I guess I'm one of those average citizens who Craig Barry of the ERC says is confused about global warming. He would probably equate me with Holocaust deniers, Flat Earth believers, idiots, etc. But it is only because I am confused.
Scientists say, and I agree, that we are in an interglacial global warming period. There have been more than twenty of these global warming periods in the last two million years. What caused them? Certainly not man made CO2.
Scientists tell us that during the Medieval Warm Period (800 AD to 1300 AD) Europe was considerably warmer than it is now( + 1 to +2C). Not because of burning fossil fuels. Then from 1500 to 1800 Europe was plunged in the Little Ice Age when the temperatures were much lower on average than they are now. Obviously since 1800 the globe, or at least part of it, warmed up. Why?
Scientists tell us that 114 thousand years ago it was very cold and there were high levels of CO2; and million years ago (MY) there were forests near the North Pole; and 17 MY it was very warm and there was less CO2 than at present; and 145 MY there might have been no ice at all on the entire globe.
Scientists say that 100, 250, 390, and 500 MY the planet was warmer than it is now. Clearly there have been thousands of global warming periods not caused by human activities. This is why I am confused when the media reports that there is a 90% certainty among scientists that the current warming trend can only be caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
The IPCC didn't say that man made CO2 was contributing to global warming to some percentage. They said it was the only cause.
Volcanism, solar radiation, cosmic radiation, wobbles in the earth's axis, and other natural causes must have contributed to global warming in the past. Something did and it wasn't the human burning of fossil fuels. Why are they not contributing now? I'm confused. But I'm not confused about two things. One is that fear of environmental degradation and global warming is big political and environmentalist business. The other is that the proposition that man is entirely responsible for current global warming is pure political and environmetalist hype.
As Alton Chase put it, "When the search for truth is confused with political advocacy, the pursuit for knowledge is reduced to the quest for power."
Nick Cox
Ketchum
