What I've learned about "global warming"

A while back I read a book by Michael Crichton entitled "State of Fear" which dealt with the subject of global warming alarm-ism. Though it was fiction, it was filled with foot-notes and references about actual scientific findings concerning such things as global temperatures, ocean surface elevations, glacial and polar ice etc. I found myself looking at the foot-notes as much as the text of the novel. It was all fascinating, and the main message was that the global warming scare was hype. I hadn't looked into such things before, but the weight of the data was enough to convince me that Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" was questionable at best.

More recently, I purchased a book by Christopher C. Horner entitled "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism." From that source I have learned the following tidbits about global warming worth knowing:

• Climate is always changing: (global temperatures rising and falling) and that mankind's activities have very little to do with it. Solar activity plays a much larger role than anything we may do to produce greenhouse gases. Currently, the rise in temperature amounts to roughly 0.17 degrees Celsius per decade or about 1.7 degrees rise in the next hundred years at the current rate. (p. 71, Horner) Hardly a catastrophe in the making!


• Global Temperature increases are beneficial: Such increases have happened in the past and were shown to be beneficial rather than harmful. Higher temperatures meant milder winters, longer growing seasons for crops, and longer life spans for humans who lived in that era. One example was the movement of Vikings to Greenland during such a warm spell (higher temperatures than we are having today) roughly a thousand years ago, and when it got colder again they were forced by harsh conditions (colder weather) to leave their adopted home behind. (p.66,77, Horner)


• Hurricanes are not getting worse as alarmists report: the slight rise in Atlantic hurricanes is being offset by decreases in Pacific activity. Storms are cyclical and not more frequent or more severe than in the past. (p.64, 156, Horner) What has increased is our tendency to build our homes along the coast lines and in the path of storms.


• Al Gore's stated "consensus" on the dangers of global warming is a hoax: In his movie, "An Inconvenient Truth" he claims, "There is as strong a consensus on this issue as science has ever had." Consider this rebuttal from Professor Dennis Bray of GKSS, Germany, "The most recent survey of climate scientists ... found that while there had been a move towards acceptance of anthropogenic (man made) global warming, only 9.4% of respondents 'strongly agree' that climate change is mostly the result of anthropogenic sources. A similar portion 'strongly disagree.' Furthermore, only 22.8% of respondents 'strongly agree' that the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports accurately reflect a consensus within climate science." (p. 83, Horner)


• Some glaciers are melting while other glaciers are forming: "A new study has found that warmer winters and cooler summers, bringing increased precipitation, could be causing some glaciers to increase in size. Newcastle University researchers found that the western Himalaya's Indus basin was experiencing more snow and rainfall, which has implications for the water supplies of about 50 million people in Pakistan. The study appears in the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate (BBC news online)" (p. 157, Horner). Ditto for Polar Ice Caps.

While I could say much more about this, I believe this is enough information to capture the reader's attention and encourage a little independent research about the fact and fiction concerning global warming. As is typical with liberal media, once again, we are being led around by the nose, so to speak, by the politically correct crowd who's aim is not actually to solve an environmental problem, but to gain power over the lives of individuals by rationing energy and taxing away our wealth in the name of environmental salvation. What we need salvation from is the environmental zealots and the plans they have to choke us with regulations. You had better learn what "cap and trade" is all about because it will soon be foisted on you as our Congress barrels full speed ahead with everything environmental. Just a thought.