Global Warming - April 2007

Global warming. It is interesting to write about this topic as the northeast United States is experiencing its third major snow storm in a few weeks so late into the winter season. Perhaps this column should have been written about the fear of a new ice age as was debated as recently as the late 1970’s.

Much has been written about so-called global warming. Former Vice-President Al Gore even won a few Oscars for his Inconvenient Truth movie. But I’m not going to waste my column debunking his exaggerations and his falsehoods or his hypocrisy as he has positioned himself for nice profits from the potential trading of “carbon credits” or for his heated pool house which is larger than the primary homes of most Americans. The New York Times already did that article for me.

Certainly man has a limited impact on its ecological system. During my college days, I even took a few courses in ecological science to teach me about such common sense. I’m proud to say that I still recycle, that I keep the thermostat high in the summer and low in the winter, and that I minimize the use of lights except for my beloved low voltage fixtures illuminating my landscaping. If mankind followed my examples – and not Al Gore’s since we don’t want everyone flying in gas guzzling private planes and burning oil and electric at the levels he does at his three homes – our atmosphere might not have as high of a concentration of carbon monoxide as it currently does.

But the reality, in my opinion, is that mankind is not primarily responsible for weather trends on earth. In 2006, The National Academy of Sciences issued a report about the existence of a medieval warming period from about 900 AD to 1300 AD and a brief ice age from about 1500 to 1850. Both of these relatively recent periods occurred long before the invention of the SUV or human industrial activity could have possibly impacted the Earth’s climate. I believe they occurred from naturally occurring trends which help to balance out our ecosystem so it can continue providing sustenance for life.

Despite what fear mongering pundits and scientists suffering from group think continue to spew about our lifestyles and our impact on the earth, nature controls more of our ecological future than we do. Why is it that these experts rarely talk about the exponentially larger impact on our environment from volcanoes, earthquakes, forest fires started by lightning, sun spots, and solar flares? Do you remember the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 which partially darkened the skies over much of the United States? Even all of the automobiles in the world have not yet caused such an effect.

Perhaps man’s most notable impact on its environment and weather is from the booming population of the Earth’s current inhabitants which has ravished our forests that naturally act as a purifier for air pollutants. Many even believe that the parallel increase in livestock and the resulting methane has had more of an impact on our environment than automobiles. Will Al Gore and the United Nations propose selective reductions in people and livestock to bring down the population to more manageable levels just as they want to ruin the industrialized world by telling it how to manage its energy use?

I suggest you not worry too much about Florida being underwater from the shifting ice fields although we could certainly use some H2O now to rid our water use restrictions. And I predict you will be reading more and more articles about how much of the global warming fear is being promoted by individuals, scientific organizations, academic institutions, and firms best positioned to profit from the government subsidies and economic policies necessary to meet the supposed Global Warming challenge.