Global Warming

We are told that scientists all agree that global warming is a serious problem and that it is being caused or very substantially made worse by human activities such as burning petrol gas and coal. This is something beyond any doubt that “everyone” knows or accepts as a fact.

However some scientists are asking awkward and inconvenient questions.

The graphs below are taken from Antartic ice cores and show how CO2 levels and temperatures have changed over the last several thousand years. The shape of the 2 graphs is so similar that it safe to say there is a strong connection between CO2 levels and temperature – both rise and fall together. But is it a direct or an indirect connection? - A direct connection means that one is the result of the other. An indirect connection means that both are instead the result of some unknown 3^rd factor - such as a sunspot cycle)

It should be noted that the upwards and downwards trends shown on the graph are not smooth rises and falls. Quite dramatic spike rises and falls can and will occur in the short term (say within a 100 year period) without effecting the general overall trend.

But interestingly, when the 2 graphs are put one on top of the other, it becomes clear that the temperature changes always happens BEFORE the corresponding changes in CO2 levels by about 400 to 800 years. In other words, when the earth starts to warm up or cool down in one of these periodic cycles, it is not until several hundred years later that natural levels of CO2 start to change.

We don’t know why these temperature cycles happen but they evidently do, and it is clear that they are obviously NOT triggered by a change in the CO2 level. – otherwise the change in temperature would happen AFTER the change in CO2. It is possible that both are being caused by some other factor such as a cycle of sunspot activity or of the earths magnetic field

If we consider that accurate temperature records have only been kept in very recent times, it is very hard to be absolutely sure how much human factors are actually having, even though this might clearly seem to us to be what is happening in the short term. For example, how do we explain the fact that the Romans had vineyards established as far north as Hadrian’s wall. These certainly wouldn’t flourish today. On that basis the world (or at least Britain) has been getting cooler and not warmer since Roman times!

If you look at the right hand end of the graphs you will notice that the present CO2 level is absolutely massive. This is the highest ever recorded and it is very obviously the result of man’s activities. However if (as seems inevitable) the overall pattern IS going to repeat itself, we are now at the very beginning of a downwards temperature trend that is set to take the world into an artic winter for the next several thousand years.

As previous long term patterns are repeated, in 400 to 800 years from now the CO2 levels will drop as they naturally follow the downwards temperature trend. If the current increase in CO2 really is warming up the planet, the current huge boost in CO2 may be just what the human race needs to survive the Artic winter of several thousand years that is due to come upon us.

YES the ice caps are melting and it does seem certain that the world has been warming up noticibly in recent years. But how can possibly we know if this is anything more than a short term spike trend just like those that have happened in the past? YES the current CO2 levels have sky-rocketed and have now reached astronomical levels as a result of mans activity since the industrial revolution. But where is the evidence that the current warming of our planet is anything different from all the other previous (and natural) short term spikes? In view of the ice core record evidence, how can anyone seriously suggest that it is all being caused exclusively by the current excess of CO2?

On February 18, 2008, the London Daily Express noted that Arctic ice levels, which had shrunk from 13 million to 4 million sq. km., between January and October 2007, are now almost back to their original levels. The paper also states that “there is nearly a third more ice in Antarctica than is usual for the time of year … . . . Even the Middle East saw snow, with Jerusalem, Damascus, Amman and northern Saudi Arabia reporting the heaviest falls in years and below zero temperatures. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, snow and freezing weather killed 120 people."

So many inconvenient facts contradict the Church of Global Warming. In the United States, the 10 hottest years on record were all in the 1920s and 1930s. Temperatures rose between 1910 and 1945, fell from 1945 to 1975, and rose again for the next 20 years — which bears no relationship at all to the production of greenhouse gasses. Politicians just love global warming – it gives them an opportunity on a plate to put up taxes and to create an entire politically correct “industry” to distract us from the issues that really matter.

On another matter, rapidly declining birthrates are reality, not a theory. Worldwide, in 1970, the average woman had 6 children. Today, that average is only 2.8, with further declines forecast. If that trends continue, by 2050, the world will hold 248 million fewer children under 5 years of age than it does today. The crisis which will confront us in this century isn't overpopulation, but a birth-dearth leading to population decline. When it comes to maintaining civilization, people are the one indispensable element.

So Where Does All This Leave Us ?

Experts speak with utter confidence and tell us that we must all save the planet by monitoring our personal carbon footprint and burning less fuel. Governments cant believe their good luck at the prospect of extra income from green taxes and rejoice in the distraction from truly serious issues that the global warming “debate” provides. The media present climate change as the most important issue facing us today – always a reliable fill-in whenever other “acceptable” news is thin on the ground. But the reality is that there are far more important things to worry about than climate change. Here are a few examples.

Billions are spent on armaments and space exploration in order to maintain employment while billions starve in preventable disease, and abject poverty. The obscenely rich think nothing of squandering a working man’s entire yearly income on a new car or other passing whim. Corporate criminals and financiers collude to defraud pension funds and investors. Dictators and their supporters determinedly oppress entire nations with cruelty in the interests of preserving their own wealth and privileges and “saving face”. Millions of babies are murdered for their mothers’ convenience out of sight of the cameras. Selfishness fuelled divorce and family breakups are accelerating beyond epidemic proportions.

Moronic reality shows, obsession with celebrity culture and alcohol excess provide a constant mind numbing stupor for those unready or unable to face up to reality, while the media just shrug their shoulders saying “Uncomfortable subjects don’t sell papers”. So our attention is diverted instead to safe or “important” subjects like the global warming “challenge”, the frivolities of celebrity excess and obsessively supporting football teams.

All this, while human beings close and distant from us suffer terribly from the criminally obscene policies of various governments. We that have sufficient clothes food & shelter are in effect encouraged by the media to ignore the suffering of the world’s poor & destitute and to regard them as an embarrassment to us. What has happened to our compassion that we lack the ability and commitment to manifest basic love, service, support and humanity towards those in such terrible distress? Neil A Maxwell said “Selfishness is no more than self destruction in slow motion”. Winston Churchill said “By what we get we make a living. By what we give we make a life.”

But of course, it is SO much easier to get to grips with “real” problems like global warming, rather than to help with the day to day problems of real people that are suffering right here and now. “There are so many boys and girls who fail in school merely for want of a little personal attention and encouragement. There are so many elderly people who live in misery and loneliness and fear, for whom a simple conversation would bring a measure of hope and brightness.” (Gordon B Hinckley)