What are we calling it this week? "Global Warming" or "Climate Change"? I mean, we have to describe a political phenomenon in politically correct terms, right? Make no mistake about it, this whole mess with the "Denialists" and the hacked emails and "hiding the decline" is purely political. Whatever gets the most votes is the way the majority of politicians will lean. So, let me take a minute and describe the entire "debate" the way I see it. (Oh, why is debate in quotations? Because I think the idea of debating a scientific uncertainty to be laughable. Until the data is collected, compared, understood and reviewed, there can not be a solid hypothesis. Right now, it seems the theory presaged the data, which is why the hacked emails are so interesting... but I digress!)
The way I see it, the earth has been around a long, long time and during that time it has gone through periods of amazing climate change, swinging from one extreme to the other. There is scientific data to support this idea in the shape of tree rings, carbon dating, ice core samples, geologic rock and sediment formations and on and on. So, there's a fact.
Here's another fact: through all those changes - from extremely hot planet to the various ice ages - the planet has survived. So, as a matter of fact, has life. Granted, not every species was able to endure the climatic shifts and they became extinct. Most of the species that ever lived on this blue marble are extinct though. But they didn't all die off in the 19th and 20th Centuries, when man's industrial revolution exploded the amount of carbon dioxide he was spewing into the atmosphere. To say that I'm a little skeptical about any current climate change being man-made is similar to saying that Dennis Miller just barely enjoys the metaphor.
But, let's play the "what-if" game a little bit, shall we? What if the planet is warming? Then, supposedly, the polar ice caps and all the glaciers will melt and the oceans will rise. I say supposedly because I'm not quite convinced that will happen if the average global temperature rises only a degree or two. Here's why: remember that glass of ice-cold lemonade you enjoyed as a kid? Remember the time you took a little sip, set it down on the porch and ran off to continue your game off cowboys and indians or whatever? When you came back an hour later, the ice had all melted. Remember what the level of liquid in the glass did? Yeah, it went down. As the ice melted, is displaced less liquid and the level went down. But, you'll argue, the ice in the glaciers isn't displacing any ocean water, so the sea-level will go up! Well, maybe, a little, I think... but maybe not if the amount of ice displacing volume in the oceans now is more than the amount of liquid volume that will be taken up by the melted glaciers. And I suppose if one were to measure all the glacial ice on the planet and then what volume it would be as a liquid and then compare that to all the floating ice on the planet now and what volume it displaces and subtract out the volume replaced by the melted floating ice... well, you get the idea.
Anyway, I'm skeptical about that one.
But, what if, it happens the way we are being sold told and the oceans do rise? What happens then? Well, beaches move inland, along with all the residents currently living in low-lying areas. Maybe we'll inhabit the areas formerly covered by glaciers? I don't know for sure, but I do know this: we will survive. Maybe not all of us because some stubborn SOB is not going to move off his land no matter what and then the simple fact that water is not breathable by humans will overcome his stubbornness, but the vast majority of the human species will survive, simply by picking up and moving elsewhere. Especially since the rise in sea-levels will happen gradually. We'll have time to "outrun" the rising tides. Plenty of time.
Then what? Well, I suppose once all the ice on the planet is melted, we can pump all the carbon we want into the atmosphere, since it won't matter anymore, right?
The sentiments expressed by Gary Sutton kind of sum up how I feel about this whole thing. (h/t Drudge)
Another concept that sticks in my mind, I heard years ago, is the analogy of earth being a dog and humans being fleas... when we get too bad, earth'll just shake us off. Not a perfect analogy, but you get the point. We'll destroy ourselves before we get even close to destroying the earth.
