Posted on 12/23/2014 3:34:42 PM PST by SeekAndFind
I have a feeling that somebody on the White House staff is going to be sitting down for a little holiday chat with Obama science advisor Eric Holdren. (Not to be confused with Eric Holder, but that’s another story.) The official Assistant to the President for Science and Technology held an online Q&A where he fielded questions submitted by the public. The former professor at both Harvard and Berkeley read one question about whether or not climate change was the result of the activities of man or the natural cycles of the planet. In this video supplied by MRC TV, Holdren toes the line of human caused global warming, but tosses in some Mr. Science fun facts at the end which the administration likely won’t appreciate.
“We know beyond any reasonable doubt that humans are the main cause of the warming of the earth’s climate that has been measured over the past few decades. The warming is unequivocal.
“While the climate of the earth has changed over the millennia as a result of natural factors – principally changes in the tilt and orientation of the earth’s axis and rotation, and in the shape of its orbit around the sun – those changes occur far too gradually to have noticeable effects over a period of mere decades. In their current phases, moreover, they would be gradually cooling the earth – taking us to another ice age – if they weren’t being more than offset by human-caused warming.”
It’s rather unpopular in the Circle of Believers to bring up anything which paints industrial activity as other than evil, so this won’t go over well. But Holdren does do us a favor by raising a subject which doesn’t get nearly as much air time when this topic is debated in the media. No matter what you think about the viability of various climate models predicting the effects of various atmospheric agents on the biosphere, there has always been a long term question about what mankind will do when (not if) the next ice age comes. Rather than looking at hockey sticks for global temperature trends in the 20th century, a more alarming picture comes into focus when you look at our track record for the last half million years.
The relatively pleasant weather we’ve enjoyed throughout mankind’s rise across the globe is, traditionally, a fleeting thing. Eventually the glaciers come back and that’s something which our biggest brains have no clue how to stop once they start their southward march. Once the process starts, it happens pretty fast, too. (At least “fast” in geological time frames.) It might not spell the actual extinction of the species, but there wouldn’t be room for many people in the habitable areas. There are also theories out there which suggest that a sustained rise in temperatures can actually trigger a faster onset of glaciation. So when you’re done arguing about what to do when the ocean levels rise and swallow Miami, you can figure out how to grow corn on an ice sheet.
Here’s the Holdren video.
Ice age vs Global Warming... Hmmmm.......
Ice age vs Global Warming... Hmmmm.......
Ice age vs Global Warming... Hmmmm.......
I choose global warming...
Sounds like they are acknowledging cyclical climate. Flash frozen Mammoths would agree.
It’s a Trap , just trying to get you to believe in Global Warming ,LOL
Um, I believe it’s John Holdren, not Eric Holdren.
They both suck no matter what arrangement the names are in! LOL
You cain't roller skate in a buffalo herd...
Uh - actually “man made global warming is only the tail end of the last Little Ice Age which began about 1500 and began abating only in the mid 1800’s.....
So two disasters are cancelling each other out? Sounds like leftist rationalization to me.
Video: White House Science advisor says Lady Ga Ga saving us from another Tony Bennett solo.
RE: Lady Ga Ga saving us from another Tony Bennett solo.
I actually prefer a Tony Bennett solo to a duet with Gaga. :)
And hears the kicker" Whenever SOLAR RADIATION has DECREASED and VOLCANIC ACTIVITY INCREASES, global temperatures SUDDENLY PLUMMET, OFTEN WITHIN WEEKS OR MONTHS
So forget volcanoes.....and focus on the decline of the Sun's magnetic field....resulting in less sunspots...
It is an interesting theory, though one we can only attempt to evaluate over the history of volcanic activity. Is there some way to look at this way back during ice ages?
And he is 100% on the money about 1 thing anyway. That is given the position in the cycle, we should be experiencing the beginning of global cooling.
http://www.indiana.edu/~geol105/images/gaia_chapter_4/milankovitch.htm
At least this guy must feel somewhat guilty about spewing forth the "official diatribe." However much he is a team player, there is no data linking human activity and climate change. That's NO, NONE. Milankovitch. And while you're at it, Maunder Minimum. The Sun Spot cycle:
Yes...the Siberian ice cores....
Ice core showing dark band...suspected volcanic dust layer
and the graphs:
bump for later
They make this stuff up as they go along. I do believe another ice age is the one to focus on and it is just a matter of time.
In the book “Lucifer’s Hammer” in the 1970s, the two astronauts have an argument that burning fossil fuels creates a greenhouse effect, warming the planet, but it might be all keeping us from a new ice age. The other astronaut then worries, “But we’re running out of oil!”
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