The first “Summary for Policymakers” statement on the man-made increase of CO2, is a cornerstone of the IPCC report, and of the global warming edifice. This statement is a manipulation and a half-truth. It is true that CO2 is “the most important anthropogenic [trace] greenhouse gas,” but a much more important greenhouse factor is the water naturally present in the atmosphere, which contributes some 95 percent to the total greenhouse effect. This basic fact is not mentioned at all in the “Summary for Policymakers.” Also not mentioned is the fact that 97 percent of the total annual emission of CO2 into the atmosphere comes from natural emissions of the land and sea; human beings add a mere 3 percent. This man-made 3 percent of CO2 emissions is responsible for a tiny fraction of the total greenhouse effect, probably close to 0.12 percent. Propositions of changing, or rather destroying, the global energy system because of this tiny human contribution, in face of the large short-term and long-term natural fluctuations of atmospheric CO2, are utterly irresponsible.
Direct CO2 Measurements in the Atmosphere We thus find ourselves in the situation that the entire theory of man-made global warming—with its repercussions in science, and its important consequences for politics and the global economy—is based on ice core studies that provided a false picture of the atmospheric CO2 levels. Meanwhile, more than 90,000 direct measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere, carried out in America, Asia, and Europe between 1812 and 1961, with excellent chemical methods (accuracy better than 3 percent), were arbitrarily rejected. These measurements had been published in 175 technical papers. For the past three decades, these well-known direct CO2 measurements, recently compiled and analyzed by Ernst-Georg Beck (Beck 2006a, Beck 2006b, Beck 2007), were completely ignored by climatologists— and not because they were wrong. Indeed, these measurements were made by top scientists, including two Nobel Prize winners, using the techniques that are standard textbook procedures in chemistry, biochemistry, botany, hygiene, medicine, nutrition, and ecology. The only reason for rejection was that these measurements did not fit the hypothesis of anthropogenic climatic warming. I regard this as perhaps the greatest scientific scandal of our time.
