The Sword of Damocles behind the Curtain of the Earth’s Global Warming: A Review

Abstract

The “mainstream” climatology (MSC)— i.e. which includes the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) community—considers the present da y massive release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as the main cause of the current global warming trend. The main inference from this stance is th at the increase in temperature must occur after the release of greenh ouse gases originating from the anthropic activities. However, no scientific evidence has been provided for this basic notion. Earth paleoclimatic records document the antecedence of temperature over CO 2 levels. For the past 65 M a, the temperature parameter has controlled the subsequent increase in CO 2 . This includes the three rapid aberrant shifts and extreme climate transients at 55 Ma, 34 Ma, and 23 Ma REF _Ref159913672 \r \h \* MERGEFORMAT [1] . The simple fact of their existence poi nts to the potential for highly nonlinear responses in climate forcin g. Whatever these shifts and transients are, CO 2 remains a second order parameter in their evolution through time. Confronted with the past, a suitable response must therefore be given to the unresolved question of whether the CO 2 trends precede the temperature trends in the current period, or not. The assertion that the current global warming is anthropogenic in origin implicitly presupposes a change of paradigm, with the consequence (the increase in CO 2 levels) that occurred in Earth’s past being positioned as the cause of the warming for its present day climatic evolution. The compulsory assumption regarding the antecedence of CO 2 levels over the temperature trends is associated w ith the haziness of the methodological framework— i.e. the par adigm—and tightens the research fields on the likely origins of global warming. The possible involvement of an “aberrant” natural event, hidden behind the massive release of greenhouse gases, has not been considered by the MSC.