JACKSON, Wyo., Nov. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Peter L. Ward, a longtime U.S. geophysicist, issued today a $10,000 personal challenge to fellow scientists to quantify the real cause of global warming. 

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The initiative, emailed this morning to more than 2,000 atmospheric scientists worldwide, challenges any scientist or team of scientists to demonstrate experimentally that the 15% increase in carbon dioxide observed from 1970-1998 caused more global warming than observed contemporaneous depletion of the ozone layer of up to 60%.

Ward's Climate Change Challenge comes weeks before the United Nations 2015 Climate Change Conference in Paris, where nations will attempt to agree on how to reduce greenhouse emissions to achieve the goal of slowing global warming.

"Reducing carbon dioxide emissions will not reduce global warming," maintains Ward, a 27-year veteran of the U.S. Geological Survey and head of the nonprofit Science Is Never Settled.  "Unfortunately, the recommendations that will emanate from the U.N. Paris Climate Conference will, therefore, be ineffective and not worth the huge expense."

He calls his Climate Change Challenge an investment in his children's and grandchildren's future, noting, "I've decided to invest $10,000 of my children's inheritance in this challenge because the cost of getting global warming wrong is too high a price to pay for future generations."

Ward spent the past decade researching more than 500 million years of climate data for his newly released book, What Really Causes Global Warming? Greenhouse Gases or Ozone Depletion? The book details how explosive volcanic eruptions cause net cooling by reflecting sunlight and how effusive volcanic eruptions cause net warming by emitting chlorine and bromine that deplete ozone.

"We can continue to burn fossil fuels to meet escalating demands for energy provided we minimize pollution," according to Ward, adding that his challenge will demonstrate that "Science is never settled. If it were, we would still believe the world was flat."

He concludes, "If we don't get this right, we will pay more for fossil fuels, waste billions of dollars, and, in the end, not achieve our goal of reducing global warming."

For more information, visit at WhyClimateChanges.com and #WhyClimateChanges. The Climate Change Challenge is described at WhyClimateChanges.com/challenge/.  For an interview with Ward, contact Lonni Miller at 973-686-3660 or Email

SOURCE Peter Ward