Global Warming?

Is there an absolute correlation of global warming and the world's industrialization? The majority of scientists believe so. Dr. Heidi Mead of the Weather Channel said in 2006, that any meteorologist that does not believe humans are the main culprits of Global Warming should have their meteorological seal taken away. How would you like to work for someone like that!?

Archaeological evidence is replete with cataclysmic changes in the earth's temperature. From extreme heat to ice ages. The most recent mini-ice age coming in 1816 and the latest warm up is currently taking place. It is not phenomenal but cyclical. Earth's inhabitants should expect the unexpected.

The University of Michigan's Nick Hopwood and Jordan Cohen argue that some scientists believe that the global warming we are experiencing now is a natural phenomenon, and is part of Earth's natural cycle. Presently, nobody can prove if either theory is correct, but one thing is certain; the world has been emitting greenhouse gases at extremely high rates and has shown only small signs of reducing emissions until the last few years.

The threat of Global Warming or other climate changes, real or imagined, has been always with us. Lawrence Solomon of the National Post, in June 2nd, 2007, profiles the growing number of prominent scientists wary of the so-called global warming scientific consensus.

John Brignell in Numbers Watch, June 2007, said that Global Warming has become the core belief in a new eco-theology closely related to other modern belief systems, such as political correctness, chemophobia and various other forms of scaremongering, but it represents the vanguard in the assault on scientific man. Global warming seems more like religion than science. Vince Stritcherz, uwnews.org, says this year that the melting snow atop Kilimanjaro, long a "poster child" for global warming alarmists, in fact has nothing do to with climate change. This according to a new study in the American Scientist.

In a briefing for congressional staff and media on November 5th, 2006, sponsored by the Cooler Heads Coalition, Dr. Patrick Michaels debunked many of the global warming myths that have made their way into public debate over the last decade. Climate models have consistently overestimated climatic warming, and new research has proved that mild warming will likely be beneficial to human beings and the planet, according to Dr. Michaels, Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Virginia.

"The warming we are seeing is largely confined to the areas of Siberia and north-western North America, and the vast majority of that occurs during the winter months," Dr. Michaels explained. Accordingly, the most likely result of a predicted 1.5-degree increase in temperatures over the next 100 years will be slightly milder winters in Siberia and Northern Canada, hardly doomsday effects.

Dr. Michaels critiqued media coverage linking "severe" weather to global warming. He noted that neither droughts, hurricanes, or floods have increased significantly in the last 50 years. Regarding the infamous Dust Bowl drought of 1934, Dr. Michaels stressed how such events were part of the earth's natural cycle: "Severe droughts have happened before, and they're going to happen again. Except that the next time, it'll be global warming that's responsible. No one will want to hear about all the times these kinds of event have happened in the past."

Man has affected the earth's climate, no doubt, cause and effect being what it is. However the clear and present danger lies deep below the earth. The potential toll on human life far exceeds that of Global Warming that scientists have long warned about.

Global Cooling

A far greater and more immediate danger is that of global cooling, induced by volcanism. A titanic eruption spewing volcanic ash can spread over a hemisphere, which in turn can block out the sun and subsequent heat, for many months. Changes can occur quickly and temperature fluctuations changed rapidly. Volcanoes are said to be the one, single greatest influence on the earth and life on it, as far as dramatic global climate changes are concerned (meteorites aside).

One single eruption caused the Year Without A Summer in 1816. An 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies, in 1816, produced snow, freezing rain and sleet during summer months in New England. This had never happened. In July and August of that year, ice jams were in rivers and streams as far south as Pennsylvania. Destruction of the corn crop forced farmers to slaughter their animals. Soup kitchens were opened to feed the hungry. Sea ice migrated across Atlantic shipping lanes, and alpine glaciers advanced down mountain slopes to exceptionally low elevations. Europe was still reeling from the human misery of the Napoleonic Wars when flooding, cold, killing-frosts and snow created more starvation.

The eastern U.S. recorded the lowest-ever winter average temperature in 1783-84, about 4.8OC below the 225-year average. Europe also experienced an abnormally severe winter. Benjamin Franklin suggested that these cold conditions resulted from the blocking out of sunlight by dust and gases created by the Iceland Laki eruption in 1783. The Laki eruption was the largest outpouring of basalt lava in historic times. Franklin's hypothesis is consistent with modern scientific theory, which suggests that large volumes of SO2 are the main culprit in haze-effect global cooling.

Another major eruption is due. Another cooling down period seems just ahead. Yet not many see this as a major concern, even though there have been numerous ice ages or mini-ice ages. The effects on humans, crops, livestock, etc. could be catastrophic. The greater the eruption, the greater the impact. Major eruptions are consistent with the earth's cyclical history. A cooling period follows an unusually warm period. It almost seems that the when things get too hot to handle, the earth cools itself off again. And it has itself to thank for it. Even mighty hurricanes serve this purpose. When ocean waters begin warming above normal temperatures, hurricane activity increases exponentially. And so too does the hurricane's work of redistributing the earth's heat (much of which is trapped in the oceans). The perfect balance. Even with not-so-perfect humans on board.

A threat from global cooling is significantly greater in terms of human life, than that predicted by global warming. And the threat of global cooling from a major eruption(s) can be far more cataclysmic than what scientists are so concerned about in global warming.