factum:
You’ve been criticizing the theory of man-made global warming
for years. How did you become skeptical?
Puls: Ten years ago I
simply parroted what
the IPCC
told us.
One day I started checking the
facts and data - first I started with a sense of doubt but then
I became outraged when I discovered that much of what the IPCC
and the media were telling us was sheer nonsense and was not
even supported by any scientific facts and measurements.
To this
day I still feel shame that as a scientist I made presentations
of their science without first checking it. The CO2-climate
hysteria in Germany is propagated
by people who are in it for lots of money,
attention and power.
factum:
Is there really climate change?
Puls:
Climate change is
normal. There have always been phases of climate warming, many
that even far exceeded the extent we see today. But there hasn’t
been any warming since 1998. In fact the IPCC suppliers of data
even show a slight cooling.
factum:
The IPCC is projecting 0.2°C warming per decade, i.e. 2 to 4°C
by the year 2100. What’s your view?
Puls:
These are speculative model projections, so-called scenarios - and not prognoses.
Because of climate’s high complexity,
reliable prognoses just aren’t possible. Nature does what it
wants, and not what the models present as prophesy. The entire
CO2-debate is nonsense.
Even if CO2 were doubled, the
temperature would rise only 1°C. The remainder of the IPCC’s
assumed warming
is based purely on speculative amplification
mechanisms. Even though CO2 has risen, there has been no warming
in 13 years.
factum:
How does sea level rise look?
Puls:
Sea level rise has slowed down. Moreover, it has dropped a half
centimeter over the last 2 years. It’s important to remember
that mean sea level is a calculated magnitude, and not a
measured one.
There are a great number of factors that
influence sea level, e.g.,
-
tectonic processes
-
continental
shifting
-
wind currents
-
trade winds
-
volcanoes
Climate change is
only one of ten factors.
factum:
What have we measured at the North Sea?
Puls:
In the last 400 years, sea level at the North Sea coast has
risen about 1.40 meters. That’s about 35 centimeters per
century. In the last 100 years, the North Sea has risen only 25
centimeters.
factum:
Does the sea level rise have anything to do with the melting
North Pole?
Puls:
That’s a misleading conclusion. Even if the entire North Pole
melted,
there would be no sea level rise
because of the principles of buoyancy.
factum:
Is the
melting of the glaciers in the Alps caused by global
warming?
Puls:
There are many factors at play. As one climbs a mountain, the
temperature drops about 0.65°C per 100 meters.
Over the last 100
years it has gotten about 0.75°C warmer and so the temperature
boundary has shifted up about 100 meters. But observations tell
us that also ice 1000 meters up and higher has melted. Clearly
there are other reasons for this, namely
soot and dust.
But soot
and dust do not only have anthropogenic origins; they are also
caused by nature via,
-
volcanoes
-
dust storms
-
wildfires
Advancing and retreating of glaciers have always taken place
throughout the Earth’s history. Glaciology studies clearly show
that glaciers over the last 10,0000 years were smaller on
average than today.
factum:
In your view, melting Antarctic sea ice and the fracture of a
huge iceberg 3 years ago are nothing to worry about?
Puls:
To the contrary, the
Antarctic ice cap has grown both in area
and volume over the last 30 years, and temperature has declined.
This 30-year trend is clear to see.
The Amundsen Scott Station of the USA shows that temperature has
been declining there since 1957.
90% of the Earth’s ice is stored in Antarctica,
which is one and half times larger than Europe.
factum:
Then why do we always read it is getting warmer down there?
Puls:
Here they are only talking about the
West Antarctic peninsula,
which is where the big chunk of ice broke off in 2008 - from the
Wilkins-Shelf.
This area is hardly 1% of the entire area of
Antarctica, but it is exposed to Southern Hemisphere west wind
drift and some of the strongest storms on the planet.
factum:
What causes such massive chunks of ice to break off?
Puls:
There are lots of factors, among them the intensity of the west
wind fluctuations.
These west winds have intensified over the last 20 years as part
of
natural ocean and atmospheric cycles, and
so it has gotten warmer on the west coast of the Antarctic
peninsula.
A second factor are the larger waves associated with the
stronger storms. The waves are more powerful and so they break
off more ice. All these causes are meteorological and physical,
and
have nothing to do with a climate catastrophe.
factum:
Then such ice breaks had to have occurred in the past too?
Puls:
This has been going on for thousands of years, also in the
1970s, back when all the talk was about “global cooling”. Back
then there were breaks with ice chunks hundreds of square
kilometers in area.
People were even discussing the
possibilities of towing these huge ice chunks to dry
countries like South Africa or Namibia in order to use them as a
drinking water supply.
factum:
What about all the media photos of polar bears losing their ice?
Puls:
That is one of the worst myths used for generating climate
hysteria. Polar bears don’t eat ice, they eat seals. Polar bears
go hungry if we shoot their food supply of seals.
The polar bear
population has increased with moderately rising temperatures,
from 5000, 50 years ago, to 25,000 today.
factum:
But it is true that unlike Antarctica, the Arctic is melting?
Puls:
It has been melting for 30 years. That also happened twice
already in the last 150 years. The low point was reached in 2007
and the ice has since begun to recover.
There have always been
phases of Arctic melting. Between 900 and 1300 Greenland was
green on the edges and the Vikings settled there.
factum:
And what do you say about the alleged expanding deserts?
Puls:
That doesn't exist.
For example
the Sahara is shrinking
and has lost in the north an area as large as Germany over the
last 20 years. The same is true in the South Sahara.
The famine that
struck Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia was mainly caused by
the
leasing of large swaths of land to large international
corporations so that they could grow crops for biofuels for
Europe, and by war.
But it is much easier for prosperous Europe to blame the world’s
political failures on
a fictional climate catastrophe
instead.
factum:
So we don’t need to do anything against climate change?
Puls:
There’s nothing we can do to stop it.
Scientifically it is
sheer absurdity
to think we can get a nice
climate by turning a CO2 adjustment knob. Many confuse
environmental protection with climate protection.
It’s
impossible to protect the climate,
but we can protect the environment and our drinking water.
On the debate concerning
alternative energies, which is sensible, it is often driven by
the irrational climate debate.
One has nothing to do with the
other...
