Climate Change - a Myth?
Recently, an increasing number of friends and acquaintances has told me that Climate Change is a myth.
Obviously they are talking about 'Anthropogenic Global Warming', not disclaiming actual changes to the climate.
We don't need climate scientists to tell us that the climate changes. Our own experience is sufficient to be quite sure of that.
During my lifetime the climate has been anything but constant. Else what is drought relief about? And the ski seasons have definitely been variable.
In the longer term we all have to rely on others. For example on scientists who have themselves examined ice cores or tree rings or sea level records or other physical evidence that can be dated.
So I'm prepared to believe the scientists who have determined sea levels showing that fourteen or fifteen thousand years ago a hypothetical Australian could walk from Tasmania to New Guinea or an Irishman all the way to Java.
Changing sea levels during the past 20,000 years
Source Wikipedia: Early Human Migration & Sea Level change
This rise has not stopped. During my lifetime the average sea level in Sydney Harbour has risen by nearly a foot, in keeping with long term trends. More water in the Harbour on average obviously has temperature and therefore microclimate implications. There are thousands of well documented examples of changes like this that have climate impacts.
But like the tides there is great variability that masks the underlying trends. For example 2014 was a record warm year in Sydney. But in mid 2015 we were going through the longest cold spell in 45 years. It snowed in Queensland!
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