Facts and Fallacies of Climate Change on Our Planet

Fact Sheet

Based on an independent, unbiased analysis of valid databases of scientific information conducted for the benefit of humanity, the facts and fallacies about global warming and climate change are summarized in this Fact Sheet as follows:

1) There were no discernible anthropogenic greenhouse gas effects found in the several scientific databases when assessed in a professionally ethical big picture system engineering analysis approach by the unbiased Author. Environmental scientists disregarding the complex factors causing climate change and cherry-picking the total scientific databases and, in collusion with the sensationalistic news media, have intentionally misinformed and alarmed the public to believe there is an imminent catastrophic environmental crisis.

2) The surface temperatures of the planet (land and water) are rising but are found to be caused by combined astrophysical, geophysical, and natural factors beyond human control, NOT by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Mathematical calculations by Dr. Milutin Milankovic confirm the cyclical frequency at which geophysical parametric variables appear in meteorological databases.

3) The combined heat-trapping natural (geophysical) greenhouse gas emissions (measured in Vostok Antarctica pre-Industrial Revolution ice core sample analysis to be 295 ppmv parts per million by volume (0.0295% concentration) and water vapor (at a global average of 1.4%) total to approximately 1.43% average concentration of natural heat-trapping gases in Earth’s atmosphere affecting different regions to different extent depending on their latitude, and not in a one-size-fits-all average global manner.

4) Concentrated analysis of the Vostok ice core sample database (by ice research scientist Dr. Nicolas Caillon of France) found that it is temperature that drives natural carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and not the converse. The lag of carbon dioxide peak behind the temperature peak (and with the absence of human influence) was determined to be approximately 800 years.

5) The amount of anthropogenic (human and industrial generated) greenhouse gases measured by NOAA at Mauna Loa are currently (April 28, 2025) at 135 ppmv (430 ppmv total – 295 ppmv natural) or 0.0135% concentration in the atmosphere. The small concentration of anthropogenic emissions is an insignificant factor to global warming or climate change.

6) The ratio of natural (atmospheric chemistry + water vapor) greenhouse gas concentration to that of anthropogenic (human and industrial) greenhouse gas concentration is 1.43% to 0.0135%) or 106 to 1 (as shown in climate scientist Dr. S. Fred Singer’ A Closer Look at the Numbers analysis). Environmental scientists disregard the effect of water vapor which contradicts their fallacious hypothesis that anthropogenic greenhouse gases dominate the global warming effect on climate change.

7) The statistical approach used by environmental scientists of averaging and linearizing meteorological data masks the factual seasonal temperature extremes of hot and cold at regional topographical elevations to which all life forms in a latitudinal region (not merely globally) must adapt. A better method (considering latitude, elevation, and ocean proximity effects) for estimating average annual temperature was developed using World Meteorological Organization database statistics. (LEO)

8) The technology of coal burning in the USA must be reduced because coal ash residue contains toxins and carcinogens which, when disposed in landfills factually pollute underground aquafers endangering life (human, animate and agricultural). Combustion of fossil fuels – oil, petroleum fuels, and natural gas - generates no emissions affecting regional or global surface temperatures, climate, or ocean levels.

It is scientifically unrealistic – not naysaying - to expect that reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions by eliminating combustion of all fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) will have a significant effect on retarding or avoiding global warming, climate changes, or ocean levels rising. Technologies for mitigating the effects of the inevitable surface temperature rises, climate changes, and ocean surface levels rising and the urgent need to better control anthropogenic pollution (especially plastic materials and leakages/spillages of oil and natural gas) must be escalated to a high priority – national and international - as the projected growing population will exacerbate human safety, health, sanitation, and/or environmental pollution hazards.

Facts and Fallacies of Climate

Change on Our Planet

A big picture system-level perspective

of the astrophysical, geophysical, natural, and

factors that dynamically affect regional surface temperatures,

climatic anomalies, adverse weather trends,

geophysical catastrophes, and rising ocean levels

Herbert A. Hutchinson

Scientist, System Safety Engineer, Genealogist, Inventor

Durham, North Carolina

Copyright © 2025 by Herbert A. Hutchinson. 853646

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2025904733

Rev. date: 07/02/2025

Contents

Disclaimer

Dedication

Acknowledgement

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 Major Elements of Earth’s Atmosphere, Temperature, and Climate

Chapter 2 Databases Important to Global Warming and Climate Change

Chapter 3 Astrophysical Factors Affecting Planet Earth

Chapter 4 Geophysical Factors Affecting Planet Earth

Chapter 5 Other factors and the LEO Temperature Model

Chapter 6 Human Factors and Other Relevant Information

Appendix

About the Author - and how to contact

References (Other Perspectives and Information)

Disclaimer

The science profession has earned a well-deserved reputation for advancing the knowledge of the natural and physical structure of the solar system and of the environment in which the human inhabitants of the planet Earth conduct their lives. The title of this book and factual contents herein illustrate the scope and complexity of the problems resulting from human/natural environmental interactions. When any scientific observation is made, there is always a possibility of varying interpretation as to the importance and completeness of the variables in the observation. The terminology fallacious is not intended to point a finger of blame toward a fallacious observation. Instead, constructive criticism is used to show that an original fallacious interpretation of a database of information that is continually being updated (e.g., with advanced technology sensors on satellites) is not an error but requires more complete and more accurate measurements to be made defining the outdated known and previously unknown facts and information in that database.

The learning process in science is a cumulative one that ideally is based on astute observations, common sense logic, accurate and complete measurement of all significant factors, unbiased forensic-like analysis of observations and measurements, and with the purest of ethics in interpretation and presentation of knowledge gained to peers and the public. However, scientists are also human, and humans occasionally commit errors of commission and omission in moments of distraction, carelessness, or being inconsiderate (intentionally or unintentionally) of the consequences when generating a piece of scientific information that may affect the safety, health, comfort or economics of a segment of the population affected by that information. The responsibility for accurate interpretation(s) of any informational database(s) – scientific or non-scientific – rests with the interpreter and the amount of bias or ethics harbored in the interpreter.

The Author earned those qualifications and acquired the experience to professionally analyze complex databases and openly disclose results of those analyses to the public via this book. The Author is a member (now in emeritus status) but not acting as a representative of the not-for-profit Mensa International Society. The Author pledges the integrity of the purpose for and the contents of this book in keeping with the Mensa Society Constitution: to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity. It should not go unnoticed that the US Constitution also starts with "We, the People, … ". As the note on the cover of this book indicates, It’s far more about people than about just the environment.

In well-intentioned writings to prove the scientific validity of a fallacious hypothesis, misleading partially factual information, and fallacious misinformation have appeared in environmental science journals and in the news media that portrays to the science-challenged public less educated in matters of science and physics that there exists a crisis level of concern about the increasing adverse effects of human-created greenhouse gas emissions on the ecology, public health and safety. This book assesses the initiation of activities and technologies to combat climate change and the setting of unachievable levels of emissions goals and schedules for their attainment in a hindsight manner. It is not the intent to criticize those earlier observations for their interpretation but is intended to provide constructive criticism of the thought-process used to arrive at setting goals based on an incomplete database of information.

Further, the Author has taken all reasonable measures to ensure that the information in this book contains no data, information, or less-than-professional interpretation of the environmental database that is believed to have been misleadingly retouched from its published form in reputable scientific journals and reports. Similarly, this book has not cherry-picked only a portion of the database selected that agrees with a scientific hypothesis that has been incompletely analyzed or presented in a form intended to mislead the public and governmental environmental protection regulators. The seriousness and urgency for resolution of the safety and health crisis due to climate change is much exaggerated by a certain segment of the environmental science profession focused only on protecting the environment. The urgency for corrective actions is clarified herein and presented as motivation rather than as a threat of an apocalyptic nature to the human population if the unrealistic goals are not met.

Many photographs, diagrams, and database information related to climate change, global warming, and ocean levels rising were obtained by the Author from the databases of information in the public domain from the several government organizations identified in the Acknowledgment section of this book. Inasmuch as those organizations were and are being funded by Government grants (whose source is taxpayers’ tax monies) and the Author being a taxpayer, the Author is using this book to disseminate factually updated information items – as a public service – that government organizations have already disseminated to the public. Just as that was not done by any government-funded organization to make a profit, the Author also is disseminating that information already in the public domain not for profit but also to add a different interpretation or perspective that results in a more factually based alternate interpretation.

Where known, the Author assures that credit for the photograph, diagram, tabulated database, etc. has been given below the item to its creator. Any small infraction on a copyright restriction that may be contained anywhere in this book is purely unintended and for which the Author pre-apologizes to the creator who used the sweat of his or her brow to create that item of information (photograph, diagram, analysis document, or statement).

The Author commends the science, technological, and engineering professions that have brought the developed countries of the World into a safer, healthier, more comfortable, and more prosperous state of existence for the human population. More needs to be done by the more developed countries to humanely assist those in lesser developed countries who are struggling do that in their present natural environment, state of natural resources, and status of economy.

The Author chooses not to accept any form of personal financial gain from publication of this book. All royalties or profits gained from the sale of this book to better inform and enlist the cooperation of the public (domestic and elsewhere) will be donated to the not-for-profit Salvation Army, which humanely assists the public when severely impacted by a natural act of God catastrophe causing tragic loss of too many human lives and/or irreparable damage to their tangible properties.

Dedication

This book is quad dedicated to the:

The Environmental Protection Administration and the National Park Service - for preserving and protecting the magnificent wonders of the natural world – the land, the water, the air, the forests, and the animal (land, avian, and aquatic) lives therein.

Ethical professionals in all branches of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics - who will have the courage to apply the information in this book – as inconvenient as it may seem - to protect those wondrous forms of nature and the public from the adverse natural hazards and temperature extremes to which the dynamically-moving and ever-changing planet occasionally exposes its passengers.

Members of the public - who need to, and hopefully will, show more respect to their natural home and stop polluting it.

Teachers of Science at all educational levels, especially in the primary grades - who should factually describe and teach the factual causes of global warming, climate change, and ocean levels rising to those who will have to understand, function, and survive in the extremes of the real world

Acknowledgement

There is a large and constantly growing database of information for the topics of global warming, climate change, and ocean levels rising describing their causes and effects on the land, water, and atmospheric resources and the human population of planet Earth. The total database is compiled from three major scientific observation and measurement activities and a major mathematical analysis to understand and define the factors that are the causative variables and those that are the effect variables affected by the multiple, complex factors associated with global warming, climate change, and the ocean levels rising. There are many organizations within the government and independent scientific, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) research academies that deserve acknowledgment for the enormous applications of human analytical efforts, administrative labor, and funds to observe, photograph, measure, document, compile, and interpret the large complex databases. Listing the myriads of participants would be analogous to this book appearing to be a telephone directory.

The four primary types of databases and the dominant contributing and originating organizations and their staffs given special acknowledgment for this book are:

1.The Astrophysical and Geophysical factors database (1900-Present) Special acknowledgement is given to: The Milutin Milankovic Calculation Team, the original Russian and subsequent International (Russian, United States, British, Scandinavian, and French) Ice Core Teams at the Vostok Research Station (Antarctica), the US Geological Survey, the Smithsonian Institute for Science, the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation, the Encyclopedia Brittanica, and the International Union of Geological Sciences.

2.The Natural factors database (1880-Present) Special acknowledgement is given to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (including the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center, the National Tornado Center, the National Snow and Ice Data Center, and the Keeling Atmospheric Observatory at Mauna Loa), and the US Geological Survey Agency (Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program; Volcano Hazards Program).

3.The Weather and Climatic factors database (1900 - Present) Special acknowledgement is given to the National Weather Service, and the World Meteorological Organization.

4.The Earth Research factors database from land-based meteorological stations and space-based satellites and International Space Stations (1960 - Present) Special acknowledgement is given to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Academy of Science, the National Science Foundation, the Smithsonian Society, and the National Geographic Society

Special acknowledgment is also given to the United Nations Population Division and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the US Department of Energy, the US Department of Commerce, and to the many other scientific organizations and scientific research and analysis groups world-wide (governmental and institutional) supporting the activities to protect the human population and the environment.

Preface

This book has been written to shed light on a complex scientific problem caused by a large number and diversity of interacting complex factors that contribute to the problem of global warming and global climate change. The factors affecting the environment are overshadowed by their effects on human safety, health, comfort, infrastructure, and transportation to compound the problem. Nevertheless, protection of the environment from human-made pollution emerges as a looming problem as the world population grows.

Instead of writing a scientific paper - which most of the public would never know was in existence much less read - the Author has written this book as a public service and with the intent of rectifying the state of knowledge the public has been misled to believe about why the temperatures on the planet are changing, where they are changing, and at what rate. The effect the temperature change has had and is having on the human population as well as on the environment of the planet has been found to vary regionally and not globally. The image on the front cover (derived from NASA satellite photographs and temperature sensors) confirms that the normal temperature of the Earth decreases generally linearly with the latitudinal distance from the Equator, but the similar perspective of the planet showing the difference between the annual average temperature of regions as small as counties – shown in the following diagram - indicates the non-uniformity of the temperature changes:

(Source: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA)

The environmental scientists use of an average global temperature and a linearized trend of temperature anomalies highlights the difference between the big picture perspective of the global warming problem as opposed to the laboratory scale extrapolation from one facility (the NOAA Atmospheric Observatory (in Mauna Loa, Hawaii) measuring carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere and alarming the public that it is due to humans burning fossil fuels. A recent measurement from the Mauna Loa facility is shown as follows:

(Source: Mauna Loa Observatory, NOAA)

The red line presents the raw measurement atmospheric data set which indicates the seasonal variation effect of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Environmental scientists adjust the measured data to the black line variation by removing the effect of water vapor in the atmosphere. However, it is that water vapor in the atmosphere that has a far greater effect as a heat-trapping greenhouse effect on atmospheric temperature than does the total (natural and human-made) carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The resulting adjusted black line presented at the large scalar units of parts per million by volume is seen to represent the rise in carbon dioxide due to Man and industry burning fossil fuels. The rise from 414 parts per million by volume in 2020 to 425 parts per million by volume in 2024 is an overexaggeration, intended to mislead the public into believing there is an alarming rate of carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere being generated by the Industrial Revolution processes and by human activities and needs. Converting the parts per million concentration of human-made heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere to percentage form, the data is factually described as having risen from 0.0414% in 2020 to 0.0425% in 2024, a rise of 0.0011% in four years. It is not the scientific accuracy of the data that is of questionable significance, but the adjustments made and the misleading presentation of the data that comes into question.

The essence of this book is to identify the factual causes for the climate changing regionally not globally, and to identify and quantify the true factors affecting global warming and climate change, not simply that Man burning fossil fuels is the singular dominant cause of the changes.

It is from a blinders-on environmental science perspective fanned by sensationalistic news media fearmongering reporting of what is happening in the atmosphere of the planet that has led the public into believing that the greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere point to the Industrial Revolution as causing an environmental crisis:

The remainder of this book explains – in an unconventional mix of scientific illustrations and photographs described in almost street level text and with very basic logic – the realistic facts and fallacies of climate change on our planet.

The time has come to phase out the use of coal burning as a primary source of heat energy, but it is to reduce the coal ash residue as a toxic and carcinogenic pollutant, not as an emitter of greenhouse gases. The drive to eliminate other fossil fuels (oil and natural gas) is not warranted as their contributions to climate change are nil and to pollution are negligible. The role of the Environmental Protection Agency is recommended to focus on the pollution hazards (and the leakages and spillages of oil and natural gas) that will be accentuated by the exponentially growing population in the United States. Other regions of the planet should develop and take similar actions best for their unique regional needs, perhaps using the United States approach as a model.

The Author has also recently published a sequel book Dealing With the Real Climate Change within which is provided experience-based suggestions for the development of technologies for more reliable and cleaner sources of energy than that of coal that can reduce the impact that humans are having on their safety, health, comfort, and transportability. Emphasis is placed on humans reducing their pollution of the land, water, and air they breathe while mitigating the natural hazards of climate change.

Introduction

Two statues Past (on left) and Future (on right), in front of the US National Archives building in Washington, D.C., have the philosophies of Study the past and What is past is prologue engraved on their base pedestals.

In the age of philosophers and astronomers many centuries ago those words of wisdom were very sagely advice. Based on his education and experience in development of new technologies for airplanes, which entailed crash investigations when things did not happen quite as planned, the Author added and present to the past of the National Archives engravings philosophies. That set of information perhaps explains why a system safety engineer has analyzed the scientific topics of global warming and climate change. In the solving of any complex problem, it is also sagely advice to get a second opinion, or in science and engineering listen and learn from another perspective. Mountain climbers gain one perspective if they are at the base of a mountain looking up, different from at the top of the same mountain looking down. The mountain hasn’t changed – only the perspective.

This book begins with the perspective of environmental scientists who (circa 1898) found carbon dioxide gas in a laboratory flask will retain heat when irradiated with a heat lamp. The science of transfer of heat energy is valid in a laboratory but is shown to behave differently in the humongous non-homogenous atmosphere of the planet. Carbon dioxide absorbs heat, but if the laboratory experiment were conducted with carbon dioxide being mixed with other gases in the beaker and has a lower concentration, there will be a lesser amount of heat absorbed. As the front cover of this book reveals, this book explains the facts and fallacies of climate change – caused by the carbon dioxide in different concentrations in the atmosphere of the planet. The environmental scientists’ grass roots perspective is proven in this book to be fallacious (inaccurate) because they did not consider other big picture perspectives and rushed to convince the public that Humans burning fossil fuels is the dominant cause for global surface temperatures that have been increasing since the start of the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago.

Environmental protection scientists have developed a hypothesis that Humans burning fossil fuels since the onset of the Industrial Revolution has created a heat-trapping greenhouse gas effect in the lower atmosphere. Using inferential logic, a settled science has concluded the Human-made carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the dominant cause for the average global temperature of the planet to be rising at a crisis rate. Peer scientists are in general agreement that the average global temperature of the planet is on a rising trend but that it is not at a crisis rate and is probably caused by other factors that are not Humans-related. The purpose of this book was/is to independently research and analyze the existing databases of information pertinent to the differences within the scientific community and to clarify the facts that the public should know. As an indicator of how the public is being misinformed about Humans and industry having used coal to become developed nations is reflected in a news article recently published:

(Source: Bloomberg Opinion in public domain news media)

Throughout this book, references will be made to the values and pitfalls in the use of inferential logic. An example of such logic is: Truth is a dominant factor in life. Humans seek the truth. Scientists are human. By inferential logic, scientists seek and speak the truth. Any scientist (or human) who seeks the truth should not be ostracized as a naysayer or contrary scientist for doing that. A caution is given that there are some in science who wish to warp the truth to gain recognition (and to continue receiving grant monies from sources biased toward protecting the environment instead of protecting the safety of the human population).

Historical records reflect that at least three times before (in the Ancient Chinese, Greek, Romans, and Egyptian periods and again later in the Age of Discovery), philosophers and scientists made then-valid observations, but which were interpreted incorrectly using fallacious logic and were later changed – with improved telescopes - in interpretation.

The first was the belief by a group of poets and several philosophers (circa 4 and 5 centuries B.C.) that the Earth was a flat disk, or a plane made up of terra firma – land, and floating on a vast la mar - ocean). Science, by that name, had not then been identified so the group was not referred to as scientists. That misinformed group had a few reappearances down through centuries of history and were referred to as Flat Earthers. In 1956, a contemporary group in England registered their name as the International Flat Earth Society (shortened to the Flat Earth Society), but which was soon after disbanded when NASA satellite photos became available and proved the Earth to be spherical. (The Author adds that from the perspective of a misinformed land-based observer, when standing on the Earth it can seem to be a flat circular disk as many members of the public agreed with the Flat Earthers until a NASA database convinced them otherwise.)

The second was the ‘observation’ by scientists in the Age of Discovery (circa 1428 – 1620) that the Sun revolved about the Earth because it was obvious (a word derived from the two roots ‘ob’ – ‘near’, and ‘vis’ – ‘see’) that every day the Sun was observed to rise above the Eastern horizon in the morning, travel across the sky for about ten to twelve hours and then observed to settle below the Western horizon for another ten or twelve hours. The first scientifically defined concept of the planetary system is attributed to the Greek philosopher and astronomer Claudius Ptolemy (c.100 – c.170 AD); however, the Ptolemy concept was greatly influenced by powerful theologians who believed that everything in the universe (including the Sun then regarded as another planet) centers on – and revolves around - the planet Earth which was made by the Master Creators of all life. In the Greek philosophy at that time, the known planets were all given the names of Greek Gods – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. The Sun was known as Sol, and the Moon (correctly shown as orbiting the planet Earth) was originally named Luna. At the center was Erde (later anglicized to Earth). The Ptolemy diagram shown next was the first documented form of the astrophysical database of the planetary system and shows the known planets in circular orbits with Earth at their center:

(Courtesy of Encyclopedia Brittanica)

That cycle of events was visually timed using sun dials tracing the shadow of the Sun’s movement. That also gave rise to the terminologies of ‘sunrise’ and ‘sunset’ and which the public of that period accepted the obvious interpretation by reputable scientists as fact. Humans believe what they want to believe – and if repeatedly given fallacious misinformation by those who represent science.

Once pointed out to them, the fallacious interpretation of the sunrise and sunset was noted by the public and the terms ‘day (or daylight) and ‘night’ have become more common in public use. After all, seeing is believing (but only if that which was seen is interpreted correctly). The physical fact is that the Sun was/is not moving at all, and it was/is the planet that was moving (rotating and translating) relative to the Sun. There are many photographs and diagrams in this book to assure scientifically correct interpretation of observations for their illusional message. Many meteorologists continue the use of sunrise and sunset". A rainbow is a beautiful sight, but when its cause is explained in scientific terminology that should not diminish the beauty of the rainbow.

The Polish philosopher and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543) was the first known scientifically-qualified critic of Ptolemy’s concept of the planetary system and was the first known theoretician to describe the system of planets to revolve around the Sun at its center. That became the theory of heliocentrism. However, the powerful theologians of that time period banished any further research that conflicted with that of Ptolemy. It was Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) who was the first scientist to more scientifically (with improved telescopic instruments) and (with the mathematical genius Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630) of Germany as a peer) mathematically confirmed Copernicus’ theory of heliocentrism of the solar system and how the various planets elliptically orbited the Sun not the planet Earth. It was then that the identification of anyone (Galileo and Keppler included) who disagreed with the theologians to be heretics in religion and naysayers amid the many poets and philosophers who continued to maintain that Earth was the center of the Universe.

Kepler made a statement which gave this Author much inspiration for writing this book: The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great, and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order, that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.

Based on the combined works of Copernicus, Galileo, and Keppler (and other lesser-known astronomers and mathematicians), the solar system was generated with the Sun at the center and the four inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and its Moon, and Mars in their unique orbits about the Sun: There were also four outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) observed and they are also shown on the diagram in their unique orbits:

(Source: Encyclopedia Britanica with Author’s annotations)

In the Age of Reason which rapidly followed the Age of Discovery, observations combined with mathematical theorems (principally those of Johannes Keppler (in 1620) and Rene’ Descartes (in 1644), and later by Sir Isaac Newton (in 1687) describing the obvious interpretations with numerical models proved that the Copernican interpretation of heliocentrism (the Sun being at the center of our galaxy) was correct. What was known as fact then as the big picture of the solar system was improved continuously as observation technology improved.

The complexity of our solar system makes the big picture at one point in time becoming only like one grain of sand on a beach. The NASA Edwin Hubbell Space Telescope and the current NASA James Webb Space Telescope represent the ultimate in telescope technology. Those telescopes have allowed astronomy to see the full big picture of what comprises the universe and the solar system within our Milky Way galaxy. A summarized knowledge of the solar system (with a little artistic license) is shown as follows:

(Credit to unknown graphic artist) The Solar System

The above far out perspective of the big picture does not add much understanding of the several complex interacting dynamic factors that affect the temperatures and climatic conditions on our planet Earth. However, it does serve to point out that Earth and its only Moon are in orbit of the Sun. It is a basic fact (proven mathematically by the mathematician Johannes Kepler based on the observations of naysayer astronomer Galileo di Galilei) that the amount of heat energy from the Sun changes – increases and decreases - with the distance each of the four inner planets and their moons is from the Sun that opens the path to understanding the primary causes for temperature variations on Earth ‘s surface. with time - seasonal, annual, decadal, and centurial.

A tabulation is shown next that summarizes what the known temperature changes are for the planets with the distances from the Sun and with indication of the amount of carbon dioxide in their atmospheres:

(Source: NASA database; Tabulation by Author)

A more detailed analysis is included in the appropriate chapter of the book, but for this Preface suffice it to say that the presence of a high percent concentration of carbon dioxide in a thin or no atmosphere does not have any effect on the expected Keppler distance - temperature relationship. Conversely a large percentage concentration of carbon dioxide in a thick atmosphere (as on planet Venus) has a profound effect on the expected Keppler estimated surface temperature. Planet Earth has a very low concentration of carbon dioxide in its thick atmosphere and as shown in the following relationship of distance and temperature for the four inner planets and the Moon, only Venus shows a large effect of carbon dioxide on the temperature of Venus. There is no discernible effect of the low percentage of carbon dioxide in Earth’s present atmosphere to constitute a crisis

(Source: Author’s analysis of NASA database for inner planets)

There is no industry or presence of Humans on either Venus or Mercury and that fact raises two questions: 1) What else besides carbon dioxide at high concentration (over 90%) in the atmosphere causes the temperature of the planets to be what they are?; and 2) By what process have environmental scientists been led to conclude that carbon dioxide at a total concentration of less than 0.05% (of which 0.02% is Human-made) in the atmosphere of Earth is the dominant cause for the surface temperature on Earth to be rising at a crisis rate?

Despite the many astrophysical, geophysical and natural possible causes for temperature increases in regions of the planet and for climate change, environmental scientists, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the news media in the United States have conspired to influence the public and government leaders in many countries to point the finger of blame at the big industries (oil, steel, coal, automotive, etc.) as being the dominant contributors to the creation of greenhouse gas emissions. After considering the scientific knowns of the solar system shown above, any experienced system safety engineer would question (as this Author does) if and how the Industrial Revolution could possibly be the dominant cause for the planet Earth to be in a Humans-caused temperature safety crisis when the Human-made carbon dioxide emissions are less than 0.02% of the atmosphere of the planet.

The opening sections of this book contain a combined scientific and system engineering analysis aided by mathematical forms of statistical analysis of the several databases of scientific data (i.e., STEM) to address the first question with a top-down (big picture) analysis approach. Following that, this book contains a reconstruction of the historical trail (much like a genealogy specialist conducts research for family histories) of the information and data that have led current environmental scientists to fallaciously conclude that the 0.02% of Human-made carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the dominant cause of the temperature and climate changes on planet Earth. Readers should note that when two different perspectives are used and consider the same mountain of information and data, a different conclusion can be, and has been, derived depending on a top-down or bottom-up perspective of that same mountain.

Just as most everything in the solar system varies in some form of exponential, there is little reason to not believe that the concentration of greenhouse gases – which must include the most powerful greenhouse gas water vapor - in the atmosphere also follows an exponential effect on the planets’ surface temperature. Ironically, environmental scientists ignore the effect of astrophysical, geophysical, and natural causes of temperature rise as well as water vapor (at 3% average in the atmosphere). and identify Human-made greenhouse gas emissions (at 0.02% concentration in the atmosphere) in their bottom-up analysis and alarm the public that by burning fossil fuels, the planet and all life forms along for the ride through space is doomed to an apocalyptic future.

On a personal note, this Author was humbled (as a common ant might be when seeing the entire ant colony in action) when analyzing the big picture causes for the factors of global warming, climate change, and oceans levels rising on planet Earth. When confronted with a low probability, scientific curiosity dictates that if Humans burning fossil fuels is not the dominant cause for global warming on Earth, then what is or are? This book provides the facts uncovered during and after forensically analyzing and evaluating those other possibilities and probabilities.

Others pondering the same question are labeled as being naysayers. As a piece of trivia – historically based – the Catholic Church in the Period of the Inquisition (13th through 16th century) labeled scientists who disbelieved that the Earth was made by God and created the Earth to be at the center of motion of other celestial bodies’ to be naysayers. Galileo was the most famous naysayer but there were many others – that is the basis for science to identify possibilities and dismiss impossibilities. The laws of society in the judicial sciences apply that examination of evidence in courtroom scenarios every day in all parts of the developed world with the same purpose. While physical sciences use the precision of mathematics to determine the most probable – above 99% probability - cause for a problem, the judicial science is based on a beyond reasonable doubt determination of the cause for an anti-societal act.

Rulings made recently (2024) by the US Supreme Court against the US Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), which attempted to identify Human-made carbon dioxide gas as being an atmospheric pollutant, are based on the fact that with precise scientific measurements of total carbon dioxide in the atmosphere showing that of a measurement of 415 parts per million by volume (0.0415%) total carbon dioxide being in the atmosphere, nearly 300 parts per million by volume (0.03%) are of pre-Industrial Revolution natural origin – based on the Vostok Ice Core Samples database (analyzed later) that are scientifically/historically valid for the past 420,000 years. It is beyond reasonable doubt that, at most, 135 parts per million by volume (0.0135%) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is Human-made. In essence, the Supreme Court beyond reasonable doubt ruling is a wise judgment that if Nature does not pollute the atmosphere by itself with natural carbon dioxide gas, then neither can/does Humans pollute the atmosphere with 45% less (135/300) carbon dioxide gas than that of Nature. The Supreme Court did not strike down other forms of Human-made pollution that are not made by Nature thereby allowing – with valid reasoning - true pollutants (containing toxins, carcinogens and biologic hazardous components) of air, land, and water to be lawfully controlled by stringent EPA anti-pollution regulations.

It is hastened to be added that the EPA case submittal to the Supreme Court was not an attempt by the EPA to obtain the Supreme Court recognition that Humans-generated greenhouse gas emissions are a major cause for global warming and/or climate change, it was aimed only to seek Supreme Court approval to permit more stringent control by the EPA on Humans-generated pollutants and higher penalties EPA could lawfully levy on offenders polluting the environment. It is also added that the ash residue left after coal is combusted and needing disposal does contain toxins and carcinogens that are finding their way after disposal in landfills into the underground water aquafers and into agricultural products serving the local public. This book supports discontinuing the combustion of coal in the contiguous lower 48 states of the USA because of its true polluting properties (toxins and carcinogens) but not because of its effect (if any) on the atmosphere causing global warming and/or climate change. Whether or not to continue the use of coal in other countries is a matter for the environmental protection organization in each country or region to decide. It is not a mandatory recommendation but if continued anywhere, the coal ash residue must not be disposed of such that it pollutes the land or water of the region and becomes a safety hazard for the local human population.

While the Author was in attendance at Brooklyn Technical High School in 1946, a most enlightening topic (revealed in the Earth Science curriculum) was the calculations (done circa 1938) of a Serbian geophysicist and applied mathematician Milutin Milankovic (1879 – 1958) describing how Earth travelled in an irregular elliptical orbit about the Sun and how Earth simultaneously was/is in a rotation mode with its own tilted and wobbling axis of rotation during the orbit. (It is a recollection of those Earth Science and Applied Mathematics classes in the mid-1940s that is now believed to have planted the seed of thought in this Author for this book.)

The Earth is known