The Upside to Global Warming
July 30, 2009 2 Comments
Before I say anything else, I want to be clear that I don’t buy into all the hype and bad science that allegedly “proves” that mankind is responsible for Global Warming.
Climate has been changing ever since this planet had climate. Imagine the shock and horror when the Earth’s atmosphere changed from methane-based to oxygen-based. The climate changed and it changed big time. From our point of view, that was a good thing, too, but what were those poor anaerobic bacteria going to do? At another time the Earth was reported to have been covered pole to pole with huge ice sheets that were miles thick. Fortunately the Earth warmed up and allowed life as we know it to flourish.
The Earth is definitely cooler today than it was in the days of the Vikings and is much warmer than during the Ice Age. CO2 levels have risen and fallen for millennia. The earth has often been much warmer than it is now even before the Industrial Revolution (which is supposed to be the prima mobile of all this misery) started improving the quality of life for so many people.
I find the concept of time to be very interesting. When I was a young boy in school, we were told that the Earth was only a few million years old (OK, so now I’m dating myself.) Since then it has aged over four billion years. Either it’s the case that (a) time is not linear, (b) I’m extremely old, or (c) newer measurements have been developed to estimate the age of the earth from the apparent evidence. Most scientists think it’s the third choice there (however Einstein proved the first but that’s not applicable here.)
The same variability is true of climate change. I was also taught as a young boy that Greenland was named as a joke to lure unsuspecting Danes to colonize that “god-forsaken” (but don’t call it that in front of the residents there), ice-covered land. Similarly, Iceland was also “misnamed” because it has always been a cool but comfortable place. Now we know that my teachers were either spreading dastardly rumors or that they were misinformed and were unknowingly passing misinformation to their young students. Here, too, I choose to believe the latter is the correct situation, although there is evidence to support the former in regards to many topics, but that is fodder for other blog entries.
In the days of Eric the Red, during the Medieval Warm Period, Greenland was in fact a green land. Archaeologists have found evidence that Danish colonists grew much of their food and built pens for flocks and herds. For quite a long time, Greenland could support its colonies and then something happened. Around 1300 the climate began to change. Weather got colder sooner and winter lasted longer as the world entered the Mini Ice Age. Crops failed for many reasons and the people had to leave, starve, or change their way of life. Some chose the first option, very few should have fallen victim to the second, but some remained there even to today.
Interestingly enough, the Medieval Warm Period was not uniformly or even universally warm all over the earth. Similarly, the Mini Ice Age was not uniformly cool over the planet. Climate is very complex with probably even more variables than the most complex modeling software takes into account. I do not cast aspersions at our meteorologists but if the climate models that show us heading into dastardly conditions 20 years out are so good, why can’t they to a better job of telling me what it will be like tomorrow? It has been quipped that we would be just as well off if the economists predicted the weather and the meteorologists predicted the economy.
Since climate change is inevitable, why not take advantage of it? If the earth is warming up (and sadly, for the Global Warming extremists there is some evidence that the trend is reversing (see an earlier blog for a link to that evidence) and if mankind is not causing it, let’s make the most of it.
Global Warming means longer growing seasons. Let’s grow more food to feed the people who don’t have enough to eat. Let’s start growing grapes in Greenland again.
Global Warming melts glaciers. Let’s take advantage of the newly exposed areas and study the effects of glaciers up close and personal where we know, and not just deduce, the geologic changes caused by glacial activity.
Global Warming prevents another Ice Age or Snowball Earth from happening. During these freezing events much of life died off. It was estimated that Snowball Earth killed caused more than 90% of the world’s species to become extinct. That could have been us if we had been around.
Global Warming means sea levels are rising. Let’s not be stupid and rebuild cities below sea level (hear that FEMA and New Orleans?) Let’s change government policy so that if your house is destroyed by rising water due to hurricanes or Global Warming, you must rebuild on higher ground.
Global Warming means more kelp production in the seas caused by higher CO2 levels. Let’s plant and farm kelp that is good for our food. We increase the food supply and do positive activities to take the nasty CO2 out of the atmosphere.
Global Warming means longer summers. Let’s enjoy the sun and sand. Don’t work too much on your tan, however, since UV rays can cause skin cancer.
Can we induce or stop a volcano at will? Can we induce or stop an earthquake at will? Can we induce or stop a tornado at will? (Who is “Will” anyway and why would we want to stop something at him?) The answer to these questions is, “No.”
Then why do we have the audacity to think for one minute that we can control Global Warming, either by inducing it or stopping it? Looking at temperature and CO2 graphs for just the last two hundred years is meaningless. Look at the eons before that. There is no direct correlation.
Does that mean we should continue to dump CO2 in the atmosphere willy-nilly? No, of course not.
What it does mean is that we should be reasonable in our efforts. Current legislation now pending with even more draconian legislation waiting right behind it will cost the US and world taxpayers scores of trillions of dollars to do something that may have little to no effect, especially considering that the Earth may even be cooling. Even climate on Mars and Jupiter, both of which are outside of our control is changing and Mars Global Warming has no connection to mankind and our burning of fossil fuels.
Sorry, but this is not George Bush’s fault and to my knowledge Mars is not a signatory to the Kyoto Protocols.
