Summary
A recent study in the journal Science states that human-generated greenhouse gas emissions have helped reverse a 2,000 year trend of Arctic cooling. The analysis is based on examination of more than a dozen lake sediment cores plus glacier ice and tree ring records. David Schneider a coauthor and scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research said "It's basically saying the greenhouse gas emissions are overwhelming the system." The article may become a seminal part of climate study.
Analysis
By far the most interesting comment in the study is that of Northern Arizona University professor Darrell S. Kaufman, the study's lead author, who noted that "2,000 years ago the earth was 620,000 miles closer to the sun and it continues to move farther away." With all due respect to the eminence of the authors and the careful work they have done looking at the evidence, not much has changed as regards the prospects of doing anything about it. Everything that happens on earth, to some degree, affects climate. Two thousand years ago, earth's human population was no more than 300 million according to the United Nations Population Division. Today, over 6 billion people trod the surface of the globe and they exhale a lot of carbon dioxide. They also cut down a lot of trees and otherwise affect the output of natural gases (including oxygen) through agricultural endeavors. So that is a fact. By far the simplest way to control greenhouse gas emissions would be to chop about 5.7 billion people from the list. Who will volunteer? Quite properly, Fred Singer, a climate-control skeptic noted that the study did not reflect what is known about the Medieval Warm Period (A.D.800 to 1300). Nor does it reflect what we know about the recent great Ice Age and more recent Little Ice Age. The literature describing these two eras is so vast that reading it all would take a lifetime. But everyone who has a serious interest in what is going on today should at least read summary accounts of those events. Another related field that is largely ignored by the carbon dioxide sequestering politicians (read human breath taxers) is volcanology. At least 540 known volcanoes are doing their "thing" around the clock. Their "thing" includes the ejection of volumes of carbon dioxide and other gases that is so great that it can hardly be calculated. Check out Mazama (southern Oregon), Vesuvius (Italy), Krakatau (Indonesia) and Tambora (Sumbawa, Indonesia). These babies were world-class climate game-changers. Will the people of the world finance a volcano plugging campaign? To ask the question is to answer it. Returning to the observation that the earth is moving further away from the sun at the rate of 310 miles/year. This is, of course, a reflection of the change of the mass ratio sun/earth. As the sun radiates, it loses mass. But earth gains mass from stellar debris that falls constantly. The next ice age is going to freeze the you know what off of you know who. Long term, invest in furry animals with thick coats and move down closer to the equator.
Michael Lynch consults with leading institutions through GLG
Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
