[cogitator]

What forced the climate changes on both ends of the Ice Age???

Changes in solar insolation due to variability in Earth's orbit, inclination, and axial tilt, combined with ocean currents and plate tectonics changing the location of the continents.

Those changes took place over longer time-frames than the Industrial Age (mid 1800s to present) that is the time-frame of concern now.

It is only a man's vanity to believe that he can affect global temperatures one way or another. It is caused by ocean currents, volcanic activity, etc.

While those are certainly important, so is the composition of the atmosphere (which we are changing) and land surface cover. Some recent research indicates that land surface changes dating back to the beginning of agriculture, a couple thousand years ago, may have significantly affected climate.

Incidentaly, one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas (methane) is termites. What does Mr Hansen sugest we do about that? Call Terminex?

What he suggests is that we don't have to worry about methane emissions right now, because they have declined so substantially in the past five years.

[FBD]

"While those are certainly important, so is the composition of the atmosphere (which we are changing) and land surface cover. Some recent research indicates that land surface changes dating back to the beginning of agriculture, a couple thousand years ago, may have significantly affected climate."

So what.
One large meteor strike, one large volcanic eruption, one large solar flareup, etc, will have more influence on our atmosphere, than a thousand years of man's influence.

This global warming bloviation is all about trying to restrict OUR private property rights. Do you believe the U.S. should sign the Kyoto treaty, restrict property rights, or regulate the type of vehicle (IE SUV's) we can drive, etc, in the name of "saving the planet"?

[.cnI redruM]

>>>>>>>Those changes took place over longer time-frames than the Industrial Age (mid 1800s to present) that is the time-frame of concern now.

As they used to say in the Hertz commercials....not exactly. Chapter 1 of "A Distant Mirror", a history of 14th Century France authored by Barbara Tuchman, makes the exact opposite point regarding temperature decreases in the Late 13th and Early 14th Centuries that significantly altered the growing seasons and biotic potential of agriculture in Northern France.

Tuchman posits a domino effect starting with climactic change which leads to lowered harvests. This than causes malnutrition which degrades the immune systems of people than living in Norman France. This lowered immunity than makes the people susceptible to the diseases carried by travelers and traders traveling frequently between Isle De France and Calais.

Tuchman points out explicitly that these people had probably been exposed to at least some vector carrying a disease similar to Bubonic Plague since trade had returned to the North of France has a positive aftereffect of the nascent Italian Renaissance.

It's only through planting the axiom of weakened human immunity, brought about by sudden and accelerated negative forcing, that explains why 1/3 of the population of Northern France would suddenly succumb to a disease that they previously resisted by-and-large for the better part of a century.