A December morning with an 8 below windchill in Western Pennsylvania seems to be a good time to write about Anthropogenic Climate Change. On this subject, I consider myself to be a “skeptic”, while many of the more rabid “believers” would call me a “denier”. The difference between being a skeptic and a denier rests upon whether or not one chooses to “believe” that human activity is driving climate change.
That I am forced to use the word “believe” speaks volumes about the issue. I do not “believe” that the sun comes up in the East. I know that it does. I do not “believe” in gravity. I know that it exists. I do not have to “believe” that 1 + 1 = 2. I know that it does. Truth and fact do not require a statement of faith. Unproven, unprovable speculations do. There is no proof that ghosts exist, yet many of us “believe” that they do. One might say that there is no “proof” that God exists, yet many of us “believe” that He does.
There is a certain sweet irony in that one of the best definitions of the word “faith” comes from the Bible. In his letter to the Hebrews, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Belief and faith are defined the same. If we are asked to “believe” in man made climate change, that in itself, is a statement of its unproven, unprovable nature.
Many of the climate alarmists (those who are convinced that man is messing up our planet) claim that the “science is settled” and that there is no further need to study the causes of climate change, but rather that we need to act and act radically now in order to “save the planet”. These alarmists are partly right, there is some settled science about climate and how it changes. One fact of climate science is that there have been many, perhaps as many as 9, different periods of glaciation in the past million years of world history. Geologists and climate scientists can demonstrate without doubt that this is true. Astronomers have shown that the Earth moves in an elliptical orbit about the sun and that the angle with which sunlight strikes the Earth also changes as the Earth moves in this egg shaped orbit. These changes in the Earth’s orbit and angel are the Milankovic Cycles and follow very closely the ice ages of the past million years. Scientists also know that the energy output of our Sun is cyclical and changes in orderly, predictable cycles. That is to say, that the sun sends more “heat” to the Earth at certain times and less at others. The heat output of the sun correlates to the number of sunspots and the record of sunspots matches known periods of warmth and cold on the Earth. This is the “settled” science of climate change. Everything else is pure speculation.
The discussion of whether or not human produced CO2 can impact the climate is somewhat silly at best and incredibly stupid at its worst. CO2 is one of the most important gases in our atmosphere and is one of the basic components of almost all plant and animal life. Green plants use CO2 for growth and produce oxygen from the CO2. Carbon dioxide is an essential part of life, it is not in any way a pollutant. Increases in CO2 in the atmosphere increases plant growth which in turn uses more CO2/. Like all other natural cycles, the CO2 cycle is almost perfect in its simplicity.
Climate alarmists contend (with no proof) that increasing CO2 levels increase the temperature of the atmosphere. Ice cores and tree rings suggest that CO2 levels respond to increases in atmospheric temperate, not cause them. The study of these ice cores and tree rings suggest that changes in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere may lag temperate changes by as many as 800 years. It is unknowable and unprovable.
How much carbon dioxide is really in the Earth’s atmosphere? Picture a football field in your mind. Focus of the goal line. Now, imagine a postage stamp on the goal line. That, a postage stamp on a football field, represents the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere. How much of an effect can that tiny postage stamp have on the entirety of the football field. Let common sense take over here.
The alarmists claim that man made CO2 is “different” from naturally occurring CO2. Again, let common sense have sway here. Is there any logical reason why combining carbon and oxygen in a coal fired factory can be any different from combining carbon and oxygen in a volcano, or a forest fire or – a coal mine fire? Does it make any sense that atmospheric heat would react differently to one molecule of CO2 because of its origin? It just doesn’t make sense.
The atmosphere of the Earth opens onto outer space. The temperate of outer space is nearly absolute zero or 459 degrees below zero. Heat rises. No matter how hot the Earth’s atmosphere becomes, the heat will be drained off into space. This is sort of how your travel mug of coffee will get cold really quickly in the car this morning.
It is all well and good to be concerned about good stewardship of our world’s resources. It is ridiculous to make far reaching government rules and regulations based on speculation and not on facts. Alarmists are willing to deprive developing nations cheap energy from fossil fuels in their quest to “save the planet”. These same alarmists are willing to cede national sovereignty to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats at the UN in the name of climate change.
About 12,000 years ago, the Earth began to warm and the last period of glaciation began to end. Our human ancestors adapted to the changing climate. Are we less able to adapt than they were. About 100,000 years ago, the climate of Earth began to cool and glaciers developed and moved across much o the Northern Hemisphere. Our pre-human ancestors did what our human ancestors did 90,000 years later – they adapted. And they did it without governments, without Progressives and without a ruling class. I have to believe, I have to have faith “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” that modern man will react, adapt and thrive regardless of what the climate does.
Enjoy this first hard cold snap. It’s not even winter yet!
