Live Earth: More Than A Reason To Party?

The ostensible purpose of the Live Earth concerts was to raise awareness of man-made global warming. I doubt, however, that most of the concert goers did not already believe that global warming is man-made. So, if all the energy put into transportation, lighting, sound, food, sewage, and pamphlets was to have any value at all, the value was not in convincing a large number of people that global warming is truly man-made.

What was the real value, then, of the Live Earth concerts? What could the Live Earth concerts have accomplished that would have offset their substantial “carbon footprint” and generally negative environmental impact? One could reply that the concert goers would have learned about the science of global warming: how we know that man influences the climate to warm, how a warmer climate will be destructive to the earth, and what individuals may do to reduce or erase their own contributions to global warming. The third claim – that concert attendees could learn how to reduce their own carbon footprint – is only relevant if the first two claims are true: 1) that man causes global warming; 2) that global warming will result in some environmental cataclysm. I will maintain that neither of these claims is true. I will take just a few arguments from the BBC documentary on this page to the right, “The Great Global Warming Swindle”.

Claim 1: Man Causes Global Warming

This is the general form of the argument that man is causing the earth to warm:
Man produces CO2.
CO2 causes increases in global temperatures.
Therefore, man is causing increases in global temperatures.

This argument is implicit in Al Gore’s documentary. However, the second premise appears to be false: CO2 does not cause rises in temperatures. Al Gore cites the ice core studies as proof of a correlation between CO2 and temperature increases. There is indeed a correlation between the two, but it does not amount to a causal relationship. In fact, CO2 levels only rise hundreds of years after a temperature increase. Since CO2 levels increase only after temperatures increase, we cannot say that CO2 causes global temperatures to increase. Rather, CO2 increases seem to be an after-effect of temperature increase.

We may also ask ourselves, why are the temperatures of the other planets in the solar system increasing? To my knowledge, no life is on those planets, responsible for increasing the amount of CO2 in those planets’ atmospheres. But scientists are finding that there is a strong correlation between solar activity and rises in the planets’ temperatures. Moreover – unlike the CO2/global warming correlation - the factors in this correlation do not exist hundreds of years apart, and the purported cause does not take place after the purported effect. Though I assume more research must be done, current evidence supports that increases in solar activity may cause increases in the earth’s global temperatures.

Claim 2: Global Warming Will Be Cataclysmic

If the globe warms, we are told, ocean levels will rise, crops will not grow, glaciers will melt, and polar bears will die. Man-made global warming advocates are concerned about the temperatures rising by a few more degrees Celsius. However, the entire globe’s temperatures were already warmer by 3-5 degrees Celsius during the Medieval Warm Period. And yet, neither man nor the polar bears died out. The polar bears were obviously able to adapt to the warming conditions, and there is no evidence of which I am aware that man suffered any during this time. In fact, in northern England, where it is now too cold for grapes to grow, wine vineyards were flourishing.

Conclusion

I have contested that the only value to Live Earth would have been to educate people on the science of man-made global warming: 1) man causes global warming, 2) global warming is bad, and 3) we must each individually reduce our contributions to man-made global warming. I have argued that man does not cause global warming and that global warming appears to be a natural effect of solar activity that does not destroy the planet. I have maintained that, as a consequence, we do not need to take any measures to reduce our “contributions” to global warming.

I have heard people like Al Gore tell us that the debate is over. Mr. Gore, as far as I am concerned, the real debate has just begun. I will say, however, that your big awareness-raising party has demonstrated one thing: there are more than a few people who need to research the matter more fully.