Photo Courtesy Of NASA

With so much at stake, corporate interests, bias media, revolving door politicians, and those who follow them are flooding the airwaves with false truths, and flat out propaganda to mislead and confuse the average person. And with almost unlimited funding via large corporate donors, they have made a relentless push to stop environmental action in its tracks. Here are a list of the the most common propaganda talking points they are throwing around these days, and the real truths you can use to counter them.

1. ‘Volcanoes release more Co2 than humans do each year’

This is one of the lamest and easiest to disprove pieces of propaganda that climate change deniers have been using to downplay man’s part in global Co2 emissions. According to the USGS, volcanoes, both above and below the sea release a total of 200 million tonnes of CO2 on average per year. And while that may sound like a huge amount, The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that in 2003, the man made global emissions of Co2 were at 26.8 billion tonnes. That’s right, we spew out over one hundred times as much Co2 per year as all the worlds volcanoes combined. If you want to really blow a deniers mind, after they say that its Volcanoes to blame, make them confirm that they believe volcanoes are able to alter global climate. When they agree that they believe in that, inform them of that fact that they represent less than 1% of man made Co2. Then ask them if they still believe that humans can’t be responsible for global warming if they produce 100 times as much carbon dioxide as the volcanoes.

2. ‘They call it pollution. We call it life’

This talking point about Co2 was used in a series of commercials and op-eds funded by the Competitive Enterprise Institute in 2006 and has become a favorite of climate change deniers ever since. While the CEI may be right in that without Co2, life on our planet would cease to exist. They leave out the fact that carbon dioxide is only good for life at certain levels. Once it goes above a certain ppm, it becomes toxic. If our current level of atmospheric carbon dioxide was increased by 100%, it would result in a constant feeling of drowsiness in those who breathed it. Doubling that again, would result in a narcotic effect on those exposed. And at a concentration of 5-8% it starts to create difficulty breathing, headaches, vision and hearing problems, loss of consciousness, and even death.

3. ‘Scientists predicted global cooling in the 70’s, why should we trust them now?’

The myth that just won’t die. For years now those with their heads buried in the sand have been using this one to try and discredit the current scientific consensus. And much like all the other propaganda, this one holds no water when you look at it closely. While it is true that during the 1970’s there was some talk of global cooling, but it was by no means a consensus. In fact all of it came from a very small number of scientists speculating about possible cooling. They never gave a cause, they never did any major studies, and there was never more than a few dozen reputable scientists who gave it a second thought. The reason this small speculative rumor gained so much attention back then, and still does today is that the media latched onto it like it was the 1970’s version of Y2K.

4. ‘There was record cold temps in _______ this week/year’

The drudge report loves using this one on an almost weekly basis to rile up their followers. Anytime it snows early, or a new record low temperature is recorded, the global warming deniers latch onto it and milk it for all it is worth. Little do they know how uneducated and ignorant they make themselves look to those with even a rudimentary understanding of how weather and global climate differ. And that is the truth of this situation. localized single event weather instances have no relation to long term global temperatures. If they did, Seattle wouldn’t of broken it’s records for both high and low temps over the last twelve months. On the flip side, this also means that a record high temp for one city, state or country also does not equate to proof of global warming either. Frankly, the entire subject needs to die off from both ends of the debate, as it does neither side any good.

5. ‘What about the cooling that took place in the early part of the 20th Century’

Get ready for it deniers, that period of cooling was the result of man made pollution as well. Before the introduction of the clean air act, we released so much particle pollution into the air that we literally were blocking out the suns rays to such a high degree that we lowered the earths temperature 0.2°C. Once we lessened and or banned these forms of pollution, temperatures went back to normal, and also gave us insight into how much our Co2 pollution was warming the planet now that the particle pollution wasn’t masking it.

6. ‘Global Warming Peaked in 1998, It’s Been Cooling Ever Since’

While 1998 was a record year, it was due to multiple factors with an unusually strong El Niño being the main culprit.  On top of that, according to NASA 2005 overtook 1998 as the hottest global temperature, with 2003, 2004, and 2005 trailing right behind 1998. So the trend has in fact kept going, and the notion that 1998 was the end of global warming is entirely a myth propagated by those trying to mislead the general public.

7. ‘NASA lied, 1934 Is Actually The Hottest Year’

As of last year, many global warming deniers started to throw around the year 1934 as the hottest on record. And claim that NASA screwed up their data, or even go as far as to call it a conspiracy. The truth of that is that yes, NASA did screw up, but the 1934 data now claimed as proof that global warming is a scam, is only a half truth. What they fail to mention when they bring up 1934, is that the record temperature was for the lower 48 states only. Meaning that figure represents only 2% of the entire planet. When you look at 1934 globally, it still fits the same time line that the deniers are trying to discredit with this false ‘proof’.

By Mark Johnson

Flickr: woodleywonderworks

Although global warming is a worldwide problem, it now might be possible to localize it by showing where exactly excessive emissions are coming from. A project led by researchers from Purdue University uses a Google Earth map to show hourly carbon dioxide emissions across the United States.

Using the fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions data of 2002, the researchers were able to pinpoint emission sources as specific as individual factories, power plants, and roadways.

The Vulcan Project, so-called after the Roman god of fire, quantified emissions data and created a series of user-friendly maps showing the researchers’ findings. The maps show a concentration of emissions along the east coast, while the west coast remains relatively clean except for a few areas in southern California. Because the data used reflects hourly changes, the emission levels shown on the map wax and wane based on the time of day.

The project seeks to reinvigorate the cause against global warming by showing that it is a local, as well as global, problem. While the scope of the problem is large, the Vulcan Project pin points exactly when and where detrimental carbon dioxide emissions are happening. By making this information accessible to the general public, people can see exactly how their counties are impacting global warming and compare them to other counties.

“This will bring emissions information into everyone’s living room as a recognizable, accessible online experience…What was once the realm of scientists will now be provided directly to the public” Kevin Gurney, who leads the project, said.

The U.S. has the second highest fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions rate, behind only China, according to the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC). Russia, India, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada and South Korea round out the list of the ten biggest emitters, as of 2006.

The Vulcan Project is currently being expanded to examine data from 1985 to the present, as well as to analyze carbon dioxide emissions from Canada and Mexico. The CDIAC ranks Mexico as the twelfth worst emitter of carbon dioxide.

By Elizabeth Wolfe

Parícutin Volcano

Karla Yannín Alcázar Quintero

Erupting in the middle of a Mexican farmers cornfield in 1943, Parícutin Volcano grew to over 50 feet in a matter of weeks, and 1,102 feet within a year. After nine years of activity, this monogenetic volcano finally stopped at 1,391 feet and will never erupt again.

Great Blue Hole

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

This sinkhole located off the coast of Belize was formed during the last ice age when sea levels were lower. Now a popular spot for divers, the great blue hole is 984 feet across, and 410 feet deep.

Mt Ngorongoro Crater

Laurent de Walick

The Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania is the world’s largest unbroken volcanic caldera at 2,001 feet deep and over 100 square miles in diameter. It is host to African wildlife ranging from rhinos and elephants to lions and leopards.

Mount Roraima

Christian Hummert

One of the oldest land masses on the planet, Mount Roraima  in Venezuela stands 7,671 feet tall and is surrounded by it’s 1300 foot vertical walls of sandstone. This Isolated tabletop mountain is what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based “The Lost World” of off.

Puerta Princesa Subterranean River

Paul Chin

This underground river, located in the Philippines is one of the longest navigable subterranean rivers in the world. Filled with stalactite and stalagmite caves, one can now take kayak tours through this 8.2km river.

Dry Falls

drcorneilus

Located in Washington State, Dry Falls at one time was the largest waterfall in history. 90,000 years ago when an ice dam broke, it released glaciel lake Missoula down the river at 65 miles per hour. When it occurred Dry Falls had more water flowing through it than all of the worlds rivers combined.

By Mark Johnson