .

negative: Surveys of scientists' views on climate change Surveys of scientists ' views on climate change - with a focus on human-caused or anthropogenic global warming ( AGW ) - have been undertaken since the 1990s . A 2016 paper ( which was co-authored by Naomi Oreskes , Peter Doran , William Anderegg , Bart Verheggen , Ed Maibach , J. Stuart Carlton and John Cook , and which was based on a half a dozen independent studies by the authors ) concluded that `` the finding of 97 % consensus -LSB- that humans are causing recent global warming -RSB- in published climate research is robust and consistent with other surveys of climate scientists and peer-reviewed studies . ''

negative: Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming Cool It : The Skeptical Environmentalist 's Guide to Global Warming is a book by the Danish statistician and political scientist Bjørn Lomborg . The book is a sequel to The Skeptical Environmentalist ( first published in Danish in 1998 ) , which in English translation brought the author to world attention . Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars without the same return on investment , often are based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions , and may have very little impact on the world 's temperature for centuries . Lomborg concludes that a limited carbon tax is needed in the First World as well as subsidies from the First World to the Third World to help fight ongoing humanitarian crises .

negative: Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally .   Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be .   Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .

negative: LOWERN LOWERN is an acronym for 6 factors that affect climate .   Latitude . Depending on how close or how far it is to the equator .  Ocean currents . Certain ocean currents have different temperatures . Warm ocean currents warm the air above it , which warms the coast . Cold ocean currents cool the air above it , which cools the coast . This helps keep the coast a consistent temperature .  Wind and Air masses . Heated ground causes air to rise which results in lower air pressure . As it rises it cools and descends to the ground resulting in high air pressure . This cycle repeats which creates wind . These air masses absorb the climate of the air below it .  Elevation . The higher up you are , the colder and drier it will be . When air rises it expands due to low air pressure which causes it to cool .  Relief . The differences in the elevation in land . As air is forced to rise over a piece of land ( e.g. a mountain ) the temperature decreases and condensation increases . As it condensates water droplets get bigger and heavier and are forced to fall . Once the air mass goes over the mountain the temperature and evaporation increases but condensations decreases , resulting in a halt in precipitation and rain shadows .  Nearness to Water . Water heats up and cools down slower than land does , having a moderating effect . On colder days , the water heats up the land , whereas on hotter days , the land is cooled down by the water . These areas also experience more precipitation .   Category : Climatology

negative: Year Without a Summer The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere .   Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .

negative: List of glaciers in Glacier National Park (U.S.) There are at least 35 named glaciers in Glacier National Park ( U.S. ) . In 1850 , the area now comprising the national park had 150 glaciers . There are 25 active glaciers remaining in the park today . Since the ice ages stopped 10,000 years ago , there have been many slight climate shifts causing periods of glacier growth or melt-back . The glaciers are currently being studied to see the effect of global warming It is estimated that if current warming trends continue , there will be no glaciers left in the park by 2030 .

negative: Neoglaciation The neoglaciation ( `` renewed glaciation '' ) describes the documented cooling trend in the Earth 's climate during the Holocene , following the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation , the most recent glacial period . Neoglaciation has followed the hypsithermal or Holocene Climatic Optimum , the warmest point in the Earth 's climate during the current interglacial stage . The neoglaciation has no well-marked universal beginning : local conditions and ecological inertia affected the onset of detectably cooler ( and wetter ) conditions .   Driven inexorably by the Milankovitch cycle , cooler summers in higher latitudes of North America , which would cease to completely melt the annual snowfall , were masked at first by the presence of the slowly disappearing continental ice sheets , which persisted long after the astronomically calculated moment of maximum summer warmth : `` the neoglaciation can be said to have begun when the cooling caught up with the warming '' , remarked E. C. Pielou . With the close of the `` Little Ice Age '' ( mid-14th to late 19th centuries ) , neoglaciation appears to have been stalled in the late 20th century , assumed to be caused by anthropogenic global warming . Whether it has been temporarily or semi-permanently stalled , neoglaciation has been marked by a retreat from the warm conditions of the Climatic Optimum and the advance or reformation of glaciers that had not existed since the last ice age . In the mountains of western North America , montane glaciers that had completely melted reformed shortly before 5000 BP . The most severe part of the best documented neoglacial period , especially in Europe and the North Atlantic , is termed the `` Little Ice Age '' .   In North America , neoglaciation had ecological effects in the spread of muskeg on flat , poorly drained land , such as the bed of recently drained Lake Agassiz and in the Hudson Bay lowlands , in the retreat of grassland before an advancing forest border in the Great Plains , and in shifting ranges of forest trees and diagnostic plant species ( identified through palynology ) .   The view that neoglaciation is ending in present times , is assumed by those who identify the most recent climate changes and global warming as the onset of a new period in Earth history , speculatively calling it the `` Early anthropocene '' , as a coming geological age dominated by the effects of Homo sapiens .

negative: The Greenhouse Conspiracy The Greenhouse Conspiracy is a documentary film broadcast by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on 12 August 1990 , as part of the Equinox series , which criticised the theory of global warming and asserted that scientists critical of global warming theory were denied funding . It is one of the earliest instances of the suggestion of a conspiracy to promote false claims supporting global warming . Although the title of the program implied the existence of a conspiracy , when interviewed on the program Patrick Michaels played down the idea , saying , `` It may not quite add up to a conspiracy , but certainly a coalition of interests has promoted the greenhouse theory : scientists have needed funds , the media a story , and governments a worthy cause '' .

negative: The Great Global Warming Swindle The Great Global Warming Swindle is a polemical documentary film that suggests that the scientific opinion on climate change is influenced by funding and political factors , and questions whether scientific consensus on global warming exists . The program was formally criticised by Ofcom , the UK broadcasting regulatory agency , which upheld complaints of misrepresentation made by David King .   The film , made by British television producer Martin Durkin , presents scientists , economists , politicians , writers , and others who dispute the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic global warming . The programme 's publicity materials assert that man-made global warming is `` a lie '' and `` the biggest scam of modern times . '' Its original working title was `` Apocalypse my arse '' , but the title The Great Global Warming Swindle was later adopted as an allusion to the 1980 mockumentary The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle about British punk band the Sex Pistols .   The UK 's Channel 4 premiered the documentary on 8 March 2007 . The channel described the film as `` a polemic that drew together the well-documented views of a number of respected scientists to reach the same conclusions . This is a controversial film but we feel that it is important that all sides of the debate are aired . '' According to Hamish Mykura , Channel 4 's head of documentaries , the film was commissioned `` to present the viewpoint of the small minority of scientists who do not believe global warming is caused by anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide . ''   Although the documentary was welcomed by global warming sceptics , it was criticised by scientific organisations and individual scientists ( including one of the scientists interviewed in the film and one whose research was used to support the film 's claims ) . The film 's critics argued that it had misused and fabricated data , relied on out-of-date research , employed misleading arguments , and misrepresented the position of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Later broadcasts corrected three errors in the original film .

negative: Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 .   The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .

negative: Scientific opinion on climate change The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect .   This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys .   National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that :  Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level .  Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities .  Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming .  The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time .  The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) .   Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion .   No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .

negative: Carburetor icing Carburetor Icing , or carb icing , is an icing condition which can affect any carburetor under certain atmospheric conditions . The problem is most notable in certain realms of aviation .   Carburetor icing occurs when there is humid air , and the temperature drop in the venturi causes the water vapor to freeze . The venturi effect can drop the ambient air temperature by 30-40 degrees F , therefore carburetor icing often occurs when the outside air temperature is in the 60-70 degree F range . Unfortunately , the warm air temperature often causes pilots to overlook the possibility of carb icing . The ice will form on the surfaces of the carburetor throat , further restricting it . This may increase the Venturi effect initially , but eventually restricts airflow , perhaps even causing a complete blockage of air to the carburetor . The engine begins to run more rich as ice formation increases . Without intervention ( carb heat or leaning ) this can only continue until the mixture is outside of the `` chemically correct '' range for combustion . Icing may also cause jamming of the mechanical parts of the carburetor , such as the throttle , typically a butterfly valve .   While it applies to all carburetors , carburetor icing is of particular concern in association with piston-powered aircraft , especially small , single-engine , light aircraft . Aircraft powered by carbureted engines are equipped with carburetor heat systems to overcome the icing problem . In cars , carburetor icing can occasionally be a nuisance . The inlet manifold and parts of the carburetor often have warm water from the cooling system or exhaust gas circulating through them to combat this problem . Motorcycles can also suffer from carburetor icing , although some engine designs are more susceptible to it than others . Air-cooled engines may be more prone to icing , due to the absence of warm coolant circulating through the engine .

negative: Everything's Cool Everything 's Cool may refer to :   `` Everything 's Cool '' ( song ) , a song from the Pop Will Eat Itself album Dos Dedos Mis Amigos  Everything 's Cool ( film ) , a 2007 documentary film that examines the divide between scientists and the general populace on the topic of global warming

negative: Last ice age Last ice age may refer to :   Quaternary glaciation , the period of the last few million years  Last glacial period , the most recent glacial period of the current ice age  Little Ice Age , a hundred years of relative cold in the Middle Ages after what historians term the Medieval Warm Period

negative: Medieval Warm Period The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important .   Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures .   Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .

negative: Social determinants of obesity While genetic influences are important to understanding obesity , they can not explain the current dramatic increase seen within specific countries or globally . -LSB- 1 -RSB- It is accepted that calorie consumption in excess of calorie expenditure leads to obesity , however what has caused shifts in these two factors on a global scale is much debated .

negative: Obesity and the environment Obesity and the environment aims to look at the different environmental factors that have been determined by researchers to cause and perpetuate obesity .

negative: Cool It Cool It may refer to :  Cool It : The Skeptical Environmentalist 's Guide to Global Warming , a 2007 book by the Danish statistician and political scientist Bjørn Lomborg  Cool It ( film ) , a 2010 documentary film based on the above book  Cool It ( TV series ) , a 1980s British television comedy series featuring Phil Cool

negative: NYC: Tornado Terror NYC : Tornado Terror is a 2008 Canadian made for TV disaster film . It stars Nicole de Boer , Sebastian Spence , and Jerry Wasserman . It premiered on Syfy on October 4 , 2008 , and is directed by Tibor Takács .   The film is about global warming which causes the upper and lower atmosphere to separate so that their different movements generate huge electrical charges which causes huge electrical tornadoes to drop on New York City causing destruction and loss of life . Dr. Cassie Lawrence tries to stop the twisters as chaos ensues . NASA ignores the mayor who recommends following Dr. Lawrence 's advice and use silver iodide on the atmosphere instead , which makes things worse , so it is down to our heroes to use a rebel scientist with his own makeshift rockets to use dry ice ( frozen CO2 ) . The problem is solved , but before the film ends , the same storm effects begin in Paris .

negative: Volcanic winter A volcanic winter is a reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid and water obscuring the Sun and raising Earth 's albedo ( increasing the reflection of solar radiation ) after a large particularly explosive volcanic eruption . Long-term cooling effects are primarily dependent upon injection of sulfur gasses into the stratosphere where they undergo a series of reactions to create sulfuric acid which can nucleate and form aerosols . Volcanic stratospheric aerosols cool the surface by reflecting solar radiation and warm the stratosphere by absorbing terrestrial radiation . The volcanic aerosols , resulting from the 1991 Pinatubo eruption and others , have been shown to contribute to anthropogenic ozone depletion . The variations in atmospheric warming and cooling results in changes in tropospheric and stratospheric circulation .

negative: Sea surface temperature Sea surface temperature ( SST ) is the water temperature close to the ocean 's surface . The exact meaning of surface varies according to the measurement method used , but it is between 1 mm and 20 m below the sea surface . Air masses in the Earth 's atmosphere are highly modified by sea surface temperatures within a short distance of the shore . Localized areas of heavy snow can form in bands downwind of warm water bodies within an otherwise cold air mass . Warm sea surface temperatures are known to be a cause of tropical cyclogenesis over the Earth 's oceans . Tropical cyclones can also cause a cool wake , due to turbulent mixing of the upper 30 m of the ocean . SST changes diurnally , like the air above it , but to a lesser degree . There is less SST variation on breezy days than on calm days . In addition , ocean currents such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation ( AMO ) , can effect SST 's on multi-decadal time scales , a major impact results from the global thermohaline circulation , which affects average SST significantly throughout most of the world 's oceans .   Coastal SSTs can cause offshore winds to generate upwelling , which can significantly cool or warm nearby landmasses , but shallower waters over a continental shelf are often warmer . Onshore winds can cause a considerable warm-up even in areas where upwelling is fairly constant , such as the northwest coast of South America . Its values are important within numerical weather prediction as the SST influences the atmosphere above , such as in the formation of sea breezes and sea fog . It is also used to calibrate measurements from weather satellites .

negative: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect .   These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .

negative: Vladimir Paar Vladimir Paar ( born 1942 ) is a Croatian physicist and university professor .   Paar was born in Zagreb . He graduated from the Faculty of Science , University of Zagreb , where he is currently a professor . He is a full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts since 1992 .   His scientific interests include theoretical nuclear physics , chaos theory in physics and technology , computer modeling in clinical medicine , energetics , and history of physics . To the general public he is known as a popularizer of science , being the author of two books , hundreds of newspaper articles and several television series in the field of popular science .   Paar is a global warming skeptic and is an advocate of a new ice age hypothesis . He argues that the rise of carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere is the effect - rather than the cause - of global climate change , and that the true cause lies in the change of Earth 's orbit due to gravitational pull of Jupiter and other planets of the Solar System . Paar believes that the evidence against anthropogenic global warming is being deliberately suppressed .

negative: The Dying Sun The Dying Sun is a science fiction novel by Gary Blackwood , published in 1989 . Set in the mid-21st century , the book depicts a world where the sun 's light is actually diminishing over time , cooling the Earth ( as opposed to global warming ) , which causes a mass migration from the U.S. to Mexico . The large influx from the north causes overpopulation and a wave of violence in the south , and James and Robert , two friends , decide to go north to escape the crime-ridden south .   The novel is a 1990 Friends of American Writers Best Young Adult Novel .

negative: Karoo Ice Age The Karoo Ice Age from 360 -- 260 million years ago ( Mya ) was the second major ice age of the Phanerozoic Eon . It is named after the tillite ( Dwyka Group ) found in the Karoo region of South Africa ( and adjacent areas ) , where evidence for this ice age was first clearly identified in the 19th century .   The tectonic assembly of the continents of Euramerica ( later with the Uralian orogeny , into Laurasia ) and Gondwana into Pangaea , in the Hercynian-Alleghany Orogeny , made a major continental land mass within the Antarctic region , and the closure of the Rheic Ocean and Iapetus Ocean saw disruption of warm-water currents in the Panthalassa Ocean and Paleotethys Sea , which led to progressive cooling of summers , and the snowfields accumulating in winters , causing mountainous alpine glaciers to grow , and then spread out of highland areas , making continental glaciers which spread to cover much of Gondwana .   At least two major periods of glaciation have been discovered :  The first glacial period was associated with the Mississippian subperiod ( 359.2 -- 318.1 Mya ) : ice sheets expanded from a core in southern Africa and South America .  The second glacial period was associated with the Pennsylvanian subperiod ( 318.1 -- 299 Mya ) ; ice sheets expanded from a core in Australia and India .   The extent of ancient glaciations in Antarctica is not well known , because the present ice sheet hides the evidence .

negative: Everything's Cool (film) Everything 's Cool is a 2007 documentary film that examines the divide between scientists and the general populace on the topic of global warming . Director Dan Gold said of the motivation for the film that `` I 'm optimistic that finally the message that this is real , that human beings are the cause of the most recent warming trend , and that it 's an important issue , that message is actually reaching America . On the other hand ... if that message was fully understood , we would be moving a lot faster to slow this down and to reverse this course . ''   The documentary was shown at the Sundance film festival in January 2007 and at the San Francisco International Film Festival in May 2007 . The directors also took Blue Vinyl , a film about plastic pollution , to Sundance in 2002 . It was shown on CBC in Canada as part of the Passionate Eye series .   The New York Times called it `` a breezy polemic about the politics of global warming ... -LSB- that -RSB- adopts a cheerful comic tone to avoid scaring audiences . '' The LA Times said that `` With wit and passion , Gold and Helfand marshal a plethora of data and developments yet never lose their narrative thread . '' . The New York Sun was less favourable , calling it `` the best movie I 've ever seen about global warming for kids in junior high school , but it 's the most annoying movie about global warming I 've ever seen for adults . ''

negative: Cooling down Cooling down ( the prescribed event of which is called a cool down , cooldown , or cool-down ; or warm down , in allusion to use in combination with warm up ) is an easy exercise , done after a more intense activity , to allow the body to gradually transition to a resting or near-resting state . Depending on the intensity of the exercise , cooling down can involve a slow jog or walk . With lower intensities stretching can be used . Cooling down allows the heart rate to return to its resting rate . Anecdotally cooling down may reduce dizziness for professional or serious athletes and vocal performers after strenuous workouts . Studies are currently inconclusive as to whether the process actually reduces delayed-onset muscle soreness and muscle soreness not caused by lactate production during intense exercise . Some have shown a weak correlation : however , the majority of recent studies discount the relationship . One study has shown that athletes who perform an appropriate cool-down are less likely to become injured .

negative: Biology and sexual orientation The relationship between biology and sexual orientation is a subject of research . A simple and singular determinant for sexual orientation has not been conclusively demonstrated ; various studies point to different , even conflicting positions , but scientists hypothesize that a combination of genetic , hormonal , and social factors determine sexual orientation . Biological theories for explaining the causes of sexual orientation are more popular and involve a complex interplay of genetic factors , the early uterine  environment and brain structure . These factors , which may be related to the development of a heterosexual , homosexual , bisexual or asexual orientation , include genes , prenatal hormones , and brain structure .

negative: Lavoisier Group The Lavoisier Group is an Australian organisation formed by politicians and dominated by retired industrial businesspeople and engineers . It does not accept the science of global warming and works to influence attitudes of policy makers and politicians . The organisation downplays the risk of the effects of global warming , rejects the scientific conclusion that human activity causes it , and opposes policies designed to curtail it . Some members regard climate change as a `` scam . ''   The group was named after French scientist Antoine Lavoisier ( 1743-1794 ) , the father of modern chemistry who disproved the Phlogiston theory of combustion .

negative: Retreat of glaciers since 1850 The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use , mountain recreation , animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt , and , in the longer term , the level of the oceans . Studied by glaciologists , the temporal coincidence of glacier retreat with the measured increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases is often cited as an evidentiary underpinning of global warming . Mid-latitude mountain ranges such as the Himalayas , Alps , Rocky Mountains , Cascade Range , and the southern Andes , as well as isolated tropical summits such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa , are showing some of the largest proportionate glacial losses .   Glacier mass balance is the key determinant of the health of a glacier . If the amount of frozen precipitation in the accumulation zone exceeds the quantity of glacial ice lost due to melting or in the ablation zone a glacier will advance ; if the accumulation is less than the ablation , the glacier will retreat . Glaciers in retreat will have negative mass balances , and if they do not find an equilibrium between accumulation and ablation , will eventually disappear .   The Little Ice Age was a period from about 1550 to 1850 when the world experienced relatively cooler temperatures compared to the present . Subsequently , until about 1940 , glaciers around the world retreated as the climate warmed substantially . Glacial retreat slowed and even reversed temporarily , in many cases , between 1950 and 1980 as global temperatures cooled slightly . Since 1980 , a significant global warming has led to glacier retreat becoming increasingly rapid and ubiquitous , so much so that some glaciers have disappeared altogether , and the existences of many of the remaining glaciers are threatened . In locations such as the Andes of South America and Himalayas in Asia , the demise of glaciers in these regions has the potential to affect water supplies in those areas .   The retreat of mountain glaciers , notably in western North America , Asia , the Alps and tropical and subtropical regions of South America , Africa and Indonesia , provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century . The acceleration of the rate of retreat since 1995 of key outlet glaciers of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may foreshadow a rise in sea level , which would affect coastal regions .

negative: Causes of unemployment in the United States Causes of Unemployment in the United States discusses the causes of U.S. unemployment and strategies for reducing it . Job creation and unemployment are affected by factors such as economic conditions , global competition , education , automation , and demographics . These factors can affect the number of workers , the duration of unemployment , and wage levels .

negative: Thermally Stimulated Depolarization Current Thermally Stimulated Depolarization Current ( TSDC ) is a scientific technique used to measure dielectric properties of materials . Specifically , it can be used to measure the thermally stimulated depolarization of molecules within a material . One method of doing so is to place the material between two electrodes , cool the material in the presence of an external electric field , remove the field once a desired temperature has been reached , and measure the current between the electrodes as the material warms . The external electric field must be applied at a sufficiently high temperature to allow the molecular dipoles time to align with the field . Because the dielectric relaxation time increases exponentially on cooling , the polarization caused by their alignment with the field gets `` frozen-in '' . So , when the field is removed and the material begins to warm the dipoles begin to `` thaw '' whereby losing their net alignment and thus the material become depolarized . This depolarization can be measured if the material is sandwiched between two ohmic electrodes and the current is measured on warming . As the material depolarizes , charges are pulled to ( or pushed away from ) the electrodes which causes a current through the measuring device .