Al Gore loves to pontificate about global warming — but just what is "global warming," and what, if anything, can be done about it? Or is it just a ploy to scare us into paying higher taxes?
We should certainly do all we can to reduce carbon emissions, because it makes no sense to enlarge our "carbon footprint" without good reason. On that note, I often wonder how many of these global warming doomsayers actually turn off their computers after looking up the latest computer climate models?
A surprising number of people leave their computers on permanent standby. That gives off carbon. A lot of it—"hundreds of thousands of tonnes of [it]," according to U.K. Environment Minister Elliot Morley, who has supported a European Union law to force manufacturers to make more energy-efficient electrical appliances. A large "carbon footprint" isn't even good for business, as it isn't cost-effective either.
However, carbon emissions produced by mankind are only part of the problem, not the entirety of it. Yet the crowd demanding action on climate change act as though it is mankind's sole doing, setting up false premises which can only mean the "global warming" scare, as they present it, is a farce. It's also a ploy that Al Gore and other politicians can use to hook gullible people into voting for them and supporting their agendas.
In Leif Erikson's day, the world climate was several degrees warmer than today — even higher than current worst-case global warming scenarios — and this warm spell lasted several centuries. (You can read about a Harvard study here.) Greenland was actually green in some regions. Yet, human civilization thrived.
This is not to say that Greenland didn't get cold or that it didn't have an ice cap 1,000 years ago. But it was a considerably milder place. Even during the 1100s, the weather was considerably balmier in Europe than it is today. Wine grapes are being successfully grown in southwest England, but Dorset certainly isn't tropical and it barely even qualifies as subtropical. It has simply, over time, gotten that little bit warmer to allow grapes to grow. Just as they did in the 12th century.
Even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body the global warming alarmists often cite, has declared that it cannot be proven that mankind is solely responsible for climate change. A recent climate change report of theirs had this to say:
"The Earth's atmosphere-ocean dynamics is chaotic: its evolution is sensitive to small perturbations in initial conditions. This sensitivity limits our ability to predict the detailed evolution of weather; inevitable errors and uncertainties in the starting conditions of a weather forecast amplify through the forecast. As well as uncertainty in initial conditions, such predictions are also degraded by errors and uncertainties in our ability to represent accurately the significant climate processes."Duuuuude, what's up with that?!
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Mark,
It seems to me that you are talking out of both sides of your mouth here.
On the one side, you are complaining about the standard habits of life where you live (which, unfortuately do not differ substantially here), and how "lefties" who espouse a concern for the environment don't really give a damn, as bespoken by their actions. I'm as guilty as everyone else here. If I'd had to change my son's diapers with cloth diapers, I never, and I want to emphasize this, NEVER would have changed them. The paper/plastic ones were just too convenient. And tossed shit-filled diapers make up a good percentage of smelly landfills world wide.
Out of the other sie of your mouth, you seem to suggest that climate swings are just part and parcel of life on the planet, and we should stop whining and get on with living.
Here is the problem with your article, Mark.
WE did not cause the great warm-up that allowed the Vikings to explore and settle Greenland and land in North America, or that allowed Irishmen in rubber boats to land in North America, etc. etc.
It appears that WE, by our own actions, are causing the warm-up that appears to be occurring now, and the real concern is that we do not understand the planet we are messing up with carbon imprints, dirty diapers, petroleum peroducts that never break down, etc., etc., etc. I haven't even mentioned the dangers of microwaves, radiation from "wonder" phones (hand-held mobiles), plastic leaching into food from plastic packaging, humans not drinking enough water where there is potable water, spraying insecticides (neurotoxins) on food, mercury in fish (like Starkist Tuna, "the fish that tastes good"), feeding cattle food that humans need and causing starvation on the planet, etc., etc., etc.
The Kyoto Accords are meaningless against this background, and the businessmen whining that they may lose a few points on their stock values is craven stupidity.
There is plenty of work to do to clean up the planet from our own mess, which is an extension of those shit-filled diapers that never really get tossed, and plenty of money to be made doing it. And dixstributing food and water more equitably would go a long way to solving many problems on this war-torn, povery stricken planet.
2 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
By the way, Mark, just so that it is clear in your head, I'm talking to you as a Jew who believes in G-d, and who holds that one of the sacred tasks of mankind is "Tikkún 'Olám", repairing the world in partnership with the Almighty.
3 - Mark Edward Manning
Ruvy, I tried to make as clear as possible that while I think we have a responsibility to limit our so-called carbon footprint, I also think that climate change just may very well be something we can't do anything about. In other words, there's a good chance this is occurring naturally due to solar storm activity and other forces that we may not understand - BUT, why make the problem worse? I advocate personal responsibility, not government intrusion.
You're right, the Kyoto accords are worthless, especially if they're going to turn a blind eye towards India and China who are rapidly becoming far worse polluters than the U.S. Even so, it's still based on a premise of half-truths, at best. Not exactly the basis on which to form worldwide government policy.
Plastic diapers are one thing, but to needlessly create so much of the damn stuff - plastic, that is - which just immediately goes to waste: that's something I just don't see the sense in. It's as if, as a species, humans get a real joy out of trashing the planet as much as they can.
As a vegetarian, I agree that if people stopped eating so much meat, there'd be less cattle to have to feed. Ironic, isn't it? The more cattle, the less food for people. Not to mention, we'd save on grazing land.
Anyway, we are responsible for a lot, but I refuse to be frightened by doomsday scenarios that politicians desperate for our votes pump forth. I just wish people would demand action on the things that are an obvious problem and make sure their own lives and homes are as environmentally sound as they could be. If they actually did that, rather than shout for more international government bodies, something would actually get done and the planet may just be that little bit cleaner and healthier.
4 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Mark,
No argument here on most of what you said. The main issue we face that gets the environmentalists money to push their agenda is the possibility of sudden climate change. That is what all the movies are about, that is really the sub-text of Al Gore's book and ideas.
A sudden ice age (instant Birdseye, to quote one writer), or a sudden permanent increase in temperature ("runaway condition Venus," to quote another writer) is really the scarecrow waving his arms about.
The trouble is that big change on the planet tends to take place quickly and not incrementally. That is why there are mammoths that were frozen so suddenly that their food was still in their stomachs undigested when found. The natural climate swings are not the problem. The sudden changes on the planet are. Th possibility that we are overloading the system to the point of forcing a sudden change in one direction or another is real.
5 - Roger Choate
For Ruvy: In the old days in England, I changed cloth diapers. One then cleaned them to some extent. They were then put into a type of solution in a bucket - which was finally sent to a diaper service for definitive cleaning.
These were inherited diapers, by the way. They don't easily wear out.
Cloth is said to be better for baby's skin than paper.
6 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Roger,
We tried using cloth diapers for a while. I remember those days all too well. But, at this point, if cloth diapers are used in my family again, it will be my sons either using them or dodging the dirty duty. And I and my wife, the proud grandparents, will be happy to tickle the little tykes and hand them to mom and dad to be changed...
I can't wait.
7 - Mark Edward Manning
The thing is, water constantly gets recycled in treatment plants. None of the water we drink or make our coffee with or wash with is "pure." It's been recycled countless times. So, washing cloth diapers would seem to make better environmental sense, as you are not throwing anything away, but you are re-using two things - the water and the cloth.
Personally, I have had experience in neither type of diaper as I don't - and will never have - children. (I state this happily, not regrettably!) But cloth diapers do appear to have the edge when it comes to the environment.
8 - Mark Edward Manning
Ruvy, well, if it's true that we don't truly know how the Earth's dynamics work in terms of change, then we could certainly use my argument to pose the question: how can we say that the Earth isn't fragile and isn't prone to sudden change? All true.
Again, I say, we should all do what we can to resist climate change, going on the assumption that that's possible. I'm not arguing against environmentalism here. But let's not whip ourselves into a frenzy either when we don't have all the facts.
Current forms of life on this planet may or may not meet the same fate as the mammoths. We really can't say, can we? So let's all do our part, but keep a level head at the same time. This is all I'm saying. And trust no man or government agency that simply says, "Well, we need more money for this or your children will face a bleak future, mwhahaha."
9 - Mooja
Nice article Mark. It's nice to see a global warming spot that isn't geared at generating human self hate and loathing.
Throughout the Earth's history it has been normal for the average temperature to be MUCH warmer than it is today. The fact that we've experienced a freakishly cool period while humans have evolved has been convenient. The fact that it is normal, natural, and INEVITIBLE for the Earth to get warmer is an inconvenient truth that most humans don't seem to want to recognize. It WILL get warmer regardless of what we do or don't do.
Change is a driving force that brought about our existence. It is not to be feared. The Earth will do what does, we must adapt or perish.
BTW, plastic diapers don't make up a large percentage of landfills and cloth diapers won't save the world. People will still be starving if we kill all the beef and grow sweet corn. Cattle are not causing famine. Focus on the real problems and keep your nose off my dinner plate.
10 - Lumpy
Wow. It's been hours since this was posted and the global warming thought crimes police have yet to show up to curse and revile you. They must all be at a anti-walmart protest rally or something.
Nice to see a sensible post on this topic that focuses on common sense rather than scaremongering.
11 - zipper
I evade my personal responsibility for the things I choose to do. I blame the government, the oil companies, George Bush, the economy, the wealthy and anybody else I can think of for the destruction that my lifestyle causes.
I put my comfort, my convienence and my conformity ahead of the lives and livlihoods of thousands of future generations, and I try not to think too much about my daily contribution to the destruction of the world that was left to me by thousands of past generations. I put myself far, far ahead of my ancestors and decendents and take from them for the most trivial of reasons.
I ignore the real human pain, suffering and death that my behaviour causes. I turn the page, switch the channel, and change the topic of conversation. I pretend that the science isn't definitive yet, or that there's no point in changing before others do, and I convince myself that 'scientists' will come up with a technological solution that will make my lifestyle and me OK.
I avoid, I deny, I justify and rationalise, I pretend, I project, I squirm and sqeeze and do whatever I can to maintain my concept of myself as a good person while still doing what I do. I evade my moral responsibility a day at a time in the hope that reality will somehow be different tomorrow morning.
I steal from those who live far away from me, and who I do not know because I see their pain as cartoon pain, and not fully real. I casally destroy what future generations will depend upon to live because they have yet to be born and it is only me, and my time and my normalcy that is important.
I am like those who, sixty years ago, did their jobs and lived their normal lives and didn't ask questions about where their jewish neighbours had gone. I am like those who participated in slavery and other atrocities, except that the effects of my crimes will outlast all those others.
And it is OK, because today I am normal, and busy, and have other things on my mind and, if what I do is really so bad so many people wouldn't be doing the same, would they?
But when, in the hours before I die, I think back upon my life and what it has meant, I must do one thing. I must hope and hope and pray and pray that there is nothing beyond life and beyong time and beyond myself, that there is no blance, no karma, no morality and no justice.
Because if there is, and I do what I do, knowing what I know....
Well, lets not think about that.
12 - STM
We are running out of water Down Under as this long drought bites hard. Rain falls on the coast, but doesn't even reach the catchment areas that supply water for the millions living in the Sydney basin.
It was lovely and warm over winter, and this summer has had more cool days than hot. Doesn't seem any different to quite a few seasons of my childhood. Icebergs floating off the coast of New Zealand? It's all happened before.
Global warming, or the same effects from el-Nino that we've been having for probably hundreds of thousands of years?
Balmy English summers? Had a few of those when I was there as a kid in the sixties. One in Scotland, too, where I was swimming in the sea and it wasn't cold. Perhaps things aren't all down to us, just as the writer suggests.
13 - zipper
Its all happened before they said, I do not want to face it now, its too sad. Africans have always died in floods or famine, and the Scots always had bad weather. Australia was never a place for white men to live. Even now, after geotransformations have changed the landscape and ruined the enviroment they can only scrape a living from the edge.
Climate change is worse than you are allowed to believe reading these articles in mainstream informercials . You are being educated by the same media that wants you to buy another motor car. Yes thats right, the same media that the author writes for advertises all the products that are responcible for global warming. The news cannot let their corperate sponsors down, they must keep pumping consumers with reasons to demand more.
The fuel that drives everything puts money in my paypacket, I cannot allow myself to believe the fuel that drives the economy will harm my lifestyle. My government releys upon the support of industry and industry needs the support of governments and both need the same fuels.
Restrict my fuel and my lifestyle will suffer now.
Could we really gain just as much from recycling as we do from the slash and burn?
Can supply meet a growing demand for electricity without windmills littering our coast lines?
. I'm sure the alternatives will supply growing demand as long as the home fires keep burning.
Alternative energy is a suplimental supply, not a replacement in any ones eyes.
A change in climate requires a change in behaviour. Try recycling, give up buying chinese crap, insulate your roof, paint it white, try turning the street lights out half way through the night.
However listen when your told the earth is warming, see the polar caps melting, take notice of whats happening around the world, forests the size of countries are burning. Ask yourself what motivates a person to believe in global warming? and then ask what reason would I have to ignore it.
Don't worry it will be buisiness as usual until mysteriously it will all end.
14 - Dave Nalle
Ask yourself what motivates a person to believe in global warming?
The desire to have a pretext to impose global socialism on the world?
and then ask what reason would I have to ignore it.
Because you should already know that socialism is antithetical to freedom and basic natural rights?
Dave
15 - Mark Edward Manning
Mooja, I can actually be quite the misanthrope at times, but I just can't fathom how whatever the Earth's going through can be entirely blamed on humans. That just doesn't sit right with me; there's got to be another angle to the story somehow. I wish I could say what it was - my knowledge of science just isn't strong enough. But apparently, neither is the science of the best brains that are studying the problem - otherwise, we could definitively state what the problems were and if man was partly or entirely behind climate change.
16 - Luke Lundemo
Let's for a moment ignore Al Gore. Let's instead go directly to the peer reviewed scientific articles in the journals devoted to climate study. That is where we find near unanimous agreement that 1)global warming is happening and 2)human activity is its primary cause.
So what are the consequences in terms of human suffering?
Thousands of dedicated scientists are studying all aspects of this question. There are several effects that are appearing:
- in total it appears to have an effect of reducing food production.
- many significant disease carrying insects and animals are expanding their ranges
- ocean levels are beginning to rise, starting to require population relocations
- it seems to trigger an increase in severe weather events
- glacial shrinkage is creating severe fresh water shortages in parts of the world.
The positive effects appear small, trivial and quite temporary.
Economic forcasts show tremendous financial losses associated with global warming and recommend prudent investment now to avert greater losses later.
17 - Clavos
Luke Lundemo writes:
Let's instead go directly to the peer reviewed scientific articles in the journals devoted to climate study. That is where we find near unanimous agreement that 1)global warming is happening and 2)human activity is its primary cause.
True, no one denies the phenomenon of global warming. However,the acceptance of whether or not it's caused by human activity, and if so, to what degree, is still very much in dispute. One has to consider, among other factors, that the scientists devoted to climate study have a vested interest in claiming that GW is caused by human activity: it offers them job security for the foreseeable future and ensures the grant money will continue to flow.
As to the effects that are "already appearing:"
- in total it appears to have an effect of reducing food production.
What do you mean by "in total?" Worldwide production? Where's there reduction in any of the agriculturally advanced nations? Sources for this claim?
- many significant disease carrying insects and animals are expanding their ranges
What insects/animals? Where? What diseases? Again, sources?
- ocean levels are beginning to rise, starting to require population relocations
Ocean levels are predicted to rise to mind-boggling levels by those same scientists, but even they say they have so far risen about an inch or two in the last century. Where have there been "population relocations?"
- it seems to trigger an increase in severe weather events
Very much in dispute. The scientists at the NOAA Hurricane Center deny there's any effect from GW affecting the number or frequency of hurricanes and in fact attribute last season's storms to a normal cyclical pattern.
- glacial shrinkage is creating severe fresh water shortages in parts of the world.
The total supply of fresh water in the world does not vary, even if the glaciers "shrink." Regional shortages of water have occured throughout the history of the world.
In summation, global warming is occuring.
Whether or not its primary causes are from human activity is very much open to discussion, and should be discussed, openly.
The community of climate studies scientists is attempting to shout down dissidents in a manner that allows no discussion.
18 - Zedd
Dave:
Have you lost it?
You think people are so diabolical that they want their political views to be held world over and are using global warming to do so.
I don't know you but I'm getting concerned. You are really paranoid about the left. Its getting to the nutty stage.
Look the issue with global warming is not that it hasn't happened before, its the RATE at which it is happening. Do some research on this.
19 - Zedd
Mark Edward Manning:
Your article makes no sense. You are all over the place. You are blaming computer users, people in the office, Al Gore... talking about Greenland....
I don't know what you are saying? Do you?
I think the people that are agreeing with you haven't really researched the issue of global warming so they are just cheering you on on points that SEEM to follow a political line.
What is your position exactly or do you have one? I dont think you've don'e your research on this subject. You seem to BSing your way through this topic.
20 - Dave Nalle
- in total it appears to have an effect of reducing food production.
Easily countered by returning to use the millions of acres of arrable land in the US and Europe which have been allowed to go fallow in the last century because of improved agricultural technology.
- ocean levels are beginning to rise, starting to require population relocations
Aside from a couple of isolated areas where the land is also sinking or eroding, where is this true? There has been no measurable rise in ocean levels world wide.
- it seems to trigger an increase in severe weather events
Like our record calm hurricane season this year?
- glacial shrinkage is creating severe fresh water shortages in parts of the world.
Odd, looking at the places in the world where there are fresh water shortages I can't find a glacier within 1000 miles in most cases.
Perhaps rather than worrying about fixing global warming, which is a ludicrous concept given that the main causes are natural forces totally beyond our control, we shoudl focus our efforts on dealing with problems like those you raise and finding ways to adapt.
Dave
21 - Zedd
The climate started getting slowly warmer around 1900, scientists say. That was long before we had George W. Bush in the White House to blame for all our problems.
What?
Listen, just because Al Gore has an interest in global warming doesn't mean that this is a party specific topic. What does George Bush have to do with ANYTHING??? You are not getting any of this are you?
AAAAAHHHHHHHH! You didn't see Al Gore's movie did you?
Also, I don't think that there are that many Americans who are standing around water coolers discussing or thinking about the Kyoto Protocal. Don't know what office you work at. But the average person doesn't even know what that is.
You do understand that weather patterns can be identified for hundreds of thousands of years. You are busy worrying about a hot year in London...
Do you also understand that the issue about global warming is not that it has happened before, we all know it has. The issue is the RATE in which it has happened since industrialization.
Just a question... how many landfills full of plastic products do we have to study from say.... a thousand years ago?
22 - Dave Nalle
Just for the record, landfills full of plastic products may act as carbon sinks and actually fight global warming.
Dave
23 - Zedd
Dave Sez: Odd, looking at the places in the world where there are fresh water shortages I can't find a glacier within 1000 miles in most cases.
Dave do the research and stop embarassing yourself. I'm flushed for you.
24 - Zedd
Dave Sez:Just for the record, landfills full of plastic products may act as carbon sinks and actually fight global warming
I hope you are posting that to Mark Manning because his article is all over the place and poorly written. I think he was trying to make that point but some how failed?
If you are posting that to me.... why?
25 - Kb876
I want to know, how can we stop global warming.