Heaven and Earth: Global Warming, the Missing Science by Ian Plimer

Comprehensive and Excellently Researched.by RDMartin

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November 20, 2009: Very much appreciated the scientific view point of subject matter. A little dry and so comprehensive it reads like a text book at times. Appreciated the subject was researched based on available information without predetermined beginning and end points. Additionally, it was clear, conclusions were based on the results of research ... all the research ... and not selectively chosen research to support a point of view. When no conclusion could be drawn from research/information presented, Pilmer did not force one.

Once read, (and you will have to force yourself to push through some of the information presented) I learned why climate change is not a linear issue as well as what variables are involved in climate change that seem conveniently omitted by those promoting a point of view vs science.

I am definitely more informed and smarter after reading "Heaven and Earth" as will most who read the book with an open mind. If you are looking for a book to put forth an opinion or particular point of view based on minimal science or selectively chosen facts you will not appreciate Pilmer's scope of work. (Try an "Inconvenient Truth")

Well-researched study of global warmingby willyvan

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October 19, 2009: Ian Plimer, Professor of Mining Geology at the University of Adelaide, has a lifetime of academic experience. Using the unfashionable, rigorous sciences of geology, astronomy and solar physics, he has written a superbly well-researched study of global warming, with 2,311 references to the scholarly literature.

He shows how forces other than human production of CO2 drive climate change, like the sun, the earth's orbit and geological processes such as plate tectonics. 186 billion tonnes of CO2 enter the atmosphere every year: just 3.3% comes from human activities, 57% is given off by the oceans and 38% is exhaled by animals (including us). Since natural processes, not manmade CO2 emissions, change the climate, we cannot change it by controlling CO2 emissions.

In previous glaciations - the Ordovician 440 million years ago, the Permo-Carboniferous 260-300 million years ago, and the Jurassic 140 million years ago - atmospheric CO2 was far higher than now. Even as recently as 1935-50, atmospheric CO2 was higher than now.

The Cretaceous period, 100 million years ago, was 6-14 degrees Celsius warmer than now. The Holocene maximum, 6,000 years ago, was 6 degrees Celsius warmer than now, yet the Greenland ice sheet did not disappear (nor did polar bears) and the Antarctic ice sheet grew. The Roman Warming of 250 BC to 450 AD was 3 degrees Celsius warmer than now, as was the Medieval Warming of 900-1280.

As Plimer sums up, "If it is acknowledged that there have been rapid climate changes before industrialisation, then the human production of CO2 cannot be the major driver for climate change. . climates far warmer than the Late Twentieth Century Warming existed before industrialisation and human emissions of CO2."

Yet an editor of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s 1996 'Summary for Policy makers' deleted the words: "None of the studies cited above has shown clear evidence that we can attribute the observed changes to the specific cause of increases in greenhouse gases . No study to date has positively attributed all or part (of the climate change observed) to (man-made) causes." He added instead, "the balance of evidence suggests that there is discernible human influence on global climate."

Plimer shows how the sun is the major driver of climate change. Every hour, the sun delivers to the earth as much energy as humans use in a year.

He estimates that the sun accounted for 80% of the 20th century warming. Sunspot activity cut cosmic radiation, reducing cloud and warming the earth. Since 2000 there has been less sunspot activity, which increases cosmic radiation, creating more cloud and cooling the earth.

A study of 246 glaciers from 1946 to 1995 found no sign of a global trend towards more melting. Greenland and the Arctic were warmer in the 1930s than they are now. Arctic sea ice has increased since 2008.

Total sea ice increased by 8% between 1978 and 2005. Plimer concludes that ice melt could cause, at most, a 5-10 centimetres sea-level rise by 2100.

Plimer dissects the Greens and their pin-up boy Al Gore. The Green programme is black-outs, because it would cut the base load energy supplies of electricity that sustain our economy, jobs and living standards.

Plimer reminds us that Gore was a director of the now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers, who saw carbon emissions trading as their private scam. Plimer writes, "Emissions trading will enrich a...

I Also Recommend: Cool It, The Skeptical Environmentalist, Global Crises, Global Solution, Air Con, Appeal to Reason.