"Our friends used to ask us: Why do you butt into the affairs of climatology when your own subject is soil science and mainly soil physics and soil hydrology? Answering them, we always say that we have at least three good reasons. The first one, and for us the most important, are the statements and announcements of many climatologists made public by alarmists repeatedly in the media with dramatic scenarios.
Media are prosperous when they deal with catastrophes – the more intense and richly colored, the higher is the rating of the radio, TV or newspaper, and thus profits of the owners are escalated. … Climatological alarmists offered two very attractive scenarios to media. Scenario number 1: A hypothesis on global warming caused by human activity. Scenario number 2: this warming may lead to a catastrophe never experienced before humans. …, we believe that global climate is a highly familiar, well-known scientific topic for a soil scientist. Our ambition to discuss its change without the vocal intensity of alarmists, the media and their converts is realized in the chapters that follow." (from chapter 1)
Soil scientist and climatology
- Global warming
- Reports on global warming; How temperature is measured with and without thermometers; Strange comparisons; Medieval Warm Period, or cradle replacing the hockey stick
- Greenhouse effect and the global temperature
- Hypothesis as a tool of scientific advancements; The greenhouse effect; Who is responsible? Global warming hypothesis; How it started; IPCC quotes Karl Popper and Thomas S. Kuhn
- Change of the climate
- Factors involved in climatic change; Earth climate history;
- Holocene, our interglacial; Fruit Grover's postulate
- The impact of climate upon the rise and fall of civilizations
- The part played by climate in the transition from ape to man; The rise and decline of ancient civilizations
- Will the catastrophic scenarios ever end?
- Disastrous hurricanes and floods are due to man-made-warming; How the glaciers recede and icebergs melt; The sea will swallow us; Destruction of coral reefs; Famines are just around the corner; End of life, death of Earth; All those "catastrophic" scenarios
- Skeptics of global warming
- What is real?
- The proven facts; The invalidated hypothesis
Both scientists, lifelong teachers carrying out research in soil physics, are internationally well known for the outstanding quality of their scientific work. Both are specially known for their vivid open mind and spirit with a unique touch for pioneering uncommon ways in science. Their fruitful friendly cooperation during decades of years beyond the borders of states is allowing us to enjoy this recent essay on a politically abused subject which is not only a subject of climatologists but of utmost interest for researchers in the field of Soil Science and Environmental Sciences who are dealing with the basics of sustaining life on our planet.