I was a physics major in college at the height of the “global cooling” and “coming ice age” scare. I was convinced by the science.
Then for 5 years, the science goes dark, and then picks up with the apocalypse of “global warming.”
Needless to say, I’m skeptical and cynical concerning the politicians’ motives.
And as this graph shows, it all depends upon when you start your timeline and base reference. Conveniently, all the politicians want to only look back to the lowest temperatures (cir. 1750) to make their case. But if you look back much farther, you’ll know that we are not even close to being at the hottest temperatures over the last 10,000 years.
I have always wanted to ask people if they knew the difference between global warming and global cooling. I think of this because one of my closest friends is a firm believer in the idea that man is warming the planet. So I must ask them if they really understand the difference between global warming and global cooling.
The answer is really simple. It depends on your start date.
If your starting point was the early 1980’s then you can show global warming. If your start date was 15-20 years ago you would find no cooling or warming. If your start date was 1600 AD (during the Little Ice Age) you’d find significant warming. I assume if you started in 1100 BC you’d find a cooling trend.
So what makes any one of these start dates the correct date?
Let’s say you are a firm believer that the planet is warming. Why assume man is responsible? I mean, there is a warming trend since the 1600’s. Did man cause that?
And was there any warming before the 1600s? Emphatically yes.
If you look at a chart showing temperatures for the past 600 million years, you will see that it has been far warmer than today for almost all of those 600 million years. Did man cause that?
For the science to be valid, there would have to be definitive proof that natural warming stopped and was replaced by man made warming.
I don’t believe any such proof has ever been shown.