Another Stake In Global Warming's Heart

With temps across this country dipping to (or even past) 15-year lows, I thought I might to do another blog entry on the issue of Global Warming. It just seems like a week doesn't go by without another fact or two that refutes the false belief that we are in the midst of a worldly overheating due to man-made CO2 emissions. Here are a sampling of things that I have read over the last few weeks that just help to blow a hole in all this Global Warming hype and panic.

One thing that the fanatical global warmists always point to as a disaster that could literally swamp the modern world we live in is the anticipated melting of the polar ice caps. The worst case scenario is one where we could lose half of California and all of Florida and much of the world's coast line cities to flooding as the polar ice melts . Well, surprise..surprise! In just two month's time, at the tail end of 2008, the polar ice caps returned to levels that haven't been seen since 1979 (See Full Story). The reason that this happening is the frigid temps that we saw in the last part of 2008 and that are continuing as of today.

With all of these cold temperatures upon us, it might be wise to read this 3-page story from the Russian news agency, Pravda, that, in essence, says we are now entering into another Ice Age (See Full Story). That article also takes aim at the liberal academics, and not necessarily scientists, who promulgating the carbon dioxide, greenhouse gas theory. Of particular importance is this graph of ice cores taken from the Russian science facilities at Vostok, Antarctica (Click To See Chart). Clearly, even the non-scientific person can easily see that there are regular periods of heating and cooling of this earth that have occurred over thousands of years and, 99.9999999999999999%+ of which occurred without any of the influence of man's carbon output from power stations and automobiles. My problem with most Global Warming theories is that they give too much prominence to the activities of mankind in this world than should be and they use such a small sample, this last century, to conclude that man is destroying the earth. To me, even with all of our cars and power stations and flatulent cattle and poultry, we still have less impact on this earth than most natural events like forest fires and volcanic eruptions. And, there is no way mankind can compete with the effects of sun activity.

The last bit of information that I find interesting comes from our own U.S. Climate Survey data for December of 2008 which, then, looks backwards to the year 1895 when official record keeping began (See Current Data). By their own statistics, this last December was almost a full degree cooler than the average of all Decembers in the last century. So, where's all this heating and the famous hockey-stick rise in temperatures that Al Gore has warned us of? I would think temperatures would be consistently getting warmer if, in fact, carbon dioxide was actually affecting our climate. Further, last December was the 35th coolest December in a century of data. Beyond all that, you always hear from all those silly people pushing this global warming theory that temperatures could rise as much as a full degree in the next decade. If you look closely at the text of the U.S. Climate Survey's review of December 2008, it clearly states that temperatures in America have only risen an average of one-tenth of a degree per decade. That's a degree every hundred years. Now, with temperature falling in the last two years, I don't see this disastrous one degree leap in temps that would cause us to act immediately or the world will be doomed. If you listen to Al Gore, it might already be too late to save the world! Please!

One last thing about the melting of sea ice and floating icebergs. When I was kid, I loved to watch the General Electric sponsored science show, Mr. Wizard. As part of that show, Mr. Wizard would do experiments that you could repeat at home with simple, everyday things. One experiment that always stuck in my mind was his "water and ice" experiment. By repeating that experiment, you can truly amaze and mystify all Global Warming friends. Take a straight-sided, clear drinking glass and fill it half way with ice. Then fill that glass with water to the absolute brim; but, not overflowing. You will note that the ice will float and, some of the ice will clearly protrude from the top of the glass. What you have just created is your own mini-iceberg. You know, the ice that all those global warmists fear will all melt and flood the earth. To the non-scientist, most people would bet that water will run all over the place as protruding ice in the glass completely melts. But, it won't. That's because the water level has already been adjusted to account for the complete (above and below water) volume of that ice. So, all the floating sea ice in the entire world can melt into oblivion and won't result in any increased level of the seas. Only ice that is land-based and that melts and runs off into our oceans will result in increase ocean levels. That volume of land ice is substantially less than the volume of ice that is floating around the polar areas. In fact, the area of the North Pole is all floating ice in what is also known as the Arctic Ocean. Only Antarctica, the South Pole, has a land mass and can be legitimately called a continent. However, the South Pole is the coldest place on earth so it would take more than a just degree or two of projected overall global warming before the ice in this part of our world would have any significant melting. The coldest temps in Antarctica can actually hit -130 degrees Fahrenheit in the dead of winter; and, that's about 162 degrees (on the Fahrenheit scale) below the point where ice would melt.

I just thought you'd like to know.