Climate of Our Future

Recently, John Cook informed me of his Skeptical Science site. I looked it up yesterday and was very impressed. I thought you would you enjoy researching it, so I asked if he could write a post.

Scientific skepticism is healthy — we should challenge ourselves to expand our knowledge and improve our understanding. Yet this isn’t what happens in global warming skepticism. Skeptics vigorously criticise any evidence that supports anthropogenic global warming (AGW) and yet eagerly embrace any argument, op-ed piece, blog, study or 15 year old that refutes AGW.

So I started a database of all the skeptic arguments and how often they appear online. I ranked them and formed a top ten list. With perverse fascination, I actually started barracking for certain arguments like some sort of horse race. Having studied solar physics in post-grad, I was almost pleased to see “the sun is causing global warming” claim in the #1 spot. However, it’s also a little perplexing as many studies conclusively prove the sun has very little to do with the last 30 years of global warming. In fact, the study most quoted by skeptics to prove a sun link (Solank i 2005) actually concludes global warming must have a cause *other* than the sun.

Of course, the natural thing to do after listing all the skeptic arguments is debunk them. So I scoured the peer reviewed scientific literature and with each skeptic argument, posted any relevant studies, research or data on the subject. And thus Skeptical Science was born. The site is in a constant state of flux. New skeptic arguments come along at a steady clip (two newcomers are “1934 is the hottest year on record” and “Less than half of published scientists endorse global warming”). There’s always more studies to read and add to the site. Plus I’ve just added a feature that lets anyone add new skeptic articles to the database (I can’t possibly keep up with them all myself). So please drop by and have a good look through — suggestions and feedback are always welcome!

John Cook
www.skepticalscience.com