Global Warming Blues

Fox News ^ | December 01, 2005 | Steven Milloy

[george76]

The 11th annual meeting of global warming enthusiasts in Montreal isn’t turning out to be a very happy event.

Even though this is the first opportunity for the burgeoning global climate bureaucracy to celebrate the full implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, the realities of science, economics and politics are raining on its parade.

First, a new study published this week in the journal Nature turns global warming alarmism on its head.

British researchers reported that the ocean current responsible for the tropical winds that warm Europe’s climate has decreased by an estimated 30 percent since 1957.

The headline of the New Scientist report (Nov. 30) on the study nicely captured its import, “Failing ocean current raises fear of mini ice age.”

It’s cooling. It’s warming. It’s disaster. It’s fantasy.

Whatever “it” is, it can’t be comforting to the Kyoto believers in Montreal who seem to think they know for certain whether and how human activity impacts global climate.

Finally, the Kyoto protocol itself has been a colossal flop.

European signatories to the treaty aren’t meeting their current emissions reduction targets, aren’t likely to in the future, and are looking for ways out of their commitments.

Even Kyoto’s knight-in-shining armor, UK prime minister Tony Blair, in what has been dubbed the “Blair Switch,” has embraced the latter two points.

In September, Blair announced that he had given up on climate change treaties because, “The truth is, no country is going to cut its growth or consumption substantially in light of a long-term environmental problem.”

Especially if that “problem,” so far as we can tell after several decades and many billions of dollars of research, is entirely unproven.

[george76]

 

 

 

Ice cores recovered from Greenland in the 1970s show that Europe's climate varied hugely during the last ice age, especially in the period between 70,000 and 20,000 years ago. Cold glacial periods were punctuated by warmer times, and the average temperature could rise and fall several degrees within a decade or so.

The earliest modern humans, the Aurignacian people, who appeared around 40,000 years ago, could not cope with the glacial cold either. They retreated south until 25,000 years ago when they were reduced to a few refuges, such as southwest France and the shores of the Black Sea.

The Gravettians appeared in eastern Europe 29,000 to 30,000 years ago complete with flash new tools, such as javelin-like throwing spears and fishing nets, which allowed them to catch a greater range of prey.

They also had clothing to keep the cold out, such as sewn furs and woven textiles, and possibly more specialised social structures. Their ability to tough out the colder climes dominating Europe 18,000 to 25,000 years ago revitalised the human population.

The Neanderthals, however, without either new blood or new technology, found it impossible to survive and died out, probably around 28,000 years ago.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994586

Or the newly arriving humans called the Gravettians had SUV's as a part of their technology thus stopping the Ice Age in its tracks and warming up the world.

[randog]

I use the word "recovery" with some reservation -- it sort of implies a "normal" and I don't think you can really define "normal" for a global roller coaster observed over geologic time periods.

You're exactly right, although I think a lefty would define "normal weather" as the average temperature while Bill Clinton was in office. "Global Warming" started in January of 2001.