The Royal Society has produced this overview of the current state of scientific understanding of climate change to help non-experts better understand some of the debates in this complex area of science.
- Misleading argument 1 : The Earth's climate is always changing and this is nothing to do with humans.
- Misleading argument 2 : Carbon dioxide only makes up a small part of the atmosphere and so cannot be responsible for global warming.
- Misleading argument 3 : Rises in the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are the result of increased temperatures, not the other way round.
- Misleading argument 4 : Observations of temperatures taken by weather balloons and satellites do not support the theory of global warming.
- Misleading argument 5 : Computer models which predict the future climate are unreliable and based on a series of assumptions.
- Misleading argument 6 : It's all to do with the Sun - for example, there is a strong link between increased temperatures on Earth with the number of sunspots on the Sun.
- Misleading argument 7 : The climate is actually affected by cosmic rays.
- Misleading argument 8 : The scale of the negative effects of climate change is often overstated and there is no need for urgent action.
