Recently, the Climate Change/Global Warming crowd has been growing ever more alarmist about dire consequences related to the alleged warming of the Earth. This should come as no surprise since the climate change movement traces its history directly to environmental extremists. However, it has only been a relatively recent phenomenon that environmental extremists teamed with the political left to craft an agenda designed scare people into submitting to their ideological fantasies and control. This has led to an ever increasing list of suffocating regulations, new laws, more bureaucrats, and even more burdensome taxes. In spite of the constant barrage of doomsday environmentalist propaganda I dare to inject logic and reason into this politically charged debate and ask the question: Why can’t “Global Warming” be good? What I find is that after stripping away the rhetoric, economics, and politics to expose the fundamental truth, I ultimately find that warming is not just good, but our best case possible climatic future.
Let’s begin by laying some basic groundwork. Much of the “global warming” hysteria is based upon highly politicized and government subsidized research by admittedly biased environmentalists. What you often don’t hear is that for every scientist sounding the alarm bells, there are just as many scientists dissenting and saying that the research doesn’t support the degree of fear mongering currently epidemic in government and the media. Further, these predictions are based on climatic simulations and models that are spit out of number crunching computers (black boxes) and are no better than the data fed into them. As such, there are literally hundreds if not thousands of widely used models that all claim to “predict” weather and climate patterns, yet the “Farmer’s Almanac” has a better record of predicting climate and weather patterns than your local weather man. Even short duration predictions are flawed! How many times have you gone for a weekend outing only to find out the “sunny” forecast turned into a rainy monsoon? Even worse, when has the hurricane season actually been consistently, accurately predicted? The fact is our best scientists can’t even give you accurate localized, contemporary forecasts and are even less capable of predicting global weather a hundred years into the future! To this point, scientists have not been able to accurately predict climatic patterns demonstrating that scientists still do not know and cannot accurately quantify the causal effects of what forms the Earth’s climate. At best this is an imprecise science and at worst climatic alchemy. Due to this one must rationally conclude that the models at best have limited to no predictive capability and at worst provide totally false data.
One has to concede that our historical baseline of global climate is limited and imprecise. This makes basing any future models inherently flawed because it is based on partial data sets that we can’t say for sure are even accurate or representative for the period in question. What we do know is that the Earth’s climate has continuously shifted between warm, wet periods and cold, dry periods (ice ages). The Earth has been warmer than it is today and the Earth has been much colder. What we don’t see is climatic stasis. Cycles do occur and the climate is perpetually in the process of either cooling or warming. This continual climatic variation lends validity to the broad term of “climate change,” but certainly doesn’t imply the Earth and all of its living creatures are doomed if any change occurs. In fact, humans have already survived through multiple ice ages and warm periods long before the industrial age. However, what a macro analysis of research from multiple scientific disciplines show is that it has always been during ice ages when humans faced their greatest challenges and NOT during the relatively short periods climatic warming. The reason for this is very simple. Biological diversity thrives in warm wet climates such as the Amazon Rain Forest, but must struggle to survive in harsh cold and dry climates such as the Arctic and Arabian Desert respectively. Thus, it is actually quite easy to conclude that not just man, but the vast majority of living creatures depend on warm, wet conditions to survive and thrive.
Assuming that the climate scientists are indeed correct the Earth is warming, this is reason for relief, not alarm. Yes, it is true that as the Earth moves through climatic cycles localized weather patterns will change. Yes, it is also true that in some cases this will have a negative impact, but globally speaking, during warming periods, far more areas will see a net benefit from warmer and wetter climate. With warmer temperatures and more rain, we will see parched desert land once again become fertile. The soil of the land we currently farm has become worn out and warming could be just the miracle farmers need to unlock new and vast fertile regions to meet the growing world demand for food. We will be able to plant crops further and further north and south and reclaim land that was once frozen and not suitable for sustained habitation. We will also see aquifers, lakes, rivers, and streams recharged with desperately needed fresh water. Even though some areas will become so dry, as weather patterns change, they will no longer be habitable, that is okay because the net result would make far more land available. Coastal cities may indeed see some flooding if the dire predictions prove accurate, but that too is ridiculously overblown. Governments for centuries have fought to create jobs and relocate insolvent cities. A sea level rise would provide the needed stimulus for nations to finally overhaul their horrific urban planning and put millions back to work. Most cities are in desperate need of or are beyond repair because they were never engineered to handle the massive number of residents they now sustain. Many cities also no longer occupy a strategic location and are dying since their original purpose for existence long ago disappeared. Instead of sitting idle and waiting for the water to rise as climate alarmists predict, why not seize this opportunity to build much more sustainable cities where they will be most viable? Trade routes, economic centers, travel hubs, and populations have all undergone major changes in just the last two decades and much more since most of the world’s major cities were first populated so isn’t it time to update instead of letting them die a slow death like Detroit?
Remember that if the Earth is not warming, it is cooling. Contrary to the climate alarmists, it is certainly possible that what we are witnessing is the last stages of a warming period as the Earth shifts into a cooling cycle, which notably, is climatically overdue according to the geological record. This alleged ramp in temperatures may in fact be cyclical and actually have almost nothing to do with the “greenhouse effect” and carbon emissions. I for one ascribe to this potentiality far more than I do one of prolonged warming. Cooling would be a true climatic disaster for mankind unlike the warming alarmists would lead you to believe. Much of North America, Europe, and Asia would be covered in thick ice sheets. Western Civilization would all be forced to relocate or perish. The food stresses on the world population as a result of massively reduced arable farmland would lead to unprecedented famine and starvation. Migration pressures on the equatorial latitudes would be overwhelming and lead to warfare and even greater death. Adding to the global disaster would be the fact that during cooling periods the Earth becomes much drier as water is locked into massive ice sheets. This would leave the Earth much drier than it is today in respect to land not covered by ice or permafrost. Desert like conditions would become pervasive and would exasperate conditions of famine as the global net total of arable land plummeted. By the time mankind reached equilibrium with the new carrying capacity of the Earth, more than two thirds of the world’s population will have died off. As such, logic would again dictate that given the choice between warming or cooling, warming is the overwhelmingly preferred option if your motive is to sustain maximum human life.
To date, an ice age isn’t what is being predicted by the scientific community. Instead, we have been told that we will face higher temperatures and rising sea levels; although, it seems that the climate change “experts” now seem to attribute any and all weather to the nebulous “global warming.” This fact alone is a red flag and screams of faux science. The most recent example has been to say in the same breath we have had a record cold winter because the temperatures are rising. Really? Has anyone taken a moment to rationalize how absurd statements like these are? I personally get a laugh out of the idiots running around trying to tell me that the Earth is warming because of bovine flatulence. What scares me far more than any potential global warming is that these extremist nut jobs seriously believe this garbage. They are either complicit in or oblivious to the fact that bovine flatulence has nothing to do with global warming and was only a special interest agenda lumped into the debate by animal rights extremists in a thinly veiled attempt to economically attack cattle farmers. Even a middle school student that has taken basic earth science knows that a hypothesis (global warming in this case) that purportedly claims to be proven valid no matter what outcome presents, irrespective of the dependent and independent variables, is utterly useless. This type of flawed hypothesis is called a non-falsifiable hypothesis (it can’t be proven wrong so it equally cannot be proven correct) and appears to have found favor within political propaganda circles. However, if a student were to use the same non-falsifiable logic for his science fair project’s hypothesis, the student would fail. Nonetheless, prestigious “scientists” still can’t seem to remember the basic, fundamental rules of the scientific method!
No matter what the future holds, paranoia, fear mongering, and alarmist hysteria will neither solve the problem nor improve our situation (although quite a few seem to have made a good living off of the scare tactics…Al Gore). Climate change has been a perpetual part of Earth’s history. Only through sheer hubris and reckless endeavor would man think that he can controllably alter this natural cycle and improve his outcome. One may rightly claim that it is a fool’s errand to try and play god with the weather. Climate change cannot be stopped any more than the weather you will wake up to without utterly destroying the Earth’s natural balance in real and quantifiable ways. Instead of alarmism, isn’t it time man embraced the change? Man’s responsible course of action is not to panic, but to adapt. After all, it has been man’s ability to think and adapt, which has allowed him to survive to present day.
In closing, I have a clear conscience as I add another log to my wood burning stove, which warms my mountain (soon to be ocean front) redoubt while I look out at my pickup truck with a big V-8 engine knowing I have done my part to sustain mankind. As for the rest of you driving around in a Prius, just say thank you.
By Guiles Hendrik
April 4, 2014
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