Dave Lowe found measurable proof of climate change 50 years ago. He's watched in horror ever since (?)

Below is the preface to a very long-winded story that ignores the elephant in the room.  Dr Lowe did NOT find "measurable proof of climate change" 50 years ago or at any other time.  All he found was that levels of CO2 in the atmosphere were rising fairly steadily.  Nobody argues with that. It's a fact.  What they do argue about is how much (if any) effect that has on global temperatures.  And that is not at all obvious at first sight or any other sight.

It becomes obvious when you look at how well global temperature tracks CO2 levels.  It is supposed to but it doesn't.  The theoretical case that CO2 should influence temperature is clear enough but the big question is:  "By how much"?  Scientists measure things so that is the burning question.  And the answer appears to be: "By less than the error of measurement."  So the effect is so small as to be virtually undetectable. CO2 is a minute fraction of the atmosphere so that its effects are minute is very much what one would on theory expect, an expectation that is borne out by the data 

Greenies say the effect is large but that is little more than an expression of opinion.  So what are the facts?  There is much in the temperature record that one could point to but my favorite is the "Grand Hiatus". That datum is a real lulu. The central assertion of the whole Greenie case is that post-WWII the world industrialized vigorously and the many new factories and industries concerned belched out vast amounts of CO2, thus warming the planet.

But did it?  The first half of the story is spot-on.  Atmospheric CO2 levels did soar from that point on.  But what about the temperature?  It flatlined.  For 30 years between 1945 and 1975, CO2 levels leapt but global temperatures remained flat, which completely contradicts the theory. See here.  At the very moment that the Global Warming theory was first bruited, it was demonstrably false.  At the very time Warmists point to as the start of global warming, it was not warming.

Greenies say that "special factors" explain the discrepancy but what special factor could exactly cancel out the effect of CO2 for 30 years? It's an absurdity. CO2 is irrelevant.

Dr Lowe would appear to be a man of faith, true to his Greenie religion at all costs

There's a certificate on the wall of Dave Lowe's small cottage in Petone, Wellington, New Zealand.

It could easily be missed by a passing guest. But if they cared to take a second glance, three words would immediately jump out: Nobel Peace Prize.  It's the 2007 Prize, awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Lowe was a lead author on their largest-ever report.

It was by far the greatest honor of his career. He resigned almost immediately afterward, walking away on top of the scientific world.

The Prize is a testament to all that he has achieved in his career, but at the same time, to him, it's a haunting reminder of all the things he didn't, or couldn't, change.

"I've lived this horror for 50 years," he says. "There's so little time left and we've just been so bloody stupid."

Dave Lowe was one of the first people on Earth to find measurable proof that human activities were changing the atmosphere and warming the planet.

For the past 50 years, he has watched on, helpless and frustrated, as the situation around him has gotten worse, and worse, and worse.

More HERE

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