A few select deniers’ talking points

 Here are a few of the more common current talking points deployed by the  #NetZeroDelayers (a.k.a. Man Made Climate Climate Change Deniers, Mild MMCMinimiser, “Independent” climate science proponents, etc). 

They are put here for identification purposes only; a kind of shorthand which may prove useful briefly to identify the notion being put forward. I have put the key answer in brackets after a few of the denial claim, but if you want to debate the whole question, SkepticalScience.com is the place to go.

1. It’s the Sun, stupid (correlation between solar activity and ST has diverged)

2. Climate has always changed (Modern CC is rapid and correlates with our CO2)

3. CO2 is 0.04% of the atmosphere (Tiny things can cause big changes in physical systems. Magnesium is about 0.000035%  human body. Too little or too much, and things go severely wrong)

4. CO2 increases lag surface temperature (ST) (CO2 is a feedback as well as a forcing) 

5. Carbon dioxide is good for plants (Nobody said it wasn’t. CO2 is a tiny negative feedback, overwhelmed by positive feedbacks)

6. It’s snowing outside, so GW isn’t happening (Hasty generalisation fallacy)

7. This factor that I have read about, affects climate, so CO2 has no effect (Climate is multi factorial) 

8. What about China then? (Kant’s Moral  imperative)

9. Deaths due to natural disasters are down. (Agreed. Forecasting and rescue services have improved)�

10. The Net Zero pushback: Greens want us back to the Dark Ages

    1. Renewable energy RE is intermittent (So we will do storage)

    2. RE needs minerals & energy to make technology (we are in transition), and see here:

    3. RE mfrs use child labour (then intervene in the free market, set standards and regulate)

    4. RE causes pollution (Then stop the pollution)

    5. Greens are hypocrites because they use fossil fuels (we are cutting as fast as we can while living in this FF-based economy, and some of us offset our residual FF use by reforestation)

11.  I dislike Greta Thunberg, therefore changing Earth’s greenhouse effect will not have any impact on surface temperatures.