It has been proven that the sun is/has got hotter. Why is it not reasonable to think that this would effect the "climate change" that we are seeing on earth. Also when we hear, for example, the hottest day in 50, 100 or 150 years, what cause the record temperature back then.
In the UK in the Middle ages, we grew vines and today......
Take a look at a Norman Castle in the UK. Notice how huge the rooms are..........and how dam small the fire places are? Why, was it warmer back then in the winter.
The Earth's temperature has swung back and forth for thousands of years, why all of a sudden is it our fault. When we have volcanic action on Earth, the stuff that is thrown out pails into insignificance what man pumps into the atmosphere.
Matt
The "hotter sun causing global warming" theory doesn't make much sense in light of the fact that the Sun does not heat the Earth directly- that is, by transfer of heat energy. There's not enough matter between the two bodies for that to happen.
Maybe it's giving off more of other forms of energy, but I dunno... and I wouldn't worry, because average mean temps
globally are not increasing. No, really.
The fireplaces in old castles were as big as they dared make them- they didn't have screens, etc. And you could only consume so much firewood on your land... AND those buildings were so drafty, it wouldn't help much to have a bigger fire. They probably just stayed close to the fire. During that period, if I remember correctly, average winter temps in that part of the world were not any higher than in the recent past.
But forget the Norman fireplaces... think about this: in your lifetime, have winters in your part of the world gotten colder, hotter, or... have they varied? Whenever I ask people this lately, they say they can't remember, and start quoting either Al Gore or Bill O'Reilly.
Or they start talking about Norman fireplaces...
The reason it seems to be "our fault" now; the thing the advocates of human-induced global warming have latched onto, is that we have, in verifiable fact, been dumping tons and tons of carbon into the atmosphere for almost 200 years now. Way, way, way more than we ever did before the Industrial Revolution. That's a fact.
Experiments with closed systems indicate that high concentrations of such "greenhouse gases" tend to increase the overall temperature of the system. That's worthy of our concern.
BUT-!! The Earth's atmosphere is incredibly complex. There are many variables, including ones, I'm sure, that we don't know about yet. Weather forecasts beyond 10 days or so are worthless, no matter how powerful the computer is that generates them, so the "models" you hear about- from either side of the argument- are meaningless, practically speaking.
It is true that if the major masses of polar ice diminish significantly, we are probably in deep doo-doo... but not from rising tides. Polar ice plays a key role in how the ocean's currents work, and that helps regulate global temps. Just as the hole in the ozone layer was photographed from space (a whole 'nother problem), it has been verified that ocean ice at the poles is diminishing. Many glaciers in Eutrope seem to be shrivelling, and peaks like Kilimanjaro are not looking as white as they used to.
But it's not proven that greenhouse gases are doing that... and in some areas (Iceland, for example), many glaciers are
growing, not shrinking.
Here's a few things I accept as fact:
We have added a lot of carbon- but so has Mama Earth. Volcanic activity is on an upswing wordlwide, and only recently have we begun to learn about how the oceans release gases... some of them greenhouse gases like methane, and sometimes in huge quantities.
It's not known for sure that higher "greenhouse gas" levels can or will raise mean temps globally.
Speaking of global temps: A lot of the figures put out there, which show temperatures ramping up, quote records of temps in
major cities. Urban temps have been increasing, because cities give off heat and all major cities are getting bigger and denser. This helps explain why so many people are flat-out convinced that human industry and transportation is going to kill us all: most people live in cites, and they've noticed that it's been getting hotter there. Unfortunately, most have not noticed
why.
There are plenty of more urgent reasons to move away from fossil fuels, none of which involve global warming. A short list includes:
War
Acid rain
Oil spills
Surface ozone (smog)
Reduced albedo on snow and ice-covered areas due to ash buildup (more likely to cause melting than greenhouse gases)
Toxification of groundwater and soil
Millions of years to renew supply
...and so on. It's too bad that environmentalism has finally really become a global force, only to be co-opted as a polarizing agent The two camps, as many see it: greedy bastards who believe it is our duty to rape the Earth because we are meant to do that, and the Earth will always bounce back, in our favor... and tree-hugging, effete mush-heads who love animals and plants more than they do people, and think we should all hold hands and sing until the aliens come to fix everything for us. ::)
One thing's for certain: if human activity does make the Earth unfit for human life, we will still be arguing when the last nail goes in the cof
by DONTREADMYUSERNAME » Sat May 05, 2007 7:49 pm 
People Eating Tasty Animals.
