According to climatic history, global cooling is a far greater threat. Never has global warming run away and killed most species on the planet. But we have had numerous ice ages which did precisely that.
Our planet is warming now (or at least until recently).. And that is a good thing too. We are coming out of a period of global cooling known as the "Little Ice Age" which took place from approximately the 16th century to the mid 19th century. That period of global cooling caused crop failures, massive famines, deforestation, extinctions, and 1816 is known as the "Year without a summer". That year, people in New England were ice skating in JUNE.
Global Warming, as a crisis, is a myth. It is being perpetrated by scientists and climatologists who are being paid to study it, and politicians who make political careers based upon it. When you are being given millions to study a phenomenon.. You do not come back next year and say "Hey, it is nothing to worry about", because the moment you do, your funds are cut and you are out of work. Instead, you cherry-pick your data, and skew it in order to get the results and conclusions you desire. One example... The connection between CO2 and past ice ages. The current theory is that global warming then leads to massive global cooling, causing an Ice Age. Scientists point to the high concentrations of CO2 found captured in ice since the ice age as proof. What they do not tell you is the CO2 did not occur before a warming event, leading to a global warming then cooling then ice age. The CO2 increase happened AFTER the ice age began... Which is only logical since at that time there is less vegetation to absorb the CO2.
Scientists, climatologists, meteorologists, cannot give an accurate forecast more than 24 hours away. Flight Service, the most accurate weather forecasters there are, only attempt to go out to 72 hours... beyond that, flip a coin cause it is more accurate. And yet fools think they can actually predict climate 50 and 100 years away? What a joke.
After the last ice age, the temperatures rose to a mean global temperature approx 6 degrees warmer than now. That period is the Holocene Climatic Optimum from 9000 to 5000 yrs ago. Afterwards, temperature declined somewhat, then resurged into what is known as the Medival Warm Period, ranging from 800 a.d to around 1200 a.d., which was still several degrees below the Global Optimum Temperature. Temperatures then dropped slightly for about 200 years, then plummeted into the Little Ice Age, from which we are now finally emerging. However, we have still not reached global optimum temperature which is roughly 6 degrees warmer than it is now. Over the last 100 years, in spite of all the greenhouse gases you are paranoid about, the global mean temperature has increased .74C degrees. Meanwhile, temperature in the last YEAR ALONE has dropped between .65C and .75C.
op·ti·mum
1. the best or most favorable point, degree, amount, etc., as of temperature, light, and moisture for the growth or reproduction of an organism.
2. the greatest degree or best result obtained or obtainable under specific conditions.
3. most favorable or desirable; best: optimum conditions.
5000 years ago, the global temperature was 5 - 6 degrees warmer than it is now. That period of time is called by climatologists the "Climatic Optimum". During the Climatic Optimum the globe had it's greatest known period of biodiversity, and it also created conditions suitable for the first civilizations to come into being.
There is a reason why the Holocene Climatic Optimum is called Optimum. It is the temperature at which the global climate was perfect for sustaining the greatest population of the greatest number of species (animal and vegetation) in history. Such conditions were also apparently advantageous to man too since that was when most of our earliest civilizations sprung into being.
During the Holocene Climatic Optimum, Greenland was actually green. There was no north polar ice cap (but somehow polar bears survived). Siberia and northern Canada were temperate forests. Arizona and New Mexico were tropical forests. The Nile River was approx 5 times it's size, and the Sahara Desert was no bigger than a sandbox.. all of it was Savanna plains. Wow, sounds like a tragedy huh?
That temperature at that time was much warmer than it is now(+6C degrees), and ignoring the cooling of the last couple years, at the rate we had been warming during the last 100 years (.74C), we would not once again reach optimum temperature for 800 years.
CO2 we put into the atmosphere is a drop in the bucket compared to the effects of other variables which we have no control over whatsoever... such things as volcanoes, solar storms, wildfires. While we may have caused a relatively small increase in the percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere, the consequences of it are unknown and unknowable. For all anyone knows it is a positive thing which will aid in faster vegetation growth, which should make those concerned with deforestation very happy. Even IF the planet is warming, the consequences are not necessarily negative overall. While some places may suffer negative effects, others will be given positive effects. That is the nature of a living world.. CHANGE... when the world stops changing, it will be only because life is extinct.
Over the years, we have been fed one doomsday scenario after another. Hysteria is generated, huge amounts of money are spent, and in the end it is dicovered that the hysteria was all for naught. In the 70's it was Global Cooling that had everyone terrified.. that was finally admitted to not be the case, and the world forgot about it... for a time. We were also told in the 70's that fuel was almost running out, and we had lines at gas stations all across the country. Gas prices get to the level they wanted.. and suddenly we have plenty of gas. The Herpes came along, and people were running around terrified of a cold sore on their privates.. until AIDs came along and gave them a bit of perspective. Herpes is then forgotten and AIDs was predicted to create a global pandemic among the entire worlds heterosexual population... now the W.H.O. admits it is highly unlikely that AIDs could do such a thing. Early 90's, and everyone is afraid the hole in the Ozone is going to give all of us cancer... then it is discovered that it is a natural phenomenon which has been there all along. Then we are told the end of civilization will come about as a result of the Y2K bug... but Y2K came and went, and nothing happened. Along comes the Global Warming.. and suddenly the sheep are in a panic again. And do I even need to bother explaining how hysteria has moved the American people to allow the passage of laws we would never have allowed 30 years ago, all in the name of fighting the wars on drugs and terror?
How many times do the people have to be duped before they stop allowing themselves to be victimized by the fear-mongers? People who buy into global warming really REALLY need to study a little history... both climatic, and human...and stop listening to the Chicken Littles in our midst.
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