My Take, The fossil CO2 emission hoax

(I'm submitting the following to Seattle Times as a way they can add to their 10 Pulitzers)

My Take, The fossil CO2 emission hoax

Yesterday I emailed the following to Wikipedia in hopes they would choose to use it to inform their readers.  It followed an earlier emailing to the Science and Environmental Policy Project  (SEPP) and “Waat’s Up With That?” both frequent critiques of global warming.  All three chose to ignore it.  So I’m left to other venues of raising the following issue

Fossil CO2 Emission Hoax,

No one seems to recognize climatologists grossly overstate the impact of fossil CO2 emissions on global temperatures.  The world’s fossil CO2 emissions have increased from 22,674 million tons (Mt) in 1990 to 37,077 Mt in 2017.  A plot of global temperatures from 1850, (Little Ice Age) to 2018 shows the temperatures increased between 1920 and 1945, before significant CO2 emissions, at the same rate as from 1970 to 2018.  The temperature increased from1970 to 1990 at the same rate as from 1990 to 2018 despite the 70% increase in fossil CO2 emissions.  Clearly global temperatures were not that sensitive to those emissions.

Also a plot of CO2 in the atmosphere showed CO2 increased from 320 parts per million (PPM) in 1960, to 396 PPM in 2014. Yet the rate of change from 1970 to 1990 was essentially the same as for 1990 to 2014.  Again despite the 70% increase in fossil CO2 emissions.

If increasing fossil CO2 emissions didn’t increase atmospheric CO2 PPM they could not be the reason for increasing global temperatures.  The only rational explanation was global temperatures, driven by the sun were increasing CO2 out gassing from ocean surface.  That global temperature increases were the cause of increasing CO2 in atmosphere not the result.

I’m a retired Boeing engineer but it shouldn’t take much education to recognize that if a 70% increase in fossil CO2 emissions doesn’t result in a dramatic change in the rate at which global temperatures or atmospheric CO2 levels increase its “unlikely” fossil CO2 emissions are the reason.  Yet apparently 96% of scientists don’t recognize that rationale.

One of the seminal arguments for global temperature sensitivity was an August 2007 Scientific American article, “The Physical Science behind Climate Change”.  The article claiming to be “The Undeniable Case for Global Warming” based that conclusion on the failure of their computer models of climate temperature with their initial estimates for “forcing” (influence of) to match measured temperature.  The end result was matching their computer model results to measured data required "forcing" for fossil CO2 emissions to be 10 times that of the Sun.  The fact that the global temperature increase from1990 to 2017 was essentially the same as from 1970 to 1990 despite the 70% increase in fossil CO2 emissions would “seem” to belie that conclusion.

The fact that atmospheric CO2 level increase from 1970 to 1990 was also the same as from 1990 to 2017, again despite the 70% increase in fossil CO2 emissions reaffirms the lack of sensitivity.  The real correlation is between global temperatures and CO2 in the atmosphere. As the letter concludes the likely reason is global temperatures, driven by the sun, have increased CO2 out gassing from the ocean surface.  Again, that increasing global temperatures are the cause for the increasing CO2 in the atmosphere not the result.

The conclusion is fossil CO2 emissions are not an existential threat to the planet.  Hundreds of billions have been wasted each year attempting to limit fossil CO2 emissions.  That all the billions spent attempting to replace fossil fuels with renewable sources have likely had little affect on either global temperature or atmospheric CO2 levels.  The sooner the whole world recognizes that the better.