Oh! Those Climate Change Deniers!

The Oregonian frequently runs guest editorials from members of the community. On August 4, they ran one on global warming from Gordon Fulks, a physicist from Corvallis, who doubts human impacts on climate change. The piece was so rife with misinformation that a complete rebuttal would require far more space than I generally use in a blog. Most of Fulks’ points are easily debunked by a quick review of EPA’s climate change web site, or National Geographic’s “Global Warming Fast Facts” site. I will try to address his major points in brief. First, the term “global warming” itself is misleading and no longer in common usage among scientists. “Climate change” or even “climate disruption” is more accurate, as what we are really talking about are the global impacts of even a modest average increase in Earth temperatures. This is not about the planet suddenly getting much hotter – which is why there was very little serious “global warming” talk around last week’s heat wave. In fact, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) data show that the Earth's average surface temperature has increased by about 1.2 to 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 100 years. The eight warmest years on record (since 1850) have all occurred since 1998, with the warmest year being 2005. This seems modest, but the impacts on Earth are real. Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting—for example, Montana's Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. In the Northern Hemisphere, thaws also come a week earlier in spring and freezes begin a week later. These are facts. Fortunately, climate change deniers like Fulks are growing extinct nearly as rapidly as climate change impacts are manifesting.