Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D
In one of my recent articles on this topic, I mentioned that the environmental extremists (Greenies) believe the earth has an “ideal” or “normal” temperature and that deviations are not only dangerous but are being caused by the actions of man. Let’s examine the actual facts about climate temperature.
According to the University of Utah Geological group, there have been at least five detectable ice ages (an accompanying warm periods) over the last 2.5 billion years. The last one occurred over 20,000 years ago and we have been in a warming period ever since. At the peak of the last ice age, the ice over New York City is estimated to have been two miles thick. The global cooling during these ice age cycles was up to 40 degrees Fahrenheit colder than today’s average temperature. During the interim warming periods the global temperature was up to 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than today. I suppose the cavemen were burning too much fossil fuels. So much for the idea that the earth has a fixed ideal temperature.
The existence of these cooling and warming periods was determined by core samples from the Antarctic ice cap and the ocean floor. Were man-made CO2 emissions the cause of these climate changes? No way Jose. Rather, it is hypothesized that these dramatic temperature changes were caused by natural processes such as (1) continental drift, (2) changes in the earth’s orbit around the sun, or (3) a tilting of the earth’s orientation from the vertical, or other unknown factors.
A more recent major global temperature change took place between 1300 and 1850 AD when the average global temperature dropped by as much as 4 degrees Fahrenheit particularly in Europe and North America. This resulted in crop failures and many deaths due to the extreme cold. Note that the Vikings discovered and colonized Greenland about 1000 AD and were able to grow crops and raise animals where now there are glaciers. There was a reason they called it “Greenland”! Note that these temperature changes occurred well before the Industrial Age and consequently before any significant burning of fossil fuels.
It should be obvious to any rational person (this necessarily excludes Greenies) that there are forces controlling earth’s climate that are outside the control of mankind. Of course, if you dislike modern civilization then it is easy to blame all the bad things on mankind. Just an example of how these people think, I was recently reviewing a website for a so-called heritage farm showing how people lived in the early 1800s. Pictures showed plowing and harvesting by mule power, water drawn by hand from wells and streams, and food cooked over wood fires. One of the reviewers made the statement: … “this is how God wants us to live”. Of course, the person making this absurd comment is living with all the modern conveniences that our advanced civilization provides. This person has no actual idea of the difficulties of life in the 1800’s. Probably never did any exhaustive physical labor or had to worry about where the next meal was coming form.
The solution to the irrational thinking of the Greenies would be to place them on an island where they would have to actually live with primitive nature. They would change their tune soon enough.
The unfortunate part of all this, is that some of our elected representatives are going along with these extremists and thereby contributing to the destruction of our modern civilization.