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CORRECTION: A photograph on the front page of the print edition of The Criterion in connection to this news article would lead readers to believe the people pictured were attending Goreham’s lecture. In fact, they were not. The Criterion regrets the error.

Environmental futurist Steve Goreham presented at Colorado Mesa University on Thursday and sparked a debate by attributing the majority of climate change on nature, and saying that Earth will follow a pattern and cool down again.

Goreham, a speaker, author, former engineer and executive director of the Climate Science Coalition of America, said that people are incorrect to blame global warming primarily on industries and pollutants from the human race, and that laws to use green energy aren’t going to make a discernible difference.

“Humans are responsible for only one or two percent of Earth’s greenhouse effect,” Goreham said. “There is no law that the state of Colorado could put into effect that would make the storms less frequent or less severe.”

Goreham molded his talk with “three misconceptions.” “The first is the idea that by increasingly using energy, we’re increasingly polluting the world,” Goreham said. “The second: by using energy, we’re destroying the climate, and the third is the idea that we’re running out of traditional hydrocarbon energy so we must force a switch to renewables.”

Fossil fuels create little to no environmental hazard and are much more affordable and efficient than green energy, according to Goreham. He showed graphs to support the double to triple cost of different green energy compared to that of coal and natural gas.

Goreham also denounced carbon dioxide as an important factor in the greenhouse effect and global warming.

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“If there’s one compound we could put in the atmosphere that is absolutely great for the biosphere, CO₂ is that compound, yet today, we have every university and company counting their carbon dioxide footprint,” Goreham said. “Very, very foolish.”

Goreham also said, “Every day, nature puts 20 times as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as all of Earth’s industries.”

For half an hour following Goreham’s talk, students, teachers and community members alike stood up and challenged Goreham and his beliefs on climate change and the insignificance of people’s actions on the atmosphere.

A few audience members disagreed with the data in his graphs and others ridiculed him for calling companies foolish for worrying about their carbon dioxide footprint. One audience member berated Goreham for interrupting when he interjected partway through her question.

According to The Daily Sentinel, Goreham later said that the presentation went as he’d expected, as his ideas are often challenged. He said that he was glad that there was no disruption and that it was a good crowd.