Global Warming: Some Things to Consider
We often hear that the average temperature of the earth has been rising over the last 100 years or so at an “alarming level”. This claim is used to support the concept that human interactions have caused the increase in temperature. Let’s think this through.
The earth is the subject of ice age periods. There are 5 identified periods. The latest and the one within which we live is the Quaternary Ice Age (QIA). An ice age covers hundreds of millions of years. Within each ice age there are periods of increasing glaciation and overall lowering of average earth temperatures as well as periods of decreasing glaciation, to the point of no glaciation, and a corresponding increase in average earth temperatures. We are currently within an interglacial period within the QIA. In past interglacial periods of the QIA, the average earth temperature has risen much higher than the current average earth temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit! The projected increase of temperatures for this interglacial period is higher than predictions of any increase in temperatures being due to human activity.
Another claim which is made in support of global warming caused by human activity is that the seas are rising. Somehow, this “fact” is asserted to be proof that humans are the cause of global warming. Talk about short-circuiting logic! Whether sea levels are currently rising is open to dispute. But I do not doubt that they will rise over time as this current interglacial period plays out. This is a normal and routine process for planet earth. The sea level also decreases during times of glaciation. That is the reason for the creation of the land bridge between Asia and North America in the past. The rising and falling of the sea levels is a natural process not caused by human interaction. That process has occurred multiple times long before the existence of humans.
A third claim which is made in support of the claim that humans are causing global warming is that the level of carbon dioxide has been rising. The argument runs that rising levels of carbon dioxide lead to an increase in temperature. Increases and decreases of CO2 are natural processes of the earth. The historical record shows many such decreases and increases in CO2 levels over vast amounts of time. As the earth warms, the atmosphere can contain higher levels of CO2 and less is dissolved within the ocean. As the earth cools, the atmosphere lacks the ability to hold as much CO2 and more of it is dissolved within the ocean. Rising CO2 levels are NOT a cause of global warming, but an effect of global warming.
There is much more that I could say. This should suffice to get you to at least look at this subject with a little bit more of a critical eye. The “nuts” don’t want to look at what is truly the long look, over many hundreds of millions of years. Instead, they focus much more on warming trends within this current interglacial period. In fact, they focus on about the last 100 years, less than the blink of an eye in the history of the earth. Then, they take CO2 studies from past years and magically ignore their true meaning. After that, they scream that if we don’t do “something” that life as we know it will end. Take a chill pill, folks. Use a little bit of common sense and you will understand that those asserting human interaction as the cause of global warming are a bit, shall we say, unhinged.
