Climate Science

It isn't a hoax. Climate science is real and it is not that hard to understand. The following paragraphs and photos will give you the basics.

Carbon Cycles

Carbon is all around us. It is in plants and animals, in soils, in rocks, in the ocean, and in the atmosphere. It is also moving between these sources constantly. How fast it moves between these sources is important. Carbon moves from rocks into the oceans, soils, and atmosphere at a snail's pace, like thousands of years. But it can also move very quickly, days, weeks, months, and years between oceans, soils, plants, and the atmosphere. These two carbon cycles are well understood. There is no controversy.

Gases in the Atmosphere Control Earth's Temperature

Carbon dioxide, methane, and other gases (Greenhouse Gases) regulate the Earth's temperature. These gases absorb and release the energy from the sun. The energy from the sun must match the energy returning into space or the earth would get colder or hotter. Higher concentrations of Greenhouse Gases mean more trapped energy and a warmer planet.

Fossil Fuels

Up until the Industrial Revolution, coal, oil, and natural gas were buried deep in the ground and part of the slow carbon cycle. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have been between about 200 and 300 ppm for the last 800,000 years. Since the end of the ice age, and the beginning the beginning of the human race, the concentrations have been stable at around 250 ppm. Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have moved billions of tons of carbon from the slow carbon cycle and into the fast carbon cycle, which has resulted in higher concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Currently, the concentration is over 400 ppm.

The Planet is Warming. Feedback Loops.

Due to the higher atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, the planet is warming. Temperature measurements, chemistry, and physics all say the same thing. The planet is warming and it is a direct result of human activity. It is not just a correlation!

The threat of even more rapid warming is now the bigger threat. This is because, as the Earth warms, glaciers melt. These glaciers helped reflect some of the sun's energy into space (albedo effect). They are being replaced with surface water that is darker than the glaciers and absorbing more of the suns energy. A warming planet also releases more methane that was locked in the permafrost since the last ice age. Both of these phenomena are considered positive feedback loops, making the warming problem even worse.