Global warm air

I preface this with a disclaimer: I know next to nothing about geology, climatology, ecology or hysterology. Moreover, I will add now that the following is not a reasoned or even reasonable reaction to the sincerely expressed and strongly felt concerns of many people. But ...

It's just that as soon as someone starts talking about apocolypse or amageddon or both, I immediately file them under the bulging Cranky, Loud and Annoying tab to sit snugly next to Holocaust-deniers, 911 conspiracies, the Priory of Sion and the followers of the Great Prophet Zarquon. I just can't help it.

So with the human impact on climate change. That the climate changes is obvious. That it is changing therefore follows. That it's all our fault doesn't. A couple of hundred thousand years ago, there were forests in the Antarctic. Now, that's warm. It was, I believe, a period when life flourished on Earth as never before or since. What did humans have to do with it?

This current hysteria seems to me egotistical (it's all about ME), without perspective and ... hysterical. It may have some good effects through the technology it brings into being, but I foresee way too much public space for the puritans, the party-poopers and the eternal in-your-face change-your-life-now finger-pointing Righteous. I stand with Jules Crittenden.

Re Earth. It gets hot. It gets cold. This is what Earth does. No one knows why. Even the scientists who say its getting hot because of human activity, when pressed, have to admit it might be only heating up at a greater rate because of human activity, but even then, no one can really say for sure.

It’s hotter now than it’s been since the time of Jesus. What that means is, 2,000 years ago, the Earth was as hot as it is now. I’m blaming Iron Age farming practices and smelting for that New Testament uptick. Or maybe it was the righteous fire and burning passion of the age … have to go back and have another look at the ice cores. Might find some particles of faith.

By the 14th century, it was wicked cold. And I do mean wicked. Like, medieval cold. Even all those witch burnings had no effect. But not as cold as it was 10,000 years ago. We’re really only just starting to warm up from that. We have a long way to go before it is as warm as it was 66 million years ago, you know, Everglades in Montana warm.

(via Confederate Yankee)

You may also be interested to know that Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and every other planet in the solar system are warming globally because of ...the sun, which is hotter now than it has been for 1,000 years. An article in Corriere della Sera (in Italian).