New Theory: CO2 And Climate Linked -- But Not In The Way The 'Consensus' Tells Us 

New Theory: CO2 And Climate Linked -- But Not In The Way The 'Consensus' Tells Us

Post written by

Chuck DeVore

Mr. DeVore is the vice president of National Initiatives at the TPPF where he oversees the Fueling Freedom Project.

The problem with the Earth’s past periods of pre-industrial glaciation and warming is that, as the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) itself noted in its 2007 report, “The quantitative and mechanistic explanation of these CO2 variations remains one of the major unsolved questions in climate research.” In other words, we don’t know what caused large swings in atmospheric carbon dioxide in the past.
The unknown mechanism for CO2 fluctuations in the past has led to myriad climate model failures in the present as climate researchers assume carbon dioxide drives the global climate. But, as Ralph Ellis, the author of “Modulation of ice ages via precession and dust-albedo feedbacks” notes, “The primary feedback involved in modern terrestrial temperature feedbacks is said to be CO2 (plus H2O), and so it is assumed that CO2 must also be closely involved in the interglacial warming process (Hansen et al., 2012). But there is a problem with this suggestion, because high CO2 concentrations during an interglacial always result in cooling while low CO2 concentrations during a glacial maximum always result in warming…”
This is a revolutionary claim. If the global warming alarmists are correct, rising CO2 could lead to runaway planetary warming while conversely, low CO2 levels would result in runaway cooling. The geologic record of the planet shows the opposite, however, with long periods of glaciation interrupted by occasional 5,000 year periods of warming.
Ellis’ work explains these cycles by completely reinterpreting CO2 ’s role in our climate. He writes:

Ice age CO2 reductions coincide with an increase in ice sheet extent and therefore an increase in global albedo, and this should result in further cooling of the climate. But what actually happens is that when CO2 reaches a minimum and albedo reaches a maximum, the world rapidly warms into an interglacial. A similar effect can be seen at the peak of an interglacial, where high CO2 and low albedo results in cooling. This counterintuitive response of the climate system also remains unexplained, and so a hitherto unaccounted for agent must exist that is strong enough to counter and reverse the classical feedback mechanisms.
The answer to both of these conundrums lies in glacial dust, which was deposited upon the ice sheets towards the end of each glacial maximum.

The reason for all the dust just before the end of an ice-age is simple: CO2 levels fall as the planet cools, eventually causing a die off of land-based plants, especially in arid areas such as the high steppes of Mongolia. CO2 starvation causes plants to compensate but that compensation itself makes them more vulnerable to lack of water. What then happens is a rapid loss of vegetative cover that results in increasing amounts of dust in the air. That dust then coats the layers of snow in the northern hemisphere’s landmasses, significantly decreasing its albedo or reflectiveness. This causes the ice to melt at an increasing pace until the planet emerges from its ice-age—until the process repeats itself.
Ellis illustrated the historic connection between CO2, dust and temperature over the past 800,000 years in this graphic.

Ellis concludes his abstract by noting that his new thesis, “…is simple, robust, and comprehensive in its scope, and its key elements are well supported by empirical evidence.” Which, charitably, is more anyone can say about any of the current crop of climate models that are rooted in the belief that modern civilization’s use of carbon-based energy is driving our planet inexorably towards extinction.