Alice noticed that anthropogenic global warming and creationism are both belief systems, not science. She’s right. Creationists believe God created everything in the past 6,000 years, and you can’t disprove acts of an omnipotent God. Warmists believe current warming is unprecedented, explainable only by mankind increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Fortunately for we skeptics, science is on our side. The current warming began over 300 years ago, ending the Little Ice Age. Unfortunately for mankind, the current warming has stalled out, with none the past 17 years.
Historically, warming benefitted mankind, while cooling was detrimental. Civilization flowered after the end of the Ice Age just over 10,000 years ago, particularly during the Holocene Climate Optimum of 8,000 to 3,000 years ago. Global temperature then was three to eight Fahrenheit degrees warmer than now, and lakes and rivers abounded in what, beginning about 3,000 years ago, became deserts. However, mankind by then had developed agriculture and animal husbandry and was able to adapt to worsening cooling conditions.
The evidence of previous periods of greater warming globally is incontrovertible and easily demonstrated. There are large stumps in northern, southern, and high altitude regions far from where such trees now grow which have been carbon-dated to the Holocene Climate Optimum. Similarly, retreating glaciers are now uncovering human habitation of the same period.
This only scratches the surface of natural climate change science. In opposition the warming alarmists have Michael Mann’s thoroughly discredited “Hockey Stick” based on small samples of tree rings from less than 15% of the Earth’s surface. It can’t even identify the Little Ice Age, and barely touches the Medieval Warm Period. The Hockey Stick covers only the past 1,000 years, and features enormous error bars. It’s a foundation of beliefs built on sand.
Mike Combs
Gualala
