Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change

Date: Established 1998

Mission

The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is an independent, nonprofit, science-based educational organization that provides regular reviews and commentary on new research findings about the climatic and biological significance of the continuing rise atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations. The center reviews peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, original research, and other educational materials relevant to the debate over CO₂ and global change. Material is published weekly on the center’s Web site.

The center’s main aim is to separate research findings based on solid science and empirical data from the rhetoric in the emotionally charged debate over global climate change. Its stated commitment is to empirical evidence and real-world solutions, as opposed to speculation and information from untested hypothetical numerical models. Its position on global warming may be summarized as follows: There is little doubt that the CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere has risen significantly over the past 100 to 150 years as a result of humanity’s use of fossil fuels and that the Earth has warmed slightly over the same period; however, there is no compelling reason to believe that the rise in temperature was caused primarily by the rise in CO₂. Moreover, real-world data provide no compelling evidence to suggest that the ongoing rise in the CO₂ concentration of the atmosphere will lead to harmful changes in Earth’s climate. The center was founded in 1998 and is run by a father and two sons, all of whom have Ph.D’s in fields directly related to the study of CO₂, climate, and global warming.

Significance for Climate Change

Since its creation in 1998, the center has published over three thousand reviews of scientific journal articles on both the biological and climatological effects of atmospheric CO₂ enrichment. Accompanying each review is the full journal reference for the article reviewed, so users may access the articles and assess the information themselves. Reviews are archived in one or more topical categories inside a large subject index that includes more than eight hundred topics and subtopics relative to CO₂ and global change. The material is listed in detailed subject index summaries, which are continually updated as newer material is added. Web site users may use a keyword search engine for locating reviewed articles or summaries.

The center also provides Web site users with access to various air-temperature and precipitation databases, from which they may calculate and plot trends for the entire globe or for selected regions of the globe. Output includes a graphical representation of temperature or precipitation anomalies over a user-selected time interval, as well as access to these data in tabular form. A linear regression line of the temperature or precipitation trend over time is also displayed, along with its associated statistics. The site includes four global data sets and 1,221 individual station locations in the conterminous United States where users may calculate and plot climate data.

Two other important services provided by the center may be found in its plant-growth database and Medieval Warm Period Project. The plant-growth database is an ongoing project to build an archive of the results of peer-reviewed scientific studies that report the growth responses of plants to atmospheric CO₂ enrichment. Results are updated weekly and posted according to two types of growth response (dry weight and photosynthesis). The data are listed alphabetically according to plant names (both scientific and common) in individual tables. Each table begins with an abbreviated reference, followed by a brief description of the experimental growing conditions and the percentage increase in plant growth due to a 300, 600, or 900 part-per-million increase in the atmospheric CO₂ concentration. Full reference citations for each experiment are also available in linked files. The center has archived thousands of CO₂-enrichment studies.

The Medieval Warm Period Project is an ongoing project to document the magnitude and spatial and temporal extent of a significant period of warmth that occurred in Europe approximately one thousand years ago, when the atmosphere’s CO₂ concentration was approximately 30 percent lower than it is currently. The purpose of this project is to show that Earth’s near-surface air temperature was equally as high as, or even higher than, it is today during a period of lower CO₂ concentration. Thereby, the center reasons that current air temperatures are not unusual and need not be due to the recent rise in the CO₂ content of the atmosphere. Updates of new scientific studies documenting the climate of the Medieval Warm Period are provided weekly, and Web site users may graphically view individual study locations and attributes on an interactive map.

Students and teachers may use material found in the center’s Global Change Laboratory, where instructions are given on how to conduct simple experiments that illustrate the effects of atmospheric CO₂ enrichment and depletion on vegetative growth and development. Utilizing the so-called Poor Man’s biosphere experimental technique pioneered by center president Sherwood B. Idso, plants are grown inside sealed aquariums or other containers maintained at different CO₂ concentrations, from which students can watch and plot growth progression data over the course of time. Several experiments have been developed, and these experiments can be performed by nearly anyone anywhere in the world at very little expense.

The center expanded its activities in 2008 to include the production of documentary digital video discs (DVDs) covering a wide range of topics in the global warming debate, including Carbon Dioxide and the Climate Crisis: Reality or Illusion?; Carbon Dioxide and the Climate Crisis: Avoiding Plant and Animal Extinctions; and Carbon Dioxide and the Climate Crisis: Doing the Right Thing. In addition, the center produces short two- to four-minute video segments on YouTube that highlight the findings of important research papers that have appeared in international science journals. Since 2001, the center has provided a professional service to assist U.S. companies in filing their greenhouse gas emission reports under the U.S. Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program—section 1605(b) of the Energy Policy Act of 1992.

Bibliography

Essex, Christopher, and Ross McKitrick. Taken by Storm: The Troubled Science, Policy, and Politics of Global Warming. Rev. ed. Toronto: Key Porter Books, 2008. Thought-provoking skeptical analysis of aspects of key global warming issues that are widely misunderstood.

Idso, Sherwood B. Carbon Dioxide and Global Change: Earth in Transition. Tempe, Ariz.: IBR Press, 1989. Analyzes the climatic and biological implications of the rise in the atmosphere’s CO₂ concentration. The author is the center’s founder.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Carbon Dioxide—Friend or Foe? An Inquiry into the Climatic and Agricultural Consequences of the Rapidly Rising CO₂ Content of Earth’s Atmosphere. Tempe, Ariz.: IBR Press, 1982. The first substantial critique of anthropogenic global warming.

Kininmonth, William. Climate Change: A Natural Hazard. Brentwood, Essex, England: Multi-Science, 2004. Argues that global climate models represented by the Intergovenmental Panel on Climate Change are deficient as a basis for future planning for global warming.

Michaels, Patrick J., ed. Shattered Consensus: The True State of Global Warming. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. Collection of ten critical accounts of important global warming themes by eleven internationally known climate scientists.