By Francis Earl A. Cueto Correspondent

A Filipino economics graduate challenged and contradicted the contention of former US Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC) that there is global warming, calling the statement “just a thesis without empirical support.”

Bienvenido Oplas Jr., the president of Minimal Government Thinkers Inc., on Friday said that contrary to the belief of many, recent signs clearly showed the reverse—global cooling.

“The current climate is not warming but cooling, at least, starting 2002,” Oplas, a University of the Philippines economics graduate, told the 158th general assembly meeting of the Foundation for Upgrading the Standard of Education (FUSE).

According to him, the phenomenon goes on despite continued increase in carbon-dioxide concentration in the atmosphere.

Oplas said that past and current data on temperature and ocean level, among other variables “show that the UN IPCC and Al Gore projects are heavily exaggerated.”

He added that there was no major rise in ocean level and dramatic aberration in the weather, such as super hurricanes in the United States that are often predicted by Gore.

Oplas quoted a December 11, 2008 report of Wilco Hazelger Sr., a scientist of Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute: “In the past century, the sea level has risen 20 centimeters. There is no evidence for accelerated sea level rise.”

He also cited a study by the University of Colorado that concluded there is “no major rise in ocean level.”

Bigger snowstorms

So, Oplas asked, why did the United Nations predict a rise in ocean surface by 0.59 meters and Gore by 7 meters?

He noted that hurricane season in the United States is from June to November, but there have been “no hurricanes, at least none that made landfall,” during that period.

But, Oplas said, there have been massive snowstorms in Europe, with the biggest snowstorm in 25 years occurring on October 20.

In the United States, he added, winter appeared to have come very much earlier this year, with Californians, in the West Coast, already complaining of cold, and Chicagoans, in the East Coast, complaining of wintry skies, and of temperature going down at one time to an 82-year low of 7 degrees Celsius.

And in Asia, the Pakistan side of Ladakh, a region that the country disputed with India, reported the season’s first snowfall on October 25, Oplas said.

“In Ladakh, snowfall starts mainly in November onward, but, this time, it started early,” he added.
Oplas advised people to stay cool on the issue of climate change, saying, “Global warming—and cooling and climate cycle—is mainly a natural occurrence. Human activities have a contribution definitely, but not as huge as natural contributions: sun, cosmic rays, geological movement, ocean oscillation, etc.”

He said that the warmest period in the past 2,000 years was during the medieval period when there was hardly substantial concentration of carbon dioxide, which, according to him, is being demonized for global warming without basis.

And seven years ago, Oplas said, global cooling, at about 0.2 degree Celsius, started “despite continued increase in carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere.”