The reason why I asked for timestamps is because I am not going to sit through a 90+ minute video working out if allegations such as climate science “fudges data” is your own personal commentary or explicitly expressed by Salby. If it was by the latter, it was a serious allegation potentially open to lawsuits if unsubstantiated irrespective if Salby worked as an independent researcher or was part of an institution.
Leaving the legal ramifications aside I did scan the video and found Salby’s claims, namely CO₂ emissions are supposedly a combination of natural and anthropogenic origins with the natural component far outweighing the anthropogenic component, to be refuted by the evidence.
He cites oceans as the source of naturally occurring CO₂ emission.
What is actually happening is CO₂ being dissolved in oceanwater forming carbonic acid lowering the pH of oceanwater (pH ≈ 8) which inhibits the growth of calcium carbonate found in coral skeletons and shells of various organisms.
This is a global not a local event.
Analysis from various sites confirms the pH is dropping.
| Location or dataset | Period | Measurement method | Observed pH change | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Station ALOHA, near Hawaii | From 1988 | Approximately monthly direct seawater sampling, supported by measurements of dissolved inorganic carbon and alkalinity | −0.0019 ± 0.0002 pH units per year over the first 19 years | Directly confirms increasing ocean CO₂ and declining surface-water pH |
| Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study and Hydrostation S | 1983–2023 | Repeated direct measurements of pH, dissolved inorganic carbon, seawater CO₂ and carbonate saturation | Approximately −0.1 pH unit | Corresponds to an increase in hydrogen-ion concentration of more than 30% and declining carbonate-mineral saturation |
| North Pacific transect at 152°W | Measurements compared between 1991 and 2006 | Repeat measurements along the same ocean transect | Declines of up to approximately −0.06 pH unit from the surface to about 800 m depth | Shows that anthropogenic CO₂ and acidification are penetrating below the surface; little change occurred below about 800 m |
| Global surface-ocean reconstruction | 1982–2021 | Ocean observations combined with statistical interpolation to cover unsampled regions | −0.0166 ± 0.0010 pH units per decade | Indicates widespread global surface-ocean acidification rather than only local changes |
| Preindustrial-to-present global estimate | About 1750 to present | Carbonate chemistry, atmospheric CO₂ records, reconstructions and modern direct observations | Approximately −0.1 pH unit | Represents roughly a 26% increase in hydrogen-ion concentration; the earliest part is reconstructed rather than directly measured |
(Note that pH = -log₁₀[H⁺] is a logarithmic scale and a change in pH of 0.1 units corresponds to a 26% change.)
In other words oceanwater is not a CO₂ source but a CO₂ sink, the anthropogenic CO₂ which in fact far exceeds the natural component is being dissolved in oceanwater.
Then there is Salby’s claim of increasing temperature being the cause of natural CO₂ emissions.
This is contradicted by lower stratospheric cooling as both the troposphere and lower stratosphere would be in phase and warming instead of being out of phase where the troposphere is warming and the lower stratosphere is cooling which is a unique signature of AGW.
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