Stop Global Whining
Frontlines
Joshua Tasker / Opinions Editor
Issue date: 9/19/07 Section: Opinions
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Oceans to rise 50 feet! Temperatures soaring to new highs! It's a catastrophe! Or is it? With all the doom and gloom predictions by global warming alarmists, it's easy to get lost in the hype. But the fact of the matter is that the true cause of climate change is still very much a matter of debate, and at this point, what could have been a meaningful dialogue about the future of the planet has been co-opted by the marketing hype machine and turned into a business venture.
Case in point, the comically low attendance at Al Gore's global warming concert extravaganza: Live Earth. More people stayed home and watched the webcast than went to the event, which just goes to show that most people don't want to pay hard-earned money to be told to save energy by celebrities.
Before we can discuss manmade climate change, we have to understand how the planet's climate actually works. The earth goes through several cyclical patterns of warming and cooling, varying in scale from an 11-year cycle (sunspot activity) to a 100,000-year cycle. The planet began to emerge from its last major ice age approximately 18,000 years ago, and since then, the average temperature has increased by 16 degrees Fahrenheit, and oceans have risen a total of 300 feet. On a smaller scale, a "Medieval Warm Period" existed from about 1000 A.D. to 1350 A.D. with a little ice age occurring for the next 500 years - the cause of such ruinous events as the Irish Potato Famine. We are currently in a period similar to the "Medieval Warm Period" with comparable global temperatures.
So it seems plainly clear that the Earth will warm and cool regardless of human activity. But still, we must ask, how much are we affecting these cycles? Are we accelerating warming or cooling? In the 1940s, there was concern over atmospheric pollution contributing to a global cooling period by blocking out the sunlight. Such concern may seem farfetched now, with widespread concern about global warming, but it was a very real fear back then.
Case in point, the comically low attendance at Al Gore's global warming concert extravaganza: Live Earth. More people stayed home and watched the webcast than went to the event, which just goes to show that most people don't want to pay hard-earned money to be told to save energy by celebrities.
Before we can discuss manmade climate change, we have to understand how the planet's climate actually works. The earth goes through several cyclical patterns of warming and cooling, varying in scale from an 11-year cycle (sunspot activity) to a 100,000-year cycle. The planet began to emerge from its last major ice age approximately 18,000 years ago, and since then, the average temperature has increased by 16 degrees Fahrenheit, and oceans have risen a total of 300 feet. On a smaller scale, a "Medieval Warm Period" existed from about 1000 A.D. to 1350 A.D. with a little ice age occurring for the next 500 years - the cause of such ruinous events as the Irish Potato Famine. We are currently in a period similar to the "Medieval Warm Period" with comparable global temperatures.
So it seems plainly clear that the Earth will warm and cool regardless of human activity. But still, we must ask, how much are we affecting these cycles? Are we accelerating warming or cooling? In the 1940s, there was concern over atmospheric pollution contributing to a global cooling period by blocking out the sunlight. Such concern may seem farfetched now, with widespread concern about global warming, but it was a very real fear back then.