The average temperature of the Earth has risen by 1°C over the past hundred years and suddenly humanity is on the brink of extinction, or so say the doomsayers. Don’t worry, this isn’t a global warming denial thread, but it is a *slap* *slap* wake up! thread. It’s naïve to think Earth’s climate will NEVER change.
The Earth has been through four ice ages in its 4.5 billion year history, each lasting millions of years. Believe it or not, we are currently in an ice age right now but for the last 11,000 years we have been lucky enough to be in an interglacial period where the glaciers temporarily recede.
The point? Earth’s climate changes over time, naturally. The question isn’t if global warming is going to happen but when it’s going to happen. The same goes for global cooling, by the way; this interglacial period won’t last forever. It doesn’t even matter if man causes the climate change or not because it’s inevitable.
In Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth he says the Earth is warmer today than it has been for the past 50,000 years. Although true, this is nothing more than fear mongering. First of all, we’ve been in an ice age, of course it’s warmer today. Second of all, 50,000 years is NOTHING. If you compress the Earth’s 4.5 billion year history into a single day it turns out that 50,000 years is equivalent to one second. That’s like going outside and saying, “Dang, it’s hotter than it’s ever been in the past second!” Let’s take a look at the following chart of Earth’s average temperature over the past few hundred million years:
One point apparently causing confusion among our readers is the relative abundance of CO2 in the atmosphere today as compared with Earth’s historical levels. Most people seem surprised when we say current levels are relatively low, at least from a long-term perspective – understandable considering the constant media/activist bleat about current levels being allegedly “catastrophically high.” Even more express surprise that Earth is currently suffering one of its chilliest episodes in about six hundred million (600,000,000) years.
Wow, the Earth is currently as cold as it’s ever been and is roughly 10°C (18°F) colder than average. Other things have changed, too: the CO2 levels in the atmosphere have dropped from 7000 ppm to practically nothing (and there is no correlation between CO2 and temperature). Let’s also not forget that continents have shifted, mountains have risen, oceans have been formed, and valleys have been created. The Earth changes radically over time.
Again, my point is not to deny global warming. I’m sure that human beings are having an effect on the environment and increasing the Earth’s temperature and I’m sure the current ice age will end slightly sooner than it would have otherwise. However, the point I am trying to get across is that it’s ridiculous to assume that Earth’s climate will remain at a steady 14.4°C FOREVER just to make us human beings comfortable.
I think most of the calamity around global warming is simply that human beings are resistant to change. It’s kind of like the Endangered Species Act: We cannot allow any species to ever die! Nevermind the fact that 99.99% of all species that have ever lived are already extinct. Extinction is a natural part of evolution; species have to evolve in order to keep up with the ever changing Earth and those who can’t keep up go extinct. It’s too hot, or too cold, or too much carbon dioxide, or too little carbon dioxide, or too many predators, or too little food, or an asteroid crashes into the planet, or whatever.
Human beings are the first species to ever change the planet to fit their own needs rather than the other way around. Instead of living in warm climates or adapting to live in cold climates, we simply invent heaters and air conditioners that allow us to live wherever we want. We can live in jungles, deserts, tundras, Antarctica, on top of mountains, underwater, in space, and even on the moon! We have an incredible advantage over other species; we don’t have to wait for evolution, we can use technology to speed things along.
I think that we are so used to being in control that not being in control of the climate scares us. Think how fragile a species we must be if a few degrees in temperature change is capable of wiping us out. We shouldn’t be trying to stop climate change, we should be trying to adapt to it. And, with our technology, I think we can. With fertilizers and greenhouses we can grow food practically anywhere. If we really need to, we have the ability to migrate, not a few miles or even a few hundred miles, but thousands of miles over mountains and oceans and across continents. In the future, we may even be able to migrate to different planets.
In the immortal words of Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park, “We do not have the power to destroy the planet. However, we do have the power to destroy ourselves.” I think that really is the lesson to take from all of this. Whatever man does to the environment pales in comparison to the natural changes that occur over time and nothing we do will ever “destroy the Earth”. However, global warming could be an immediate threat (to us, not the planet) if human beings are not ready to handle it. I think that if we all work together we can easily weather the storm that is global warming. Of course, the likelihood that human beings will ever learn to work together is slim at best.
The greenhouse gases our factories are pumping into the atmosphere might cause the Earth to warm up within the next century or two, which might be significantly sooner than what would happen through natural causes. Still, does this really matter? If the earth warmed up 1000 years from now would we be any better prepared? If history has taught us anything it’s that humans cannot plan for the future. What do we do 10,000 years from now when the interglacial period ends and the ice age comes crashing down upon us turning North America into a frozen wasteland?
100 years we can comprehend. When scientists tell us that 100 years from now our children might be in trouble, we listen. I don’t think it will be big trouble, but I suppose it’s worth worrying about. 10,000 years we cannot comprehend, but it’s important to remember that human beings have been around for 10,000 years (the calendar doesn’t start at the year 0). We actually hunted woolly mammoths in the last ice age. Hopefully, we will be around to see the next ice age.
[1] Wikipedia — Ice Age: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age
[2] Planetary Temperature: http://ff.org/centers/csspp/library/co2weekly/2005-08-18/dioxide.htm
Tags: Earth, environment, global warming, history, ice age, Science
No one doubts the fact that the earth has been alot warmer. The problem is that these natural changes of climate takes thousands of years to happen and at present the climate is changing alot faster.
Global warming is not something that is made up by the newspapers, no other scientific field has as many scientists working in it, and it is clear that we do affect the climate.
You say that most species are extinct so what does it matter if a few more are driven to extinction by humans. This is exactly how I imagine the minds of americans. Selfish. What right do we have to affect the planet to the degree that entire species become extinct. The quick changes in climate we are causing are entirely different from those taking millions of years.
America claims to be a super-power but somehow it never managed to sign the kyoto-protocol. The rest of the world has, even Russia did, in 2004.
“The United States was, as of at least 2005, the largest per capita emitter of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels” according to http://web.archive.org/web/200...../Full.html
I think it’s far more selfish to believe that the perfect temperature for human beings is the perfect temperature for the entire Earth for all time. Helping the Earth to get out of the current ice age faster at the expense of ourselves would be a tremendous benefit for the Earth and most other species, and that’s the exact opposite of selfish.
Being selfish is a GOOD thing. It keeps us alive. Don’t try to pretend that people are concerned about global warming because it might harm some other species, we are only concerned because it might harm US. Ironically, out of all the species on Earth we are in the best position to handle any kind of climate change thanks to our technology.
Here’s something I find hilarious: I was reading in the New York Times that because the glaciers have melted so much Alaska is now lighter (literally) and has started rising out of the ocean creating hundreds of miles of new land. Seaside golf courses are adding dozens of new holes to their courses because they have so much new land. We were worried so much about the glaciers melting and the ocean rising and the continent sinking and cities going underwater, and it’s exactly the opposite!
If history has taught us anything, it’s that nobody can predict the future. Nobody really knows if global warming will be bad or not, but I think it’s important to keep in mind that nothing we humans do will hold a candle to what nature does. If we screw up the Earth for 100 years nature won’t even bat an eye.
I agreed with ander’s point about how the time line do matter… you can argue about alaska’s new land mass, but it was an unexpected gain, one must weigh the pro versus the cons. does this land gain outweigh the land that we will lose? most of the waterfronts are occupied by ppl, and when the water level rises at other places than alaska, would more ppl be displaced? I think there will be.
“…far more selfish to believe that the perfect temperature for human beings is the perfect temperature for the entire Earth for all time…” well, actually the current temperature is not perfect for humans, it depends on where one lives temperature can vary greatly. ppl are more resilient than the other living beings thanks to our technology. the first ones to be affected by climate change are the animals/ plants. it will eventually hurt us, but not after the ecosystem has already been severely damaged.
and the speed of climate change does matter as Ander mentioned. living species do not have enough time to adapt to man-made climate change, whereas in the past the changes are more gradual and evolution can take place. as slow as the naturally occurring climate changes were in the past, they already caused mass extinctions… “if your fist connect with someone’s chin slowly it will just be a push, if it connects fast, it will be a punch.” the principle is the same. if a “push” can wipe out thousands of species, imagine what a “punch” will do.
One small (or perhaps not so small?) effect of global warming is the bark beetle infestation destroying our western forests because the winter temperatures no longer drop low enough to control the beetles. In the short term, we have to deal with the resultant forest fires and deforestation, even though in the long run another ice age may be coming along.