Fires, and Debates, are Raging
There are fires raging over much of Australia right now, triggering debate on the contribution of climate change to our current unseasonable weather. This has also led to well-meaning people reposting articles from the climate denial industry. I thought I'd record a summary of my responses for posterity. That the earth is getting warmer is a fact.* See the graph here . There are two main possible reasons the earth is getting warmer. 1) more sunlight is coming in or 2) more heat is being trapped. Option One isn’t true – solar activity has been carefully measured. See graph here . ** This leaves us with Option Two. The earth is getting warmer because more heat is being trapped in the atmosphere. But why is it so? There are several so-called greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that can trap heat (this is called ‘forcing’). Carbon dioxide, water, methane, and CFCs are among the known greenhouse gases . Of these, carbon dioxide has the biggest impact on wa