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quick note about the ridiculous claim that "climate change science can't be falsified".
of course climate science is falsifiable. to show this, you have to break it down to its core component claims and evaluate each one.
of course climate science is falsifiable. to show this, you have to break it down to its core component claims and evaluate each one.
claim #1: carbon dioxide absorbs infrared radiation. this is a testable hypothesis and could be falsified. it was proven true in the mid-19th century by John Tyndall.
claim #2: CO2 is increasing in the atmosphere. the trend in atm. CO2 is measurable and the trend was measured in 1960s by Keeling.
claim #3: the observed increase in CO2 is due to fossil fuel emissions. you could falsify this if you showed another source that could explain it.
claim #3: the observed increase in CO2 is due to fossil fuel emissions. you could falsify this if you showed another source that could explain it.
claim #4: the climate system is warming. you can measure the temperature and estimate the trend; this has been shown over and over and over and the warming of the climate system is, as the IPCC says, unequivocal.
claim #5: the paleoclimate record supports the idea that GHGs have a big lever on the climate. this is again a testable hypothesis and it has been verified many times. see Alley's "Biggest Control Knob" lecture to understand this:
claim #6: as the climate warms, the atmosphere gets more humid and ice melts, both of which amplify the original warming. this is testable and has been verified: e.g., https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByXC85Z909PTMGZ5VXZwbzVlTlU
I could go on, but I consider my point made.
some scientists do make unfalsifiable claims, but they almost are almost always deniers. e.g., how many times do you a denier say, "climate change is not a catastrophe." now THAT'S a non-falsifiable scientific claim because 'catastrophe' is not a scientific term.
in fact, much climate denial is just thinly veiled value judgments ("gov't is bad!") rather than hard science. to see more examples of this, watch my critique of a talk Roy Spencer recently gave: https://twitter.com/AndrewDessler/status/1239352319919165442?s=20
